TRAVEL WITH THE BAYFIELD BUNCH:)): Elfrida Community Gardens

Showing posts with label Elfrida Community Gardens. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

WE HAVE A PAINTER IN THE FAMILY

MARKING OUT A DESIGN ON AN ELFRIDA GOURD IN THE BACKYARD

A month ago I was grumbling & complaining about having too many 'nothing days' & today I am happy to have a....nothing day:)) No mobility van runs until Wednesday so it was a quiet day at home getting caught up on a lot of computer stuff plus outside jobs.

Kelly started a couple of paint projects that kept her busy for most of the day. She decided to repaint some old & peeling deck furniture. While the first coat of paint was drying from that project she moved on to painting up some gourds. Last winter while at the ranch near McNeal Arizona we had picked up some gourds at the Elfrida Community Gardens. Figured they might make for some colorful bird houses. Today Kelly tried her artistic hand at some creative paints & designs for the gourds.

KELLY'S DECK FURNITURE PAINT PROJECT...THAT WHITE COLOR IS ONLY A BASE COAT OVER THE BLUE & DARK YELLOW

Some of my time was taken up with transplanting some Hostas & weed trimming. Most of my time was spent on the computer. I always get excited whenever an email comes in from someone asking for permission to use any of my photos. That is always very personally rewarding for me & just kind of puts the icing on the RV lifestyle cake. Last night an email arrived from Pearce Arizona wondering if a few of my Camp Rucker photos from two winters could be used in an article on the GRAPEVINE CANYON RANCH blog site. Sure can:))

Looks like we have a lot of rain headed our way & tomorrow is going to be a soggy one. I will be out with the mobility van in the afternoon so better remember to take my rain coat.

Photo tip.....If your subject is in shade on a sunny day, use your camera's flash. It's called 'fill-in-flash' & it puts a puff of light on your subject. Your camera's meter is probably reading for a correctly exposed background so your subject will be too dark. Fill in flash was used on all these photos today except the frog below. I brought in some natural morning sunlight for that shot:))

I have never been comfortable with the word, retired. Always figured that mostly applied to folks who had worked long & hard for many years at their jobs. People who stuck with careers through thick & thin. Retirement always had a ring to it that smacked of success. Retirement was a reward at the end of a long & dusty employment filled road. Sometimes people ask me if I'm retired & my answer is always a quick,'no!!' Don't figure I will ever see myself as a retired person. Just don't like the sound of it & I don't think it applies to me anyway. In fact I get a little embarrassed when somebody even asks me that question. Retired?? Retired from what!! And, am I really that old already!! My rambling, sporadic, & adventurous work history over the years reads like a tall tale out of a Charles Dickens novel. I will do a blog about it sometime, but not tonight. In fact, think I'll go retire.............. to bed!!

<<< Isn't she just a lovely little creature:)) xoxoxo

GROANER'S CORNER:(( You know your over the hill when you're on vacation and your energy runs out before your money does.

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Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

"UNTIL ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL, PART OF THEIR SOUL REMAINS UNAWAKENED"

OUR BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

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AL'S SMUG MUG PHOTO GALLERY http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/ (a work in progress)

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.

Friday, November 13, 2009

BIG WINDS & STORMY SKYS IN THE VALLEY

WATCHFUL EYES OVER THE MULE MOUNTAINS

(click on the photographs to enlarge them)

Knew for sure we were definitely in Arizona last night when big walloping wind gusts tried their best to totally re-locate us some distance east of where we presently are. People in sticks & bricks houses wouldn't be aware of the wind unless they saw branches blowing by but if your in an RV it's akin to being in a wind tunnel. The rig rocks, the slide awnings flap, & every square corner sets up it's screaming banshee sound. Needless to say this is not at all very conducive to a good night's sleep.

BLACK CLOUDS IN WIND BLUSTERING MORNING

Converging weather fronts brought in a tangled mass of angry looking clouds & the day dawned with a moody determination. Bright blue sunny days are nice but it takes clouds to give the sky a fuming personality & dark ominous clouds are my fav. Took some photos & would have taken many more but it was Yoga morning & I couldn't really come up with a good legitimate excuse not to attend my first class this morning. All the way to the Elfrida Community Center my eyes were on the sky watching Mother Nature's wonders at work. The cloud shadows & sun splashes on the mountains were inspiring.

SILOUETTED SOUTH END OF THE SWISS HELM MOUNTAINS AT SUNRISE THIS MORNING

Looked to be about a dozen ladies gathered around in a large circle with chairs & mats when we walked in to the Elfrida Community Center at 9 this morning. David, an instructor from Bisbee welcomed us to the group & it wasn't long & I was seated in a white chair with a purple floor mat at my feet. I immediately knew I was going to be more comfortable here than the exercise class when David dimmed the lights. I am not a bright lights kind of guy. The first minute was spent in a relaxation mode. Now, this was my kind of exercise. The instructor had a soft voice as we went through a series of stretches with closed eyes. The closed eyes part really worked for me because I was able to drift off down memory lane making some now & then comparisons. My mind took me back 44 years ago to my days in boot camp at a naval base in Canada called Cornwallis. How different my body now as I sat there in this dimmed room trying to do even the simplest of stretches. Where once I scrambled up & down 30 foot ropes, drilled for hours on parade grounds, ran for miles on cross country runs, & did a whole host of improbable physical things, I now found it hard to simply bend a knee joint to reach the floor or raise a leg to an even level while in a seated chair. I was on the floor, on my back, & found that hard. I was on my stomach & that didn't work well either. Mashed my face into the purple mat. The only thing that finally worked for me was when after an hour & a half I heard Yoga instructor David say, "and now for our final move.......:))"

ANGRY WIND TOSSED SKYS

Elfrida has a community garden just behind their community hall so after the Yoga class we took a walk over there to have us a look see. Yes, I was still able to walk after the class. This plot of garden land is made free to the local people & seeds are provided. Each person or family is given a tower or in Canada we'd call it a raised bed with screened soil where they can plant their seeds. Two spacious greenhouses are filled with strawberry plants. A large earth oven has been built as well as a small pond with seating benches. We saw rows of onions & a long patch where peanuts had been grown. A band of roving chickens kept an eye on us as we strolled under an arbor that might have been grapes at one time. Gourds had grown up along a fence line & were hanging loosely for anyone to pick. What we thought were corn stalks turned out to be sugar cane. A Mexican caretaker fellow shoveled soil through a screen in another greenhouse as his boombox belted out Mexican tunes. We talked with a couple of ladies who had walked over from the Yoga class. Eve lives here in the valley near McNeal but has property in Nova Scotia as well. Another lady was visiting from England.

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Wind gusts had picked up in intensity & when we arrived back at the ranch two of our tables were blown over & our Star Choice television satellite dish was on the ground with the dish pointing straight up in the air like a turtle on it's back. I immediately assumed the worse figuring the electronics in the LMB arm would be shattered & we would never ever be able to watch television again in this lifetime. Set the tri-pod back up, re-mounted the dish in the high winds, made a few slight adjustments & had Kelly turn on the TV inside. When I moved the dish slightly & saw Oprah Winfreys face fill the screen I knew that all would be right with the world again because Kelly would have her Oprah show back. Whewwwww, close call for me!! I then staked the tri-pod legs to the ground & suspended a heavy jug of water under the tri-pod center for added weight. I then re-positioned the car close to the dish to act as a wind break. It's nearly 7 p.m. now & so far so good.

DARK CLOUDS OVER THE GLEESON MOUNTAINS

Rest of the afternoon was spent inside because every time we stepped out the door we were practically blown right off our feet into the next county. We occasionally have strong winds in Ontario but they are not like the big winds that sweep out of the mountains in the southwest & come screaming across the desert floor to turn your whole world upside down right quick!!

SAND HILL CRANES LOW TO THE GROUND STRUGGLE AGAINST THE WIND TO-DAY

Later in the afternoon I stood outside & watched as thousands of Sand Hill Cranes struggled against the massive wind gusts on the way back from their feeding grounds at the north end of the valley. They were heavy with the days intake & at times were motionless in the sky only to be pushed back by the winds. They reminded me of salmon struggling upstream against the onslaught of relentless rushing waters. Great flocks of birds were down low to the ground trying to escape the wind shears. They came low over the ranch house & dropped even lover as they hugged the ground heading for their nightly roosts another 2 miles south of here. It's dark now as I'm typing this & yet I can hear them overhead trying to get home. Usually they are all back well before dark.....but, not to-night. I'm sure there will be some for which there will be no sunrise.............