Frankenstein….sorta…..

 

Well here it is….the boot.

Not trying to be artistic with this shot…strictly utilitarian.

The cast came off and the crutches have been relegated to the bedroom for use only at night when the boot is off.  I have a habit of jumping into things with both feet, and did so yesterday – literally.

After I got home, I made lunch and cleaned up the kitchen.  Then I sat down for a couple of hours….should have stayed down longer.  Annie called and had some errands to run and being the zealot that I am, I went along.  After Bed,Bath and Beyond, Lowes, Ulta, Barnes and Noble, Maycayos, and Target - I have to admit, I overdid it.  I paid for it last night and again this morning.  Surprisingly, it’s my knee that is giving me the most trouble.  So today, I’m trying to be a little smarter – spending time off the foot, putting ice on the knee and contemplating my limitations. :) But I had fun!!!!

Sunsets….

I’ve been looking through some of my old photos to try and come up with something that expresses how I feel about the cast coming off on tomorrow.

 

                            The rains have come and gone.

 

                                 A burrowing owl bidding the day a found farewell.

 

 

                                 A tractor left in the field to begin again tomorrow.

 

              The canal where Star and I will soon be walking again.

 

 

And Justin Donald riding off into the sunset or saying “kiss my woof” – both sum up how I feel about the cast.  :)

Spring, Easter, rebirth….

 

To me this is what the season is all about.  Beginning anew…fresh starts.  And as it’s been a week since I’ve posted anything, I think this qualifies as a fresh start. :)

Life and young ones have returned to the clothes pin bag nest for Mr. and Mrs. Finch.  I thought there were just going to be two new babies in the second batch, but amazingly I think I count four little noggins.

I think anyone would be hard pressed to say they’re cute at this point, but soon they’ll fledge out and be sweet little feathery cheeping bundles of joy.  Not so much right now.  But that’s also something this time of year represents for me.  It’s a good time to reflect upon what we might see as ugly or flawed in ourselves and make changes to correct and improve the person we are on the inside so the person on the outside shines with  beauty and grace from within.  

Thank you all for hanging in there and supporting me through any changes I might need to make.

Puttin’ down some roots……

 

My niece, Leslie, said these words this weekend on facebook and it made me think of what I wanted to do….for awhile anyway.  I’ve been on the run way too much lately and it’s not good for my foot.

Annie, Nicole and I enjoyed our time in Strawberry very much.  No rain, no snow, no frozen pipes and no blown up soda cans.  The plumber met us Saturday morning and I realize now that I should have taken a picture of his truck or him.  Nothing more momentous happened.  Sadly, the irises weren’t blooming yet.  They were so close though…maybe in a week or so.  But I’m done with road trips for awhile.  The javelinas did go through the front yard Saturday night, but didn’t linger.  It was quiet, peaceful, relaxing, and very low key.  Just perfect.

I found in looking at my camera to see what picture I might post, I had only taken two pictures!!!  I know, I can’t believe it either!!!

I saw lots of opportunities to take some pretty pictures.  But like this study in everything done wrong, they would have required me to get down off the porch, squat or bend to get the angle right….and well, I’m just not up to that right now. :(

But I’m counting down the days until the cast comes off and I can get strong again.  Spring is all about rebirth and I’m ready!!

On the road again…

 

Annie and I are dusting off the old Malibu,

 

icing down some Pepsi,

and heading off to Strawberry again this weekend.  I’ll be back late Sunday and hope to have pictures of these beauties blooming for you…

  

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!

I’ve been a very bad girl…

 

neglecting you all terribly.  In my defense, it has been a busy week and I have been trying to stay off of my foot as much as possible.  Which means I’m staying in my recliner way too much. 

But since I’m headed back up to Strawberry this weekend to finish the plumbing business Annie and I left behind, I thought I better finish that story before we start living the next chapter.  :)

 

This is how it looked in “The Valley of the Sun” when we left last Saturday morning.  Annie had checked the predicted temperatures for up north and wasn’t too concerned. The weather report I saw said rain and maybe some sleet.  I wasn’t concerned, but then I wasn’t driving either.  Annie has now banned me from all future weather responsibilities. :)

Before long, this is what we were seeing.  I’m giggly like a school girl because I’ve lived in the snow before and miss it.  Annie has lived in Arizona her entire life and never actually been in falling snow let alone driven in it.  She’s a trooper though and the roads (at this point) weren’t bad.

 

This is eventually what my dear friend Annie had to drive through.  We were on the last stretch from Payson to Strawberry and there was no turning back.

 

There was a lot of snow in Strawberry and we sometimes made a wrong turn because everything looked so strange!  Strawberry is not a very big town and to make wrong turns is saying something.

 

We were very surprised to find out that Trixie liked the snow. 

It took Annie a couple of trips to the front of the property and about 15 minutes to find the water turn on.  I was posted in the house to listen for leaks.  I could hear water running in the bathroom and hobbled back there and opened the door to find water flooding the floor. Annie had to run back out and turn off the water.  She made a call to a plumber who said he was too busy to get there that day and we should have called sooner. After the second time of telling Annie that, she “politely” told him she would have called ahead had she known the pipes were broken. She placed a call to her son-in-law to find out if there was a turn off to the shower area.  I had started a fire in the fire place and she was cold and trying to warm up by this time.  I can’t even explain to you the contortionist she had to be to get to this turn off, but let’s just say it involved laying in a puddle of freezing cold water by the toilet…did I mention Annie doesn’t like to be cold?  Understandably, there were no pictures allowed at this point in the process – I value my camera and life too much. :)

 

Annie has gotten the water valve turned off, the towels have sopped up a lot of the water although the room size rug in there is still soaking wet.  We have found a space heater to turn on in the bathroom, and gotten the house furnace turned on also.  Of course, it took us about four hours to discover any heat the furnace was putting out was pretty much all going up the chimney.

There is no way to tell you all that happened.  The cabin never got warmer than 56 degrees, three soda cans had blown up in the refrigerator that were left from the last visitors, the room size rug had to be dragged out of the cabin and there were no nice warm showers to be had the entire weekend.

 

But we did see so much loveliness, we did enjoy our time together, watching corny movies, laughing and talking about the revenge she will heap upon my head well into our eighties, and sharing so much.

 

 

This was the view of the driveway when we first arrived. 

 

The sun came up Sunday morning and the sky was so blue and clear.  The snow started melting and falling in huge plops to the ground.  Annie was nervous that she would have to drive out on terrible roads.

 

  This is what the driveway looked like when we left Sunday afternoon.

 

 

And these flowers had been hidden under the snow along the highway the morning before.  Isn’t it amazing the difference a day makes….and a few degrees?

Spring in Arizona??

 

Just a quick note to let you know we arrived home safely.  I absolutely had a blast, but Annie was a bit more stressed out.  I’ll explain all that later, but right now I need to get my foot up and take some pain pills. 

Here’s just a taste of what we saw in Strawberry this weekend.

This is the cabin we stay in.

Air Mail….

 

I’m going to be gone for the entire weekend without my laptop, but I wanted to leave you with some more photos from my trip to Skull Valley.

               Don’t you just love some people’s sense of humor?

 

 

“There once was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children she didn’t know what to do….”   Annie loves big rocks and boulders and this one reminded me of an old shoe.

 

Sunlight dripping from heaven to kiss this tree back to life. 

 

Watson Lake was a beautiful place.  In some places, it looked prehistoric.

 

As the sun sets on this week, I hope you all are blessed and happy.  Enjoy your weekend and I’ll catch up with you when I get back from Strawberry.

Skulls, blooms and museums…

 

Here are some shots from my recent trip to Skull Valley with Annie.

Notice the bullet hole in the forehead…all the stories I’ve read regarding how the area got its name, are pretty violent.

 

In all the times I’ve passed through here, I had never stopped at the store.  Annie and I did and what a wonderful place it was!  It’s been there since 1916 and has many of the original fixtures.  I love the Rainbo Bread sign on the screen door.

 

This is the first time that the gas station/garage was open.  I didn’t check out the gas prices though.

 

There were so many flowering trees and Forsythia blooming.  It was beautiful and I could easily call this little place home.

 

I can’t even guess how long some of these old Cottonwoods have stood like soldiers along the river bed.

 

The museum wasn’t open the day we went through. It is in the old Railroad Depot that has been restored.  I had to take my shot through a chain link fence balancing on my crutches…please be kind.

So much history and such a beautiful place. 

Since I’m not much good around the house, I’m headed this weekend to Annie’s family’s  cabin in Strawberry. We may see some snow flurries and are sure to have a fire in the fireplace!!  I’m hoping her mom’s Iris will be in bloom.       

And that makes me feel brave…

 

If you’ve been following the ongoing story of life’s blessings and tragedies for Mr. and Mrs. Finch, you’ll be very happy to hear that they have persevered and there are new eggs in the nest.

(Picture courtesy of my sweet Nicole – done very quickly so as not to disturb the Finches.)

I don’t want to make light of all the current tragedies in the world, but I did see parallels in what happened to Mr. and Mrs. Finch and some things happening around the globe.  I know it’s a terrible time right now, but I hope and pray we’ll be able to persevere also and rebuild.

It all made me think of a song by Owl City entitled “Tidal Wave”.  If you have a chance to listen to the complete song, you should.  I think you might enjoy it.

 

“The end is uncertain
And I’ve never been so afraid.
But I don’t need a telescope
To see that there’s hope
And that makes me feel brave.”

When turtles fly….

 

I took a road trip with my BFF, Annie, yesterday.  We hit the road and had lunch at Anita’s in Wickenburg, cruised through Congress Junction, climbed (in the car) Yarnell Hill, breezed through the town of Yarnell and then spent lovely hours in the Kirkland – Skull Valley area.  We did end up finally making it to Prescott and (of course) The Gurley Street Grill for sweet potato fries!!!  Just on the edge of Prescott is Watson Lake and there’s a very nice park there.  It was a breezy day and the kids were out with their kites.

 

 

 

 

Brian, this is the one I should have saved “Kowabunga” for, huh?  My son, David, loved The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and I kinda think you might have liked them too. :)

This one looked so beautiful in the sky.

 

I so wished I didn’t have a cast on my foot!  I would have been right out there with the kids flying a kite.

Kowabunga!!!

 

                                                    Hope you all have a fun-filled weekend!!!

 

Happy Birthday, Leslie!!!