Moving Day

Weather:

Sunny
High - 68
Low - 40

I think I mentioned in an earlier blog that the cottage behind us was going to be moved out.  The woman who owned it moved out of the park and her cottage is too old to be sold.  So it had to go.  She actually moved out in November, but the cottage was still here when we returned a couple of weeks ago.

Here's what it looked like when she lived in it.

And here's what it looked like when we returned.

The hold up was that they had to find another wheel for it.  Well, this morning several men were working on it, taking things off and disconnecting lines.  And this afternoon it left.  Well, sort of.  They pulled it out with a pickup truck and got about 100 feet down the street when an axle broke.

 

So there it sits in the middle of the street.  Who knows how long it will take to get it out now.  I'll keep you posted. Needless to say, it's been a very exciting day here at Far Horizons.

Late breaking update:  Miraculously they got the cottage rolling again within a few hours.  But it didn't get far.  We saw it sitting in a vacant space near the entrance of the park, listing seriously to starboard.  Rumor has it it's bound for Mexico.  It will take a miracle to get it there.

The Deck is Finished!

Weather:

Sunny
High - 66
Low - 32

The finishing touches were put on our new deck this morning and this afternoon we had tea out there.  We love it, but we're finding it difficult to sit out there because we are constantly being distracted by people complimenting us on it. We're on a very busy corner, so almost everyone in the park has watched the progress.  I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon.  Here are some photos.

 

We're Here!

 Today's Weather:

Sunny
High - 68
Low - 35

We arrived back in Tucson on Sunday, January 9, but it's taken us this long to get our Wifi hooked up and working.

We had a fun trip down.  We left home on January 2.  We were able to stop at a couple of wildlife refuges in the Sacramento Valley, where we saw lots of wintering waterfowl.  This is a photo of a flock of Snow Geese.

We arrived in San Francisco early in the afternoon.  On Dan's advice, we had tea at a wonderful tea shop called Samovar in the Castro District.  We spent the night with Dan and Liz. They took us to an amazing Croatian restaurant with outstanding food.  The next morning we drove to Atascadero via Highway 1.  Near Santa Cruz we visited another refuge, where we added about 30 birds to our list. We also visited the Elfin Forest at Morro Bay.  It's a really fun area to bird, because all the vegetation is small.  The tallest trees are only about six feet tall, so the birds are easy to see.  We drove along the coast to Santa Barbara, hoping to find the Black Skimmer on the beach there.  We struck out, but did find a huge flock of Brown Pelicans.

These are Heerman's Gulls, also on the beach in Santa Barbara.

We spent the next night in San Clemente.  The next morning we visited Bolsa Chica Wildlife Refuge, which we'd never been to before.  There were numerous shorebirds, including a pair of Reddish Egrets, which are life birds for us.  (For those of you non-birders, that means it's a bird we've never seen before.) Unfortunately, they were too far away to get a good photo.


We had lunch on Balboa Island and spent the night in San Diego. We stayed right in downtown San Diego, across the street from the El Cortez.  At one time it was a hotel but now is apartments.  It's been restored and is really beautiful.

We spent the next morning walking around San Diego.  There are wonderful trees along the beach.  The convention center is in the background. 

There were some wonderful eucalyptus trees that had peeling bark.

This much-larger-than-life sculpture depicting the famous photo from World War II is on the waterfront in San Diego.

From San Diego we headed for Yuma.  This is a flock of Cattle Egrets and White-faced Ibises along Highway 8.

We arrived in Tucson on Sunday afternoon.  The deck isn't finished yet, but it's close.  We were greeted that evening with another amazing Arizona sunset.  It sure is good to be back.

Deck Update

Today's weather:

Cloudy
High - 66
Low - 37

Our deck project has been put on hold because our builders have left town, to return January 3.  They are setting up an O gauge train display at Roger's daughter's house in Whittier, California, for Christmas.  I guess it's a big project.  I think he said it's 10 feet by 16 feet.  He used to set it up here every Christmas, but we were never here to see it.

Anyway, here's what the deck looks like now.  We are able to use it, but obviously it has a way to go.

We've put all our deck furniture on it to see if it fits, and it does.   We've also strung a rope around the front end, just as a reminder of how close the edge is.  We're really pleased with the size.  There's plenty of room for our two chairs and a small table in front, and a large dining table and four chairs at the other end.

Roger and Jeanne have promised to have it finished by the time we return in January.  We'll see.  They've been pretty consistent at underestimating the time things will take.  But they are doing a great job.  It's very sturdy.

We've finally had a Broad-billed Hummingbird at our feeder!  I'm trying to get a photo of him, but so far he's been elusive.  

New Deck

Today's weather:

Sunny
High - 71
Low - 40

Work has begun on our new deck.  Last Thursday all the materials were delivered.  We can no longer park in our carport.

We have a two-person team working on it, both residents of the park.  Roger is the former head of maintenance.  He is ably assisted by Jeanne, an Air Force retiree who loves to learn new things and build stuff.  They make a great team and seem to be doing a wonderful job.

Here's what it looked like on Monday.  We've lost the use of our front door, as the steps have been removed.  Fortunately, we also have a back door.

By Tuesday it started to resemble a deck.  The steps were starting to take shape. 

No work was done today because Jeanne has a volunteer job three days a week and Roger was called in to help with driving.  They both volunteer at the local VA hospital.  With any luck, Roger will be back on the job tomorrow.

We seem to be the talk of the park.  It's a wonder they get anything done at all.  We're on a very busy corner and everyone stops to look and chat.

The other news is that we've put up a hummingbird feeder at the front corner of the house.  We had our first hummingbird within an hour of filling it.  It was a Costa's.  We've been told there are also Broad-billed hummingbirds in the park, but we haven't seen one yet. 

Sabino Canyon

Today's weather:

Sunny
High - 65
Low - 48

We took advantage of a cool day today to do some hiking in Sabino Canyon.  This is a recreation area in the Santa Catalina Mountains just to the north of Tucson.  It's actually several canyons, with riparian areas between stretches of desert vegetation.  We hiked about two miles up Bear Canyon, then back down.  It was a bit difficult because much of the trail is rocky and uneven.  You can cheat and take a shuttle to the top and walk down.  Maybe we'll try that next time.  We had hoped to find some birds, but we didn't have much luck.

Last Saturday we went to an open house at the local Master Gardeners demonstration garden.  So guess what!  More flower pictures!

This one's called Bignonia, or Queen of Sheba.

This is Tecoma 'Orange Jubilee'.

What's Blooming

Today's weather:

Sunny
High - 81
Low - 61

There are so many plants blooming here right now, and most of them are plants I've never seen.  So I thought I'd include some of my favorites.  This little guy is right at the corner of our driveway.  I assume it's a native.

Here's another native that's growing along the wash behind us.

This is ocotillo, my favorite of all the cactuses.  It usually blooms in May, but we've found quite a few blooming now.

The rest of these are in people's yards, so I assume they are not natives.  But they sure are pretty.

This one has flowers that look like sweet peas, but the vine is very large and dense.

The bougainvilleas grow like weeds here.

This one is a chilopsis, desert willow.

This one looks kind of like a butterfly bush, but it's a huge tree.

I'll report again later when other things bloom.