How Does Your Garden Grow

Haven't posted for awhile, so here are some garden pictures. The news from our insurance company is good. We have already received a check for 3 months lost rent to enable us to pay the mortgage while renovation is taking place. Ken Swisher has pretty much torn out the interior of the third floor and we're waiting for final numbers on how much they will allow for rebuilding. It should be sufficient to completely gut the building to the studs, re-insulate, wire and plumb everything.
Meanwhile, we continue our life in the sun. We picked our first zuccini a few days ago. Peppers and tomatoes are almost ready, and we've been making pesto from our basil for a month now. (That's basil with the purple flowers.) We went into the desert a couple of days ago and brought back a bag of clay/sand that's perfect for making adobe. I made a little ball and let it dry in the sun. Now I have a perfect little clay marble. Can't wait to try a pot. Not quite ready to set up an adobe brickworks for a house yet, but that may be in our future. Who knows?
We plan on taking a trip to Las Cruces this afternoon. It's about 30-45 minutes south of TorC, and is the nearest big shopping center, with about 80,000 people. It's also near of the Organ Mountains, which we have only seen from a distance, but they are impressive. It's in a lush agricultural area. Can't wait to see what's growing down there.
I'll try to rememer to take the camera and post some photos of that area.
Susannah, Bea and Dotty arrive September 8th for a weeks visit. Can't wait to show them the sights.

Need a New Home for our Fuzzy Boys!

OK, all my friends out there. I need your help. I need a new home for Herbie-the-Bad-Cat and his partner in crime, Tubby. These wonderful companions kept me safe and sane all last winter when I was confined to a recliner 24-7 and would make me laugh with their two tricks, Cat Wrestling and Cat Races. We had asked Dots (their vet) about bringing them with us in the car, and she advised absolutely not, unless they had been riding in cars since they were kittens, which they haven't. We then thought that we could fly them down, but the trip will be gruelling, we are unsure about the dosage and longevity of the kitty-downers we'd have to administer, there would be layovers in Seattle and SLC and then car rides--it's too much to ask of 7-8 year old country cats. So they need new homes. Matt and Susannah and Bea have been caring for them, but they have a little-bitty house and two 18-pound cats are just too much for them. They are good buddies, but both would be fine if they were adopted separately. It breaks my heart, but I also just couldn't inflict that trip on them. Herbie has the longest legs, tail and canines I've ever seen on a cat. He's a clutz; don't scratch his hind end--he doesn't like it. When he sits on you he's so heavy (18 pounds, as I said) you can't get up. Tubby is short and squat and looks like a doorstop when he sits. He has a tail like a cruller. He always lets you know when there's a present in the catbox and when there's not enough dry food in his dish. He weighs 18 pounds too. Both these boys prefer to be outside to do their business but they'll use a box. They like to be outside, except when it's raining and then they'll whine at you. They're funny and frisky and in good health--have had all their shots, etc. You can call Susannah at 299-4317 or 235-2310 to see them. I really hope someone out there will find it in their hearts to share their home with them. Thanks! Love to you ALL.

Insurance and Back Again

After realizing that our tenants in Homer are out of luck because our home-owner/landlord policy doesn't cover renters belongings, we decided to get renters insurance of our own here in TorC. Went to the local Allstate office and spent half an hour getting all the details straightened out and then she sent off the info online to the Big Computer in the Sky and we were declined, most likely because of our pending claim for the Homer fire. So Annie came home and went online herself, found a policy (for about $100/year more) and so now our belongings are insured for $25,000. IF YOU RENT, GET INSURED! It is normally around $10-$15/month. Think about replacing your clothes, dishes, furniture, music, motel while looking for another rental, etc. It's worth it.

End of Rant

On a more positive note, Annie had her first appointment with her new Primary Care Physician this morning, a very nice woman, Haruhauni Spruce, who is about our age and recently went to medical school and opened her first practice here in T or C. We're looking forward to getting to know her better (she lives a few blocks away). Annie is going to start reducing the dosage of Prednisone to see how that works now that we're in the heat. She sees a rheumatologist in Albuquerque next month. She's been feeling well enough to paint some shelves we bought at a yard sale and the other day painted the kitchen cabinet knobs. (It kind of takes the curse off the insipid, lime green cabinet doors.) I found some fittings at the hardware store this afternoon to attach a grinding wheel to a yard-sale electric motor and have been polishing the rough edges of rock slabs all evening. Amazing how easily entertained we are in our dotage.

Just Another Day in the Sun

Basking in New Mexico.

Keeping On Keeping On

Not much news today about the triplex. Susannah was there yesterday with Ken Swisher going through the things that we had stored in our back room. Fire consumed all our Christmas ornaments (lots of gifts from over the years and things that the kids made when they were little). That made me a little sad, but most of our photos are OK we think and most of our artwork. David's instruments are waterlogged but can be recovered and revived, we've lost books but some may get remediated. The piano can be professionally revived. Some furniture is toast, but that's fine. All in all, the two of us were fortunate, I think. Ken thinks that the house can be skun down to the "bones" and then rebuilt. Hoping that the insurance adjuster agrees...Will write more later when I know more. Love to all our friends. Those of you who rent, GET RENTER'S INSURANCE !!!

Triplex Fire

We got a call from Susannah this morning around 7 our time to let us know our Triplex in Homer was on fire. It apparantly started in some wiring and spread up the wall between the shed and the house, eventually burning the roof on the third floor. Some of our tenant's friends were on the deck around midnight and saw a glow from inside the shed. They saw flames and called 911 and got everyone out. One of our third floor tenants ran around the back of the house and stepped on a bed-frame leaning against the wall. It smacked him in the face and broke a couple of teeth. He had to have his lip stitched up at the ER. Annie and I have been on the phone all day talking to the insurance company and arranging for Kenny Swisher (KAS Construction) to go over this afternoon and tarp the roof and board up broken windows etc to prevent further damage.

The fire apparantly traveled up the wall between the shed and the house, getting into the third floor roof. As I understand it, the shed is pretty much gone and the roof has gaping holes with sheetrock torn down on the third floor to provide access to put the fire out. First and second floors have extensive smoke and water damage. We don't know how much of our stuff (photos, artwork, books etc.) survived.

The good news is, it's just stuff. Annie and I are fine and in New Mexico. The bad news is that our tenants have lost all their stuff and have nowhere to live. Raspberry Lane Pre-School was scheduled to open there next month and already had supplies there. Jeremy Youngblood (Fiddlehead Salon) was on the second floor. His friend, Rene Blanton, had her things stored in the shed (former shed.) Bogdon Baciu and Wayne Wormington rented the third floor, and it appears they lost everything. We just heard that Bogdon has a terminally ill family member in the mid-west and he has no money to travel back there. Susannah has opened an account at Wells Fargo to help the tenants out and if any of our friends can contribute, we would be grateful. Just tell them it's the East Hill House Fire Fund. We always tell our tenants that they should really get renters insurance as our policy won't cover their belongings, but most people don't ever do that, I know we never did when we were renting. I'll pass along more details later.

Birdlife of New Mexico

I haven't written anything for a while, so thought I should post an update. We've been having a great time sitting in the shade for a good part of the day while my rock-saw buzzes away at the piles of rocks we keep bringing home. We read and watch the birds, which flock to our feeder in huge numbers. I finally got a couple of good pictures of these rosy finches. I haven't bothered to take photos of the numerous other finches, barn swallows, and sparrows, as they all look alike to me. The white winged dove juveniles sit on our fence and wait for a willing adult to feed them... very comical. We've also been on several great drives out of town. The other day we went to Montecello, an almost Ghost Town about half an hour northwest of TorC. It's a charming little village in a large valley smack dab in the middle of the flattest desert you can imagine. We found a dirt county road that circled back to the highway and found some great rock picking along the way. We also came upon a buzzard enjoying lunch at the expense of a recently flattened jack rabbit. DO NOT click on this picture to enlarge it if you are a) squeamish or b) a bunny hugger... but everybody's got to eat, right? We also took another drive up Mud Mountain, where we got some beautiful chunks of candy rock (rhiolite) that I've been sawing up. So little time, so many rocks! Annie is knitting up a storm. I continue to play a little music and do a little maintenance here at the house we're renting. The other day the swamp cooler went on the fritz and I had to tinker with the pump to get it running again. The cooler recirculates the water which evaporates to cool the air. There is so much disolved calcium that it plugs everything up. The filters look like there's snow on them and the pump gets filled with sediment. Today, I had to fix a ceiling fan that was rattling around threatening to take off like an upside-down helicopter. This is much nicer than trying to fix a heater when the weather is below zero!!! The humidity ranges from 45-50% at 6am to 13% during the hottest part of the afternoon. It is quite pleasant most of the day, with only a few hours when standing in the sun is like sticking your head in the oven. It still makes my jaw drop to see someone walking down the street wearing a jacket and long pants when the temperature is hovering around 100 degrees. I'm assuming those people are suffering from being dropped on their heads in infancy. But in the words of my favorite recent country song "God is Great, Beer is Good, and People are Crazy." (Actually, that's my second favorite recent country song. My #1 is: "I gave up drinkin', smokin' and women last night, and it was the worst 15 minutes of my life."

Sunset

Had to post this picture from our yard last night. What more can I say!

Garden Pictures

Instead of posting another slide show off to the side, I thought I'd try to embed one in a regular post. Not as easy as it seems. Anyway, you can click on the following link and it should take you to a slide show of our garden. It's hard to believe we've only been here a month. The yard is really taking shape. Annie and I sat in the carport this evening, watching the sun fade from the mountains while lightning flashed in the distance and periodic sprinkles of rain kept driving the birds away from the feeders. The light on the mountains was beautiful. Anyway, check out a few shots of our gardens. http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/OurGarden#

Heat

I can't say enough about the heat here and how wonderful it has been for my little joints. Many days when it gets over 105 degrees, well, I do like to be inside reading where the temperature is only 80. I must admit that the sun can beat down on you and it feels like you've been hit with a hammer. I'm not outside much without my cowboy hat (the Mexican one David gave me on our trip when he bought a new one in Wyoming). You really want that extra protection, or at least, I do. But my hands and elbows and shoulders just suck that warmth in, and use it. I've started knitting a little more lately, which is so wonderful for me. And very often now I can dress myself without help. (This is a very big deal, folks...) There are days when a thunder shower looms over the mountains and I start to feel punk, but then I just sit quietly and read: more Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, Fannie Flagg's COMING ATTRACTIONS and STANDING IN THE RAINBOW. Both of these books are charming--Coming Attractions is written from the point of view of a 7 year old child and is laugh-out-loud hilarious; Standing in the Rainbow is about growing up in the mid-west after WWII, but it speaks to anyone raised in a small town before the 90's changed everything. Very witty, wise and very, very funny...

Yesterday afternoon I went out and sat in the shade and watched the hummingbirds scrap with each other over the feeder. They are so fierce and I never had any idea that they fought so. They dive-bomb each other, spitting and chittering away, the rufous hummingbirds trying to keep the black-throated hummingbirds away and vice versa. Then the house finches, the black-throated sparrows, the mourning doves and the white-winged doves all get into the act, and they start squabbling over the birdfeeder we have up for them. Good Lord--great dramas right in my back yard! And the amazing thing was that I watched it all for over an hour, and did nothing, or thought about nothing else. A built-in meditation: all these little critters afraid there's not going to be enough food for them and so they don't want to share, totally unaware that David and I are committed to feeding them. All they have to do is keep coming back to the source of food and they'll have all they could want or need. There's a lesson there for me about Plenty and how, if we keep coming back to our Source, the promise of nourishment is always there. How's that for the lesson for today, kiddies???

Another Great Day

Another fine day in New Mexico. Got up around 7 and trotted Annie out into the sun to warm her bones. I fired up the rock saw and sat in my chair reading "Bleak House" while we waited to see what was inside the pile of rocks that's been accumulating in our yard. After many failed attempts, I finally got a couple of pictures of the Humming Birds that are starting to find our feeder. There are two different species, and the larger of the two tries to keep the smaller away from the yard. They chatter, hum and flit around, occasionally lighting on the phone wires overhead or in the pine trees next door. We've also had rosey finches, bright red cap and breast, at our feeder, but I can't seem to get a decent picture. The white winged doves also have found the feeder, but prefer to pick up the spilled seeds from the ground. Here's one on our clothes-line pole. Back to the rocks, here are a few that I cut this morning. The first picture shows some of the uncut faces, then a photo of the other side. We went for a drive this afternoon to pick up more rocks. It's sure a lot faster picking them up than cutting them. Not much danger of running out of raw materials. Tomorrow, Brian and I are practicing with a new guitar/bass player Brian met while playing at the Sr. Center last week. Tuesday, we plan to go to Monticello and visit the farm of some folks we met at the Farmers Market. For now, I think I'll go check my rocks.

My New Toy

At a yard sale last week, I found a Rock Saw for $20.00! I think I mentioned it in a previous blog. This morning, I finally found the right size V-belt to connect the moter to the blade arbor, repaired the electrical cord, and started cutting rocks. These are from our trip to Mud Mountain a couple of days ago. Don't know exactly what kind of rocks these are, but they're gorgeous. Don't know what I'm going to do with all the rock slabs I'm going to end up with but it's so much fun seeing a plain old rock transformed into a shiney gem-like something-or-other. The saw uses a diamond blade in a water/oil bath. There's a clamp for holding the rock and a screw drive that pushes the rock forward slowly. A chain linking the carriage to the switch turns off the saw when the cut is complete. It takes about a half hour to cut these small slabs, but with the automatic shut-off you can just set up the cut and walk away. Can't wait to find a geode!

Yesterday, we took a ride back to Hillsboro to have lunch with a new friend, Ellen the Iris Lady. She has the most amazing gardens with apples, peaches, pears, plums, apricots etc. She sent us home with fresh corn on the cob, squash and green beans. We are definitelly eating well here.

BUGS!!!

There are all sorts of creepy crawlie things around here and they're all very interesting to look at, although I have to say that the no-see-ums have been doing more than crawling on me and I'm covered with bites. Thank goodness for Jody's Magic Oil...makes the itch go right away (at least for a while). Last night David and I climbed into bed and as I was adjusting my pillows I became distinctly aware that SOMETHING was crawling up my leg, rapidly approaching parts of me that don't see the sun on any day. Picture this short, round, hobbled-up little woman LEAPING out of bed, yelling something obscene, and as I hopped around making little "Agh-h" and "Y-U-CK" and "OOGH" noises, David chased a 2 inch COCKROACH around our bed until he caught it and threw it outside. Oh really, I hear someone wondering in their little pea brain "Why didn't he kill it..?" Think about it, Clyde. I said a TWO INCH cockroach. Exactly how does one kill something that big--so crunchy and so full of goo? You'd let it out the door as well. David says I should just think about it as a pet--a small, shiny, brown pet--like a tanned cat with no fur..."Something that got under the covers with you but shouldn't be there in the bed--like the cats with their claws when then get under the sheets and head for my crotch," he said, smiling. "They make me say "Oogh" too when they do that." So I will try to think of this BIG BUG as our new pet. We'll have to get a crate, though, because he's not allowed on the bed again...

Mud Mt, Lake Valley, and Nutt New Mexico

We took a great trip today, leaving home in the late morning and heading into the hills west of town. We had been seeing this huge construction in the distance for the past couple of weeks and couldn't figure out what it was. From the brass plaque near the top, we finally figured out that it is the Poncy Mud Valley Dam. Not a drop of water behind it, but apparantly during a flash flood, the dam protects the town from the rushing waters. It's a spillway of sorts with concrete baffles to slow the water in its descent. We followed the road up the edge of the valley behind the dam through more dry desert with rocky outcrops. This plant looks like Crown of Thorns. It has tiny leaves, huge sharp spines and yellow flowers at the tips of its branches. After looking it up on line, we finally found out that it is an Ocotillo Cactus. The views along the way were spectacular, but so vast it's hard to contain in a photo. We stopped repeatedly to pick up rocks from beside the road. I really need to get some gloves, as it's impossible to hold a rock for more than a few seconds without juggling it from hand to hand to prevent third degree burns on the digits. Mud Mountain loomed above us, but we didn't think the Chrysler was up to the climb. Returning to town we headed south for Hillsboro for lunch then south again to Lake Valley, a ghost town that mostly burned to the ground in 1885. The famous Bridal Chamber Mine, one of the richest silver deposits in the world, was located near here. Hard to believe this was once a town of 4,000 souls. On the way we saw 5 Mule Deer beside the road. We also saw a couple of Roadrunners. (actually running in the road! Imagine that.) Above Lake Valley, looms Lizard Rock. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see where the name came from. There are all kinds of roads through the desert, because all you have to do is drive a cat with the blade down to knock over the very sparce vegetation, and Presto... a road. No frost heaves, only the danger of a washout wherever you cross a natural water course. There are numerous signs indicating that dips in the road are subject to flash floods. We dodged thunder showers all afternoon, with lightning flashing to the west, south and north, but managed to avoid any serious rain. Nutt, NM used to be the end of the line on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. Now it's just an intersection with a closed Bar called the Middle of Nowhere Tavern. The road then heads east into Hatch, home to cottonfields, miles of Chile Peppers, and cattle feetlots you can smell for a mile before you see them. Got home around 5:30, just in time for a nap before supper. Boy Howdy, there's sure some interesting country around here.

Monsoon Season

Just got back from playing music at a neighborhood block party down by the river. We quit around 8 as the rain was threatening. Got home just in time to see the sun going down on Turtleback Mountain to the south The colors were even more intense a few minutes before I got out the camera. It's what they call the monsoon season here. There's often a rip-snorter of a thunder storm just before dark. A couple of nights ago, Annie and I were driving in the desert, digging up some native plants to stick in the ground around the house, when a crack of thunder followed so closely on the heels of the lightning we decided to get in the car and head for town. By the time we got to town, it was raining so hard we had to pull over. There are no storm drains here except for the streets, and they quickly turn into rivers when the rain hits.

The rain soaks in pretty quickly and we still have to water our gardens daily. Stuff just leaps out of the ground here. I picked these peppers off our plants so that the roots will develop, but these things have only been in the ground about 3 weeks. The basil is also growing like crazy. Tomorrow, I think we're going to drive to Hillsboro, an old mining town south of here, to visit with the Iris Lady. Annie met her at the Old Time Fiddler's hall when I played there last week, and she invited us down to see her gardens. Tonight I was at a house with a pomegranite tree in the yard. We've been buying apples at the farmer's market for juice (seconds are a buck a pound) and the grower says he has apples from June to December! This place is certainly agreeing with us and everyday provides a new surprise. I bought a diamond blade rock saw at a yard sale Saturday for 20 dollars and can't wait to start cutting geodes, sandstone and agates. It needs a new belt and a good cleaning, but should be a lot of fun when I get it in working order. We hauled a bunch of rocks back from a recent trip across the river and have them stashed in the garden. The minerals here are all new and different, so we're looking forward to collecting LOTS of rocks. It's now 9 pm, so I think I'll get back to Dickens (Bleak House). Ain't retirement grand.

East of the Rio Grande

Check out the new Slide Show above. Click on it to open in a new window with larger photos and captions. We toot a trip today across the river. The photos are of the first portion of our trip only, as the camera batteries ran out. We ended up traveling east to Engle, future site of Spaceport America, which is in the middle of NOWHERE. Flat desert in all directions. We then followed a dirt road south for miles and miles, through torrential rains with lightning in all directions around us. Ended up in Hatch for a late supper at a Santa Fe Grill (a chain of fast food outlets) and then back up the west side of the river on Interstate 25, getting home around 9:30.

Uncle Frank has a new Hat!!!

Most gardens around here have a "santos" standing guard; most often it's St. Francis of Assissi. You often see him covered with bird necklaces and such, with terracotta painted animals around him. The other day David and I went to a cactus garden, which was a wonderful place full of more cacti than we'd ever seen, and also wonderful oleander and Mexican heather for sale. The owner was also selling Mexican hand-thrown pots (drool) and tucked in amongst them, little Mexican "santos" of varying sizes. This one caught my fancy and I brought him home to stand watch outside our door and to keep the mice out of the herb garden (hah). However, the big deal for me is the beaded halo on his head, as I never thought I'd get back enough use of my hands to be able to ever bead again--in fact, all my beading supplies, along with the yarn and needles and knitting books, went to Susannah or my friend Lauren and the rest got sold in our "Mother of All Yard Sales." With help from David with the crimping tools, I managed to bead him his


new headband! And look what else I've managed to do this week: No, the scrap of knitting to the left is not the bottom of a bikini but the beginnings of a lowly cotton dishrag--something that is taking me a full week or more to make because I have about fifteen minutes before my hands stop working, but I'm determined to finish this and then take a picture of David using it. The bamboo and wicker towel rack is half-painted, too. Same problem holding a paintbrush for any length of time, but still, half-finished or not, I decided to hang it up and use it, take it down and paint on it, until it's entirely done and David can give it a coat of clear acrylic to seal it. If you click on the photo you'll see the design better and see what's not yet complete. These three things, compared to the handwork I used to whip out in a weekend pales really in comparison, yet for me, right now, they are the sweetest things I have ever put my hands to...because I was ABLE to put my hands to them. It's such an old saw, "You never know what you have until it's gone," but the reason it's an OLD saw, is because there's so much truth in it, it hangs around to be said over and over. Laying in that damned recliner night after sleepless night with only a candle in Lindy's crystal lotus she gave me and some Christmas lights for company, unable to move my hands, arms or legs without the most excruciating pain, I would have many a discussion with old Uncle Frank (as some around here fondly call him) about the worth of my life, and how could I find the grace to live in a helpless state, and asking for just a bit of shoring up around the edges until I could find my way out of my own private Idaho of pain and darkness and despair. It was truly the Winter of (All) Our Discontent, because life then was no picnic for David, or Susannah, or Dotty, all of whom not only had to deal with their own complicated and difficult lives, but deal with me all the time as well...every dark, cold and dreary day. And now, the Universe (with, I think, a little of Uncle Frank's help) has squirted us out of that particular worm-hole into a place where there's Light and Heat, Understanding and Health. I have no idea what our desert lives might be like from here on in, but I know they've been changed forever by our recent experiences. And I'll take mine as it comes at me, grab it and revel in it, because I know I am so lucky and so blessed to have it.

I think David has some more photos of our house and gardens and he wants to try another slide-show, so I'll sign off. Just wanted you to know how things are progressing in my lil' old life these days. Love to you ALL!!!

New Pictures

I finally figured out how to post a slide show. Check it out at left. Click on the pictures for a new window with larger photos with captions.

Another Day in TorC

This little anole lizard is my alter ego. Every morning I wake up stiff and sore and not able to move at all, and David helps me out of bed and into some clothes and into my wheelchair; then he wheels me across the street to the vacant lot to visit the tumbleweed and get the early morning sun. I sit there with my coffee or tea and some yogurt with homemade granola, and after about an hour, I'm hot all the way through and completely thawed out, ready to start my day! By mid-afternoon I can actually walk a little unassisted around the house. Swept the patio yesterday. Painted on a small shelf. Began knitting a cotton washcloth. Each of those things were impossibilities a year ago. And slowly, slowly I'm beginning to get myself back again. Pretty wonderful.

Let's see, what did we do today? After I thawed out, we went to a local farmer's supply place and bought flypaper. The bugs find me everywhere around here; they don't bother David at all. So maybe some flypaper....oh, who am I kidding? This is a buggy place and I've just got to go with the flow. Then we went to the post office where we got our first bills!!! We came right home and paid them on-line. While we were out we also bought another fan for the back room where the big computer is and toured the Animal Shelter Thrift Shop to see what was there. Lots of 2nd hand places in this town. Great for the budget! Came home and David made lunch; then I sat outside and read and he stayed inside and practiced some of the songs he and his ersatz band will play tomorrow morning at the Farmer's Market. Tonight we sat outside in the vacant lot and watched the incredible lightening show up Elephant Butte way. Better than fireworks!

I have a great bug story, speaking of bugs. The other day my new friend Terry was sitting on the pot when a four-inch centipede dropped out of her ceiling fan right at her feet. Of course it freaked her out and she grabbed the closest thing to her which was a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner. She just doused the thing until it drowned or was killed by the Clorox or whatever in it. Her husband was so impressed by how it had so instaneously dispatched the creep thing, that he took the cleaner outside to see if it would kill the weeds in the yard... Four-inch centipedes--I'm not in Alaska for sure....

Life in TorC

Why on earth is this woman smiling from ear to ear??? Could it be because she's upright and able to do something mundane for the first time in several years? I vacuumed the floor the other day and David caught it with the camera. How terrific! I could only manage the living room, but hey... By the way, here's our living room. Ugly rug, white walls--eh, we can live with it all. Found a couch at a yard sale, brand-new, for $200. It has recliners at both ends, so David and I each have one. How decadent! For those of you who have wondered about tumbleweed (how's that for a non sequitur?) I thought you might be interested in these two pictures. The one on the left is green, growing tumbleweed in the vacant lot across the alley from our house. The

tumbleweed at my feet is the dry stuff that blows and tumbles all over the place. David found this in a little nook beside our carport where he's going to build a small storage shed for his tools and such.

The other two photos are the alley to the left and right of our little house. Our house is very private, as none of the other houses on the alley face the alley but are oriented to the streets in front. Thus we have a lot of privacy (AND a lot of shade, which is a good thing.) In the photo directly above, you can see some of the new gardens David has put in--basil, tomatoes, peppers, Sweet William and cilantro in the bed to the left. To the right is my rock garden with carnations, blue sage, chollo cactus and ice plant. There are red ivy geraniums hanging from pots. Once all the gardening is done, I'll send more pics. The last photo is David and his new friend Brian, who plays trumpet and trombone, and two other quasi-musicians busking on the streetcorner of T or C last night at the monthly Gallery Walk (much like Homer's First Fridays, only it's Second Saturdays). They got paid $20 each by the owner of the antique shop in front of which they had set up, and a couple people threw some money in David's guitar case. So...we've been here two weeks, David's found a really good musician friend and he's had his first paying gig! Life is good!!!