Friends and blue skies

 We continue to settle in, making our old "lake" life fit into our new desert life.

bringing the teak back to life

We've been fortunate to have made some good friends on the road and Tuesday we were able to welcome six of them to our new winter home base!    Jodie and Bill, MonaLiza and Steve, and Pam and John were able to come together for a long awaited visit.     We decided to make it a progressive dinner of sorts, MonaLiza and Steve hosted us for Happy Hour at their home and then everyone piled into their cars and came here for dinner.   

 

yes, we see you Tessa.....

We realized that all of them purchased their homes, furnished.    We did not.   No furniture in our main room.    It was too chilly outside (yes, chilly in the desert is a thing) to eat there so we made due by pulling the umbrella table into the livingroom, beside our lovely cardboard fireplace (although John managed to make our TV into a fireplace complete with crackling sound effects) and we all laughed and talked and ate and drank and realized how lucky we all are to be able to be together.    There was one particulary spirited directional discussion among John, Dave and Steve, two of them were wrong.....

yay!

Lewis got presents!   Gramma Pamma brought her usual pockets full of treats and Miss Tessa brought him a dead rabbit.    We got goodies from Jodee and Bill also!    Fun.....

After everyone went home we used our dishwasher to make clean up a breeze....not usually an exciting activity, but the fact that we've never had a dishwasher, ever, so it was the cherry on top of our great day.

The next morning Jodee and Bill continued on the rest of their  motorhome trip and we had a late breakfast with Pam and John on their way back to Boulder City.    We had another good meal at tiny Nichols West in Congress, sitting outside and enjoying the beautiful Arizona blue skies and their patio cat.....

love those blue Arizona skies....

No, we didn't eat the patio cat - he sat there politely watching us eat, ocassionally meowing quietly when he thought our conversation needed his opinion.   

After breakfast (or was it lunch?) we drove into the desert to try and visit a couple of Pam's old friends.

She has a great love for the rare crested Saguaro and keeps track of several of them as they grow and change.    We made our way to one particularly old and beautiful one that she hadn't seen since 2017 but we were so saddened to find it's majestic head had broken and crashed to the ground.   Nothing lasts forever.  Sigh. 

Before (thanks Pam)

after
His beautiful head on the ground, returning to the desert....

We took a few dirt/rock roads to locate another one that has evolved quickly from just the beginnings of a crest when she first discovered it, to what it was that day....

Now that we know where it lives, Dave and I will watch it's progress.   Another good excuse to get out in the desert, if one really needs a good excuse.

So, that's all I have for now.    We're scheduled for our booster vaccine next week and we'll continue to make this house our own.      And....we'll continue to honor sweet Lewis's subtle suggestions.... 

gentle pink sunset in the eastern sky