No, I Must Not Read This

I am sorry, but when I hear "You Must Read This" on NPR, I cringe, steel myself, and rail against most of which the author who is speaking says.  Sure, some of the books they mention are good books if you like fiction (primarily, what they talk about it fiction), but "must read" ?  Who is NPR, or any author, to tell me what I Must and Must Not read?  I'll read whatever I would like to read, or care to read, but rarely will I ever read what I am told I "must read". 

The concept of promoting good books and interesting authors is fine, but do not tell me I "must read" something.  MAYBE someone originally meant this to be "tongue in cheek", but I've heard dozens of authors inthe afternoon promote their favorite "must reads" and they seem so myopically focused as to actually believe the imperative, "you must!" - a myopic author?  Yeah, who'd have thought there were any of those.

Blue Sky Mining

While I was doing Yoga in the back yard poolside just after Christmas, I snapped this photo as I reflected back at how during the three years I visited China ('99-01) I never once saw a clear blue sky in that country.  Here in Phoenix, where we have abundant sunshine - as well as abundant desert wind blown dust and 4 or so million cars driving around - we still have beautiful blue skies over-head.  Some days, sure, there's temperature inversions and the snog near the horizon is pretty thick, but over head, one can still see BLUE, not gray, or haze, or overwhelming pollution.

When I am in a transcontinental flight, up around 35K or 39K feet, I always try and spot "the horizon" to see if it is distinguishable.  So far, in the US and in Europe, I've been able to "find it" most of the time.  In China, if you were below the clouds of smog, you could never tell where the ground was, much less the horizon, and if you were above the clouds (like on a Hong Kong to Chengdu flight), the amount of sunlight being reflected back up was blinding, causing air travelers to reflexively wince and immediately close their window shades. 

I hope the new Republican Congress majority doesn't roll back the hard fought environmental legislation that helps to keep the skies in America blue, and "relatively" free of smog - compared to our Chinese counterparts.

Perhaps By The 7th Washing?

Recently, I tried to "support the little guy" and go with Seventh Generation's automatic dishwasher gel instead of the usual Palmolive we typically use. Target carries it, and Colgate-Palmolive is a huge multi-national that is not hurting for profits (15 Billion in revenue and 3.73 Billion in profits)m and I've always had a "soft spot" for the under-dog (like The Cubs, and usually Da Bears), so I thought "Why Not?"

Well, in our GE dishwasher, using Arizona water treated by our water softener, washing our normal dirty dishes, Seventh Generation Does Not Work.  Avocados, left over egg residue, cheese residue, microwaved or not, anything that has not been pre-washed by hand in the sink goes through a full dishwasher cycle - perhaps even 2 cycles - and comes out nearly as dirty as it went in.   I have no love of "pre-washing" dishes, that's why I have an automatic dishwasher.  And besides, pre-washing them uses up more water and more energy (to heat the water) and time.  So I declare Seventh Generation dishwashing gel, in our home, with out dishwasher, a failure.

If you'd like the 9/10ths full container, and it works well for you, let us know.  We'll be more than happy to give it to you.  I picked up a new low phosphorous Palmolive container last week at Target, and it once again works great.

Unsupervised Children Will Be Eaten

At the "Welcome Center" on I-10 as you cross over from California into Arizona, there's this lovely little sign:

We found this to be "scary" the first time we ever drove into Arizona in the summer of 2007.  Now, we see it as amusing and perhaps practical.  Though we've never seen a scorpion or poisonous snake in our yard, we have seen 4 and 6 foot diamond back rattle snakes in the Mayo Clinic parking lot, trying to get warm on the black top on a cool Fall evening, and one of our neighbors did find a dead scorpion in one of their planters.  Though I hiked all over the Gila Mountain range in South Mountain Park, just north of the Gila River, I never once saw a Gila Monster.  I Have been bitten by a black widow here in Arizona, but heck, we had black widows back in South Carolina too!

...and if you want to walk your dog, off a leash, at a Interstate Rest Stop, make sure you've got a wide array of anti-venom, for various snakes, lizards, spiders, and scorpions for your precious little pup. 

Green Eyed Obese Geriatric Lady

Dr Desert Flower's 16 pound geriatric paranoid cat - afraid of her own shadow, door bells, children, foot steps, etc - was lounging at the foot of the bed last weekend, when the setting sun hit her eyes "just right". 

She's almost a Russian Blue, but her eyes are green - and she has no pedigree papers being a shelter rescue.  If she wasn't so paranoid, and obsessed with suckling her own nipples LOUDLY (usually while we are trying to sleep) due to being taken from her mother before she was fully weaned (our Bloomington IN Vet Sherri once guessed) won, she'd be an awesome cat.  Luckily DDF doesn't hear the feline slurping suckling... lol!

The cat's eye color inspired me to look up Sugar Loaf's "Green Eyed Lady" for future reference here.  Sweet base line, but the drums are lacking and the guitar, anemic. Gotta love the jammin' 1970s electric organ!

Palm Springs Gayborhood Sunday Brunch

The day after Christmas, Dr Desert Flower and I drove from La Quinta to Palm Springs, to seek out a delicious brunch.  We had our radar set for Cheeky's (as in Cheeky Monkey) due to the positive Yelp reviews, but they were closed on December 26th.  Luckily, Jake's was open, just 2 doors down, and we were early enough to Just Preempt the Sunday Brunch lunch.
 
Now keep in mind, this was our first time to Palm Springs ever, and while we are familiar with Phoenix's Central Gayborhood, we'd never knew that Palm Springs had such a vibrant Gayborhood as well.  the weather was a lil chilly - in the upper 50s and lower 60s, but not unpleasantly so.  Jake's was busy, but Bruce Bloch (proprietor) was doing a wonderful job of keeping his guests' beverages refilled, complimentary cookies and treats flowing, and bills arriving promptly.  The service was customer centric, the food delicious with generous portions (and relatively low carb, when choosing the '3 eggs any way you want them') and not expensive at all for a Sunday Brunch. The Mighty Lead tea was organic and sustainable. - we were sort of glad that Cheeky's was closed in retrospect.  Only complaint was the one stall unisex bathroom, which did not afford enough capacity for the coffee and tea filled customers - though the rest room was artfully decorated! =)

After a leisurely brunch, we sauntered down the street (California 111 Business) and crossed to visit Café Chocolate Palm Springs - an amazing chocolate shop where the fine chocolates were little pieces of art.  This chocolate shop sits beside a place called "Corridor", which is a breezeway leading to a hidden courtyard.  As we walked into the sunny courtyard, Dr Desert Flower and I became immediately aware of our obvious heterosexuality.  We were not bears, or in leather, or walking our little fru-fru-doggies, or lounging happily with our life partner having a pleasant picnic on the grass - add a head dressed Indian and a Construction Worker and all the Village People would have been there.  It was a nice little microcosm, and we did not feel "out of place" or "ostracized" in any way, but as we walked into just fabulous "fabulous gifts for fabulous people" and I saw a copy of the Penis Pokey Activity Book prominently displayed, I could not contain my laughter.  Yes, they had all the ripped washboard abs fire-fighter calendars, and artys posters, hip music, hilarious cards full of innuendo and such, but we did not purchase any items as we browsed, it was a very amusing shop.

So while La Quinta appears to be populated with many older, conservative, golfing type of people, Palm Springs has a healthy population of Sunday Brunch goers who are less elderly, more fashionable, much more eclectic, friendly, and apparently much more tolerant...and way so fabulous.

Nostalgic Idiocracy

Yesterday, NPR had a severe case of nauseating nostalgic retrospective, "looking back at the year 2010".  Everything from "who should be remembered who died this year" to "the most influential politician" (THAT roused some real nut cases to call in and voice whatever was inside their numb-teabag-skulls) to "Rhianna had 4 #1 hits, more than any one else".  As I drove to Ace Hardware (they're so nice, and much more helpful than Lowes or Home Depot), Target, and the gas station running errands, I could NOT take the Idiocractic Focus pouring from KJZZ, and turned my dial.

On X 103.9 they introduced the Weezer song "Pork and Beans", that Rivers Cuomo wrote after a meeting with his record label's executives where they told him he needs to write more approachable, more pop-appealing songs, 'you know, like Justin Timberlake'.  I did not know the back-story behind this song, but now that I do, I like it even more - which is a good thing because Dr Desert Flower seems to play Weezer nearly incessantly on her Ipod in the car and on the stereo here, chez nous.  =)

First Frost For Phoenix this Winter

Alliteration - heh heh.  It's going to get cold tomorrow night, and have a hard frost here for the first time this winter.  All of the blossoms on my lemon tree will be wiped out, as there is no way to cover a 15 foot tall thorny tree (oh ya, lemon trees are the only citrus that have Christ-Crown-Of-Thorns-Like spikes on the branches, go figure).  I spotted by the helpful Elgin Nursery yesterday to get some frost cloth and discuss plant hardiness.  They staff there is VERY knowledgeable, friendly, and customer centric.  The lavender we have was purchased there as well.  We discussed strategies for protecting desert plants against a hard frost, here in zone 9 & 10. (Also see links here and here and here [9B] and here [AZ] for more zone information, and here for surprisingly balmy Euro zones, thanks to the Gulf Stream).


I was very focused on "hardy down to ____ temperature" and the fine people at Elgin were nice to say "Yes, But....".  As in, "Yes, they will survive, they will live, down to such and such a temperature, but your plants WILL Burn and be damaged by the cold temperatures."  Elgin was also clear to point out that even though the Glendale or Goodyear or Sky Harbor airports might report one temperature, locally on your property the temperature might be 5 or 10 degrees colder, depending on sun exposure, wind speeds and directions, residual latent heat, etc.  So to be proactive (or perhaps slightly over-reactive) I purchased a box of 32 ounce insulated cups - sadly Costco was the only place to get them, and I had to get 500.  The cups will go on the tops of each cactus arm, as well as groups of aloe blossoms and lantana blossoms.  I may try to cover the honeysuckle as well, but with it now taller than the 6 foot fence, seeking the sun, I doubt the cups will really work.  I have several rolls of blue painter's tape to secure groups of cups together as well.  The 2 frost cloths will cover 2 of my dwarf palms, and many old queen sized & twin sized bed sheets, as well as landscaping tarps to cover other plants.  Of course, all of this will have to be put on in a 40-to-50F rain storm with 20 mph gusts (NOAA link here), so that'll be alot of fun!

My girl friend Anna will be very confused by all the cups and tarps - AND I will have to take the hummingbird feeders down so they don't freeze - but on Saturday everything will come back off, and hopefully most of the blossoms will have survived.

I was saving up links in a notepad file, but to make them more available and useful for others, here's a list of what I dug up on the interwebs yesterday.  If you have only one of these in your yard, you might want to take precautions.  I'm going to go all out, and try everything possible to preserve the growth I've worked so hard to nurture.  It helps me to forget how far underwater my home mortgage is, when I see all the green and blossoms around the yard. 

Sago Palm -15 to 110 (here) and 10F (here) [Many thanks to Dave's Garden, The DBG, and the City of Scottsdale for the helpful links!]

Dwarf (Pigmy) Date Palm Phoenix Roebelenii, hardy to 25F (link here and here) for short periods

Milkweed, down to 25F (here)

Aloe Vera, 21-30F (here)

Hildmann's Cereus (Botanical Name: Cereus hildmannianus) 21-30F (here)
AKA - Mexican Fence Post Cactus

Lantana, 21-30F (here)

Honeysuckle, 10F (here)

Jasmine, 20F (here)

Rosemary, 20F (here)

Winter Vacation Breakfast Chez Moi

1/4 organic, local, red onion, chopped
1/4 organic, local, red pepper, chopped
1/4 organic, local, green pepper, chopped
2 crimini (stuffable) Trader Joe's mushrooms, chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
4 large local, humanely raised, organically fed chicken eggs
Sautee veggies and butter, until onions change color, on medium heat.  Scramble the 4 eggs.  Add eggs to sauteed veggies.  Cook to your preference of runny-or-not-runny.
Enjoy, and don't eat again until dinner.  Yum.

Knee Knockin

About 10 months ago, I started noticing that when I lay in bed on my side, my knees "knock", bone against bone.  When I was well over 16 stone, my knees could not touch, with fat, fleshy thighs keeping them apart.  Now that I am much closer to 14 stone, and riding the stationary bike & hiking all over the valley both this winter and last, the unexpected secondary result is bone upon bone knee contact.  I guess I'll know if I start to get more rotund again if the knee-to-knee contact goes away.

The feline foot warmer can be seen at the very top of the photo.  We Might have to turn on our furnace this evening, if the house dips much below 65F.  So far, it's been steady and stable at 72F, throughout the month of December.

Threadless Zombies

 
Last Year, my son and I enjoyed watching Zombieland in the theater. It was hilarious. This year, for Christmas, my son got me a "In Case Of Zombies" T-shirt from Threadless[TM] and the "Zombie Awareness Council".  Last year, I would have fit in an Extra Large comfortably.   This year, a Medium would fit much better- thanks to the good example my friends Ron and Matt showed me.  The extra large fits me more like a kaftan, but that's fine for sleeping.

#5 "Show No Mercy. She's Not Your Mother Anymore" - LOL!

#6 - looks like Dale Gribble

#8 - nice use of a cricket bat.

Our Hajj is Complete

Last Weekend, we completed our Fifth Pillar Koranic Obligation to complete the Hajj, and visited Mecca while we were in South West California.

It was one our way back from the Salton Sea, where we had HOPED to see flocks of migratory water fowl, but instead just found a brackish inland lake, with an occasional seagull (not a whole Flock of Seagulls).

Note: if you are in Mecca, and attempting to head East towards the I-10 on Box Canyon Road, do not waste your time.  The bridge has been washed out by the recent heavy rains that Southern California has experienced.  Turn around, drive back up to Coachella, and put an extra 10 miles on your vehicle.  There's no short cut here in December 2010.

Feline Foot Warmer

It's getting chilly at night here.  In fact, we're supposed to get a front tomorrow night, so I'll need to go out and put some of the 500 thirty two once Styrofoam cups I got at COSTCO on the cacti and flowering plants tomorrow.  (If anyone needs some large cups, let me know, I won't use all 500) It's nice to be able to wake up on a vacation day with a purring feline foot warmer on the bed.

"I aim to kill ya"

Dr Desert Flower and I went and saw Joel & Ethan Coen's True Grit last Thursday night when it came out here in Phoenix.  It's a fine film.  If you took No Country For Old Men, and crossed it with the character development and "eh?" ending of Burn After Reading, and then mixed in a heavy dose of death from Fargo, Miller's Crossing & The Lady Killers, with a script lifted largely from the original True Grit Charles Portis novel, then you get this movie.  Put in reference to Tombstone and Unforgiven, I'd say True Grit was better (and I really did love Unforgiven) and agree with The Pompous Film Snob on this as well.

I also agree with the Pompous Film snob that Hailee Steinfeld (as Mattie) was phenomenal in this film, and completely under-appreciated.  Hell, even the poster here doesn't list her (there's No sexism in Hollywood or advertising).  She dominates every scene.  She should get Best Actress, but she won't.  Bridges was good.  Damon was not bad.  Brolin had a few lines and a small part, but near-the-top billing after No Country. 

Very well acted.  Beautiful cinematography.  Nicely written, smoothly directed.  An intense story told.  We saw it on a Thursday night to a 75% full theater.  You can wait for the DVD or the download... but it's better than most anything else that is showing in US theaters this week and weekend.

Citra Montepulciano D'Abruzzo 2008

Picked up this bottle of Citra Montepulciano D'Abruzzo (Denominazione Di Origine Controllata) 2008 at trader Joe's for $4 last month (links to the wine here and here).  Delicious, drinkable, good with spicier, or heavier, or meaty dishes.  For $6 it is hard to beat.  Other reviews online agree (multiple here and here) except for this one (here) - everyone has their own opinion, and maybe he got a bad bottle.  I enjoyed mine, as did my son and wife.

Joshua Christmas Tree

Since our son insisted he needed to get back to his job in South Carolina, post traumatic bike injury number 4, we were going to be empty-nesters for the first Christmas since he was born back in the Reagan Administration.  To avoid having a very sad, "we miss our son" holiday, I decided to burn up a "free night stay at any Hilton property" certificate I had, and we drove to La Quinta & Palm Springs California for Christmas.  Hilton has a Waldorf Astoria resort in La Quinta, and since we've been to both the Boulders and The Biltmore in Arizona, we wanted to see how La Quinta stacked up.  We'd never been, and heard it was nice, so we thought "what the heck, why not?" 

Well, the valley in which Palm Springs sits is like Phoenix, except with a little bit worse air quality, higher property values, a higher concentration of wealth and elderly, and higher California prices.  The quality of the service and accommodations was not as good as the Arizona Waldorf Properties, but it was just as expensive.  We won't be back.  But I digress...  this posting is about Joshua Tree National Park, and spending Christmas there.



We drove out of La Quinta, and headed West down I-10 to the massively over-populated wind farms at the West Side of Palm Springs, then turned North through several depressed towns with economic conditions that reminded me of much smaller Akron OH or Hammond IN, with closed businesses, and very weak development.  When we got to the main entrance of Joshua Tree, there's a nice visitor's center with friendly rangers, clean rest rooms, and a nice gift shop, but it is 3 miles from the gate, which we thought was kind of strange.  There's several hundred people who live on small plots of land along those 3 miles between the Visitor Center and the main park entrance, with trailers (mostly) clinging to the rocky soil, along a winding well paved road - Federal Highway Funds.

Once inside the park, you're greeted with other-worldly rock formations, that look like Titans or Giants had stacked up boulders and then went to play someplace else.  As the boulders gave way, vast forests of Joshua Trees came into view.  We were up at 4000 and 5000 feet, where Joshua Trees love to grow at their leisurely pace of 1 inch a year.  As I am 6 feet tall, the tree behind me is about 250 years old.   We saw several other trees that were well over 20 feet tall, and the highest recorded Joshua Tree in park topped out at 40 feet - or almost 500 years old!

If you've never been to Joshua Tree before, take the time to drive around the Western edge of the park, and enter from the North West Gate in the town of Joshua Tree, and exit to the South near I-10.  This way, you'll get to see the spectacular rock formations and vast forests of Joshua Trees early in your visit, and if you leave to the south, you can see the "God Forsaken Desert" of the Sonoran upon your exit.  Since we LIVE in the Sonoran desert, fields of cholla cacti and creosote bushes hold little allure for us anymore, and it's a very desolate, forbidding landscape once you descend out of the Little San Bernardino, Pinto and Hexie Mountain Ranges towards the Cottonwood Range and the Coachella Valley beyond. 

It was quite interesting to drive up and then hike up to the look out at Keyes View to see the San Andreas fault, snow capped San Bernardino Mountains, Salton Sea, and Coachella Valley down below and off in the distance. 

The park was Unexpectedly Busy  for Christmas Day.  The close proximity to Los Angeles brought out thousands of day trippers I think.  It seemed everyone had the same idea we did, about spending Christmas in one of the National Parks (our NP Park Pass is still good until January 1st!).  There was no shortage of
- lumbering RVs (both owned land barges reminiscent of "Meet The Fockers" and smaller rented ones driven by unsteady and uncertain hands)

- extended Asian families with impatient teens or 20-somethings at the wheel
- NRA-hat wearing Republicans
- Vacationing Europeans (French, Germans, Dutch, Spanish, Italian speakers)
- Rental Cars outnumbering owned vehicles, at least 2 to 1
- Orange County Gucci'ed housewives toting little dogs
- Rock Climbing "extreme" 20 somethings, hauling their gear around.
There was a clan of 3 young male coyotes (smaller than what we see in Phoenix, and busily urinating on things to mark every trunk and branch that could be smelled) that crossed the road in front of us at one point, and every rental car within site stopped to take a plethora of pictures.   

The hike out to Barker Dam is worth it.  It's one mile, and an easy loop.  We took it on the advice of one of the friendly rangers.  There's water in the dammed lake, and we were told that many long horn sheep drink and lounge there, but all we saw of sheep were lots and lots of "pellets" they left behind. 

If you're planning on going to Joshua Tree at Christmas, and it's a weekend (as it was this year), you might want to plan the Park visit during the week, to avoid the 'local tourists'.  It makes it easier to negotiate the roads and hiking paths when there's fewer travelers on them, most of whom don't know where they're going, or how to read a map, or how to drive an American rental car or rental RV very well.  Spend most of your time in the Northern and North Western part of the park.  The Southern and Eastern part are fine for drive through, but if you live in the Sonoran Desert (as we do), this will be the least interesting part of the trip. Take plenty of water with you - it IS the desert, and wear warm clothing.  I was a little chilly in shorts on a 60F breezy day in the high desert.  Charge your digital camera batteries ahead of time, and get a full tank of gas before entering the park.  Enjoy.  =)

North Phoenix Moutains Are "Cute"

Compared to South Mountain's 3 ranges, the little buttes of North Phoenix Mountain Park are "Cute".  I took out 3 and a half hours of my morning and early afternoon to explore this often-seen, but-not-yet explored city park.  You can see North Mountain Park from the AZ51 and the northern Loop 101 - one could see it from the I-17, except they built the I-17 in a concrete canyon that makes it lower than the prevailing landscape, prone to flooding, and slightly claustrophobic when driving on the I-17.  While Shaw Butte rises to 2143 Ft elevation, it has a partially paved (broken asphalt) access road leading up to the summit where the radio towers are.  It's not really a "hike" if one is trudging up a paved road, even if it is at an incline.  Lots of fashionably dressed moms with fru-fru doggies, teenagers, and even AARP elderly persons with canes were ascending the summit.  In my Camelbak and Kelty water bottles, I was significantly over-prepared.

I parked at the main entrance off of 7th street, and began my ascent.  North Mountain National (Green trail, 1.6 miles), rises to 2104 feet elevation.  I then took the North Mountain Connector (Yellow trail, 0.7 miles) to the Shaw Butte trail (306, Blue trail, 4 miles), and back again over Yellow and Green to the car, to beat rush hour traffic home that starts around 2:30pm typically down the 51 and the I-10.  While the lack of a breeze, 65F, and 40% relative humidity made for a sweaty jogging hike, it was a beautiful day to be out and about in Phoenix.  Air Quality suffered, as I could barely see South Mountain's 3 ranges where I had my epic hike last Monday.

North Phoenix Mountain Park sits in a transition between low income barrio, and upper income suburbia.  Just to the south and west, are check cashing, pay-day-loans, the "Employment Security Office", dive bars, Carnicerias, and various Thrift stores.  I saw lots of shopping-cart people shambling at intersections just to the south of the park entrance.  Just to the north and east, are homes with lovely mountain views, security systems, and property values that are 3 to 10 times those to the south.  I've heard a great deal of reporting about property crime in the North Phoenix neighborhoods, and having hiked the picturesque park, I can see now, how closely juxtaposed the disparate neighborhoods really are.


I also saw my first road runner, outside of the Desert Botanical Gardens, up close and personal, about 2 meters away as I crested a ridge.  The young road runner (bigger than a big chicken) was busy hunting smaller prey, and paid me little attention.  Man, do the road runners look very Jurassic-Park-like in both their plumage and the way they stalk their prey.  I wish I could have whipped out my camera faster... timing is everything in photography.

30 minutes of yoga poolside, and I don't even feel achy.  =)  I think I am going to enjoy the 2nd half of life on this mortal coil more than the first half, now that I am feeling healthier, eating better, and not living hand-to-mouth, paycheck-to-paycheck as I did for most of the first half.

NIN Sin

Our Mazda 6 has no "Aux" port of tape player, so Dr Desert Flower burns CDs from her mega-all-encompassing-I-pod-device-thingie that has every song she's ever heard on it.  As we were driving back from Southern California yesterday this was playing in over the stereo, and has been in my head ever since.  Pretty Hate Machine, or Downward Spiral.... not sure which one I like more.

"Kommst Du mit?

"Wir gehen auf eine Party zu haben. Kommst Du mit?" 
Back in High School in NW Indiana, my German language text book was "Sport und Spiel" taught by the Octogenarian Frau Barritz - she actually broke her hip my Sophomore year, and died a few months later, but she sure did teach us how to say UMLAUTS - by SQUEEZING our cheeks together.  One of the memories burned into my brain from that class was a dialogue about having a party:
Girl: (who is named Gabi) "Wir gehen auf eine Party zu haben. Kommst Du mit?"

Boy: "Ja, Ich mag zu kommen."
Gabi: "Wer ist dein Lieblingstar?"
Boy:  "Udo Werner, er is mein Lieblingstar!"
Mutter (mother): "Gabi, das telefon klingt"
Boy: "Oh yea, Mathe kommt dran!" (great, Math is next)
...the dialogue never made much sense, but it burnt into my long term memory, and everytime there's talk of a party, Gabi and Udo come to mind.

So since we have no children living at home with us, and Dr. Desert Flower loves to throw parties, we're throwing a New Year's Eve party here in Phoenix.  You're invited.  If you don't know how to get here, look at the "About Me" portion of the left hand margin, and email me.  I'll send you directions.  We've already got about a dozen friends coming over - no kids, pets, smoking please.  We'll have food, drink, bubbly, and music.  

If you're flying in, let me know what flight number, and I'll pick you up at the air port - no rental car needed.  We've got a queen sized bed in the guest bed room, a futon, large couch, and an inflata-bed if you want to crash.

Thriving December Lavender, Mid Afternoon

The honeybees and hummingbirds can't resist this stuff.