Life at the Lake

 

I guess I’m just a sucker for taking pictures, but then again, I’m easily entertained and capable of boring everyone else. I haven’t seen any interesting birds, and none who wanted to pose, so you’re spared bird pictures. I did take some mesquite pictures. All my friends and relatives know I’ve really gone around the bend. I’m wanting to educate my new friends who aren’t familiar with New Mexico. This is a picture of my one and only mesquite in my front yard. It has really gotten big. I need to encourage it to grow taller, but for right now I’m enjoying its almost perfect symmetry.

This is a close-up of the buds of future mesquite beans. I should have gotten a picture sooner. You can almost see the beans, as opposed to earlier when they looked like fuzzy flowers. When I was in Arizona, I got a picture of the pods on an ironwood tree, and they looked similar.

These are some gourds that I collect on Skyline.

You know a person is really losing it when they take a picture of his/her breakfast. Norma was always taking pictures of food when we were cooking, so her brother, a chef, could see what we were doing as we entertained.

As soon as the wind quits blowing, I’ll find some more interesting things to share. Promise.

Out and About

 

Yesterday was the perfect day to be out and about. We finally got a reprieve from the wind. I also renewed my subscription with XM and wanted to be in the car listening to Watercolors and taking pictures. And, of course, the dogs wanted to go for a ride. First, I had to gas up, OMG, and then stop at Pat’s for a large diet coke. I’ve been trying to decide whether the water level in the lake is the same or lower than last year at this time. Right now, I think it’s lower, and I haven’t heard any promises of abundant runoff from up north. The people in the know are predicting that we are in the beginnings of a drought. I sure hope they’re wrong. We’re only 4 or 5 years into the recovery on our last one.

This is a shot of Dam Site Marina and the Butte looking directly north. They are working on fixing the old road, and the detour afforded me this shot.

Here are two pictures of the boat ramp at the Marina del Sur launch area. Gary and I used to take off work early on Friday afternoon to sit and watch relationships and marriages go up in smoke as weekenders put their boats in the water.

The ramp is this long and wide to accommodate the traffic and fluctuation of the water levels.

This is the marina complete with gas tanks (another OMG), store, and slips. We had our boats here for about 10 years. I always said that it was the most expensive country club that I ever belonged to. Oops! English teacher ended a sentence with a preposition.

A week or so ago when I was down at Percha Dam, I neglected to share these pictures. This is a great campground in among the huge cottonwoods.

This Percha Dam on the Rio Grande. I understand the fishing is great here.

These are some trees on the birding trail where someone decided, a long time ago, to put some bird houses.

These are my two latest bird pictures taken in my yard.

A Crissal thrasher:

A black-backed male gold finch:

I’m not sure whether a birder who is more experienced than I am would be able to tell if I identified these birds incorrectly just from my pictures. I wonder what I could put in the bird seed to make them slow down, so I can get better pictures. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Weekend fun

What a full agenda! Friday evening, Cindi came over so that I could give her some goodies I brought from AZ, plus a bottle of wine which just happened to be her favorite. Cindi took care of the house and my mail for almost 5 months. Talk about a great friend. Then we went to the Club for fish and crazy conversation with the mayor and Cindi’s other golfing buddies.

Saturday Tammy, Bob, Skyler and Mark came down from ABQ. To honor the occasion, I invited Al Wilkinson, a gentleman who knew Tammy as a toddler in Sacramento, and my friend Deb Peters for a BBQ. It was a really fun evening of food and drink. Here’s a picture of Tammy and Al.

 

This was taken on the front patio. Some of my other attempts at pictures there didn’t work as well. For that reason, we don’t have a picture of Deb.

Al, Sky, and Mark, Sky’s boyfriend, posed in the sunroom.

After Deb and Al left, my Minnesota neighbors showed up. Bill and Cheryl have had the house across the street for at least 10 years, but only come down a couple times a year. They live in Eden Prairie which is one of the premier subdivision outside the Twin Cities. This is Sky and Cheryl with daddy Bob in the background.

Even though this was a rather late evening, Tammy and I did the 3 mile walk in the morning and then we all went to breakfast at the Club. For Christmas, I got Sky some cowboy boots and she wore them so I could see them. I surprised her with a cowboy hat to go with. Her are some pictures showing off her new apparel.

 

The first picture was taken on the balcony at the Club. The wind had just started to blow and you can see part of the golf course in the background. The blue shirt is Mark admiring the course. The second picture is in my formal backyard complete with bird bath and bird feeder (not in the picture) and my purple ash trees which are just starting leaf. The whole weekend was a memorable time.

St. Patrick’s Day Revisited

 

Miracle of miracles! Norma resurrected the pictures somehow from her camera and sent them today.  So to recap the day: the singles group, just five of us, met at The Beaches, a bar at Coyote Wash just across I-8 from the rv park.

Brock and I were the only ones to eat since we didn’t stop for lunch: elected to start celebrating the day early. Brock has his Irish language school shirt on. Mine is from Alagodones. It just happens to fit for the day.

On the left is my friend June from Minnesota. We did a lot of traveling and shopping in Yuma and Mexico. The big smiley gentleman is Quinten, a Canadian from BC, and currently spending a lot of time with my friend Norma.

Norma is standing between Brock and me. She was really the leader of our singles group and the first to fall into a relationship. Well, I guess that’s what it’s all about.

This guy was so obviously into the festivities, and I was so intrigued by his hat, I asked him to pose with me for a picture. I don’t think he was feeling any pain.

Here’s Quinten giving me a good-bye hug. I left for home the next day. Is he BIG, or am I shrinking? It was probably the best St. Patrick’s Day had in years.

Time for Birding

 

I guess I’m more of a photographer than a birder. I’ve sent these pictures to my friend Brock, because I can’t identify this one bird or the gray baby bird. The books describe birding as relaxing, and it certainly is that. I went for my three mile walk early this morning, but I found my “mystery” bird down by the Rio Grande in one of my favorite weekend camping spots: more walking. That’s good.  As a testimony to the beauty of the spot, there were a lot of campers and fishermen down there. I didn’t take their pictures. This guy is a red house finch. He was eyeing the birdfeeder in my backyard.

I know, three pictures of the same bird is ridiculous, but he wouldn’t quit posing.

This guy is so cool, but it wasn’t easy holding the camera steady for these pictures.

This is clearly a baby bird. He is so sweet. He obviously doesn’t have his markings yet.

Here’s my red bird house which is outside the window to  my office. I haven’t seen a single bird approach it. They absolutely destroyed last year’s feeder. Maybe they don’t like the red.

I’m continuing watering bushes and roses. I guess I’ll get into pruning and fertilizing this coming week. The weather is great except when it gets “breezy”, but I’m a native; I know how to work around that.

Home Again

I was hoping to have one more post of my RV friends, because on St. Patrick's Day we met at the Beaches for Happy Hour. Norma took a lot of pictures of me, June, Brock, and Quinten. We traded off operating the camera, so  Norma got in a few also. The  next day Norma went to a card-making convention in Tucson, and someone took the memory card out of her camera and erased all those pictures. Oh, darn! I hate it when that happens.

I arrived home Saturday around lunch time after spending the previous evening in Lordsburg. I unloaded a lot of stuff, and checked out the house. Everything seems to be in order. Marty and Sue arrived around lunch time on Sunday. We divided our time between unloading, (Marty) checking out the boat, and visiting.

While Sue was changing the music, the boys decided she should play with them. We had dinner at the Inn, and visited with Nancy, the bartender. Everything seems to be the same. Then we went home and got some shots of the full  moon.

On Monday, we thought we'd take a short trip on the lake, but the wind came up sooner than predicted, so we decided to go 4-wheeling on the beach. Oh Lord! We got stuck even in 4 wheel drive. So Cindi sent Tom Stroup to pull us out with his "crawl" jeep. After that I took pictures of the terns (sea gulls) and the shoreline. I didn't get any pix of Marty crawling around the Rave pushing sand away from the wheels; the camera was in the glove box. Rats!

Parker got to play on the beach. We weren't brave (or stupid enough) to bring three dogs. Marty posing Parker.

There was quite a bit of damage to the native bushes during the January freeze. Everyone's oleanders suffered (including mine) along with the grandmother tongue cacti and the century plants. So I've been watering non-stop and plotting my pruning efforts. Needless to say, I've got a ton of yard work to do. On my walk this morning, a beautiful bird stopped right beside me in a mesquite tree and asked to have his picture taken. I looked it up in my bird book, and it's a pyrrhuloxia, a "desert cardinal."

Did I get lucky with that bird, or what? These lake pix are just a very small portion around the corner from Jet Boat Cove which is about two blocks from my house.

I filled my bird feeder and replaced the one the birds destroyed, and found a bunch of yard stuff at Dollar General today, so I guess I'll be entertained for a few days.

Goodbye Party

Last Saturday afternoon, the singles group had a farewell party, because a lot of people are leaving this weekend and the coming week. We had a wonderful menu: bbq'd loin of pork, spinach salad, potato salad, carrots and parsnips, all sorts of crunchy veggies, great garlic bread and probably some stuff that I'm forgetting. Margaritas were on the house. Notice Curtis the two-fisted drinker.

A candid shot of Barb and Dale.

This is Carrie who is relaxing on the recliner trying to overcome an ear infection.

This is my friend June. We did a lot of traveling to Yuma and Mexico together, along with hauling me and Tux to the groomer. One great lady!

From left to right, this is Sid, Bud, Bernie and Marv. All of these guys have been great fun thought out the season. The one person that I didn't get a picture of was Marian. Other people who took pictures have not shared theirs with me, so I'm at a loss.

This is Quinten and Norma. They seem to have become close Canadian friends.

I might add that this shindig was held at Norma's park model, and spent the previous evening cleaning veggies and drinking wine. Norma and I had a wonderful time! Here's pretty pictures of our food.

Last but not least, here are the cooks: Quinten and Dale.

On March 7, I moved over to the site that I thought I wanted for next year, but after being here for a week, I'm having second thoughts. The up-side is that the orange trees are blossoming, and I wish I could share the fragrance; however, here are two pictures of the blooms.

That was the last of pictures. I guess we are having an impromptu St. Patrick's Day celebration at the pub across the highway. If any memorable pictures result from that I will post. Other than that, I expect to be home shortly.