Sunday outing at the Southern Arizona Water Color Guild Gallery

After spending the morning sitting on the front porch, waving to neighbors as they pass by, I took a short walk in the neighborhood, appreciating my surroundings.  In the mid-morning light the flowers were partially shaded, but their colors were brilliant reds, yellows, and purple.  I saw a few butterflies, two hummingbirds; and multiple grasshoppers popping across the sidewalk. Our cat, Gray, kept going back and forth from the cool house to the warming patio and eventually settled on a soft chair in the backyard.

When Mark got home from his morning meeting and visiting a friend, we drove to Ft. Lowell Park and walked around the small lake, viewing the egret fly, the ducks paddle, and the turtles poke their heads just above the water ripples.  Continuing our walk, we followed the path through the pecan groves which are beginning to shed their nuts and finished with a cooling stroll among the cottonwoods.  Since this weekend is also the Open Studio Tour for our local artists, before returning home I wanted to visit the gallery for the Southern Arizona Watercolor Guild  http://southernazwatercolorguildcom  . 

Yesterday, we spent time on the westside (after I did my downtown library happiness community conversation), visited the Mission Gardens, and enjoyed an early dinner at the Tucson Food Truck Round-Up www.tucsonsbirthplace.org  www.tucsonfoodtruckroundup.com.  Then we went to 2nd Saturdays in downtown Tucson and thoroughly enjoyed the music by The LoBros www.theLoBros.com.  Thus, having gone to the westside and downtown yesterday, I knew I didn't have the legs to do those galleries, so a short visit to the WaterColor Guild's Gallery, matched with light lunch and shopping at Whole Foods pretty much took up the early to mid-afternoon. 



Back home, it's catch-up on the computer time and then watching PBS' Masterpiece Theatre where I am totally hooked into the latest classic, Paradise.  What fun to imagine how London might have been when shopping for the new middle class meant buying fabrics and lovebirds from Paris. 



Fantasies are fun and as I reflect on today's outing, I realize how happy I am today where fantasy and reality can intermingle and bring me joy.

Crest Ranch Little Free Library

A few months back I wrote about my unsuccessful attempt to host a Little Free Library in my front yard.  Although several neighbors appreciated the effort, someone complained to our HOA and so I was asked to remove it.  I did, but not without protest (anyone who knows me well, would know this to be consistent with my personality and passion).  Fortunately, I had supportive neighbors who joined me in convincing the Board that something they could support should be explored. 

So we formed a working group that met several times over the summer, enjoying mini-potlucks and expanding neighbor-to-neighbor relationship building.  Several of us took on specific tasks--one did the sign's design work, another wrote the sign text, a couple of us collected books and magazines, a husband built the bookcase and another toted it down to the community pool in his truck.  There were bumps along the way but we got it done.  Now the question will be how/if our other neighbors use the Little Free Library and support it with consistent donations.  Time will tell.  So, for those of you interested in the mostly-happy ending to this story, here are photos. 

P.S. If the LFL is supported, our HOA may consider a permanent, more artistic structure such as other neighborhoods have in Tucson and around the USA and the world.  At that point, our LFL may become "officially" registered, but for now, we have what we have...and I, for one, am glad for it!

 

Yours truly and another stalwart neighbor.

 

 

 

The Crest Ranch Little Free Library, circa September, 2013

 

Saying Goodbye to good neighbors

One of the joys of last year's "sitting on the front porch with Gray" was our discovery of the abundance of good neighbors in our neighborhood.  Austin and Lynda were completing their medical residencies at the UA Med. Center when we met them, and they had adoptied Yogi, a golden retriever senior-dog who wasn't bothered by the new arrival of our cat.  Austin and Lynda took early morning and evening turns in walking Yogi and sometimes we matched steps on a walk.  I loved burrowing my hand into Yogi's soft red-gold fur and he seemed to like me for doing it, too.  After we bid adieu to Lia, our own senior-dog after 13 years, in February, Yogi became my surrogate-from-afar dog.  So, as their family departure drew near ( they now have new jobs in Seattle, Washington where Austin has family), I knew that saying good-bye to Yogi wouldn't be easy.  I am so grateful to Lynda, because, on her way to drop off keys to their landlord, she made time to come by with Yogi so we could say good-bye. 

Here we are:  smiling, but through my smile a piece of my heart is torn and going up the coast with this loving threesome.