The quail are always in our backyard. There are so many families with mom and dad and a batch of babies that I can’t keep track. One family has two babies. Another has 10 or 11 and there are families with every number in between.
The poppa quail usually finds a perch on a bench or rock to have a good view of his family while they scratch around for birdseed in the gravel, or visit the birdseed block.
A pretty momma quail mostly stays with her babies. I see the moms calling out to them to round them up and keep them close by.
Here’s a teenager quail. There are very few little itty bitties around anymore. They grow up so quickly!
Here’s a group of babies hanging out in the shade of a barrel cactus.
Three young ones making their move to the bird seed block.
This teenager has legs!
Another poppa quail on the lookout for his family.
I will miss these quail families when the babies are all grown up and they start their own family units. That will be next spring.
I ordered a canvas print of Red to fill in the space to the right of our fireplace. A neighbor who is an artist and an expert at hanging paintings helped me with it. There used to be a Remington statue on this cabinet. But she moved it to the other side of the fireplace and placed this plant under Red. i’m excited with how it looks!
I was so excited with the canvas print I ordered of Red that I ordered one of the sea glass photo above. I’m not sure where it will go. Maybe in the casita. I’m having fun creating art with my photography. It’s a new way for me to enjoy it!
Finally, I ordered a third print of a pen and ink drawing of mine. This is the house I lived in from second grade until I went off to college. While I was in college my mom had to sell our home after divorcing dad. She couldn’t afford the upkeep, electric and gas. It was sad to lose our beautiful home, but she ended up leaving Snohomish and moving to Olympia. She married someone she knew from her high school days who lived there.
Finally, I’ll leave you with a Bird Buddy video of the star of my show, Red. There’s a smudge on the lens that you may notice. I’m thinking that mean old thrasher did that! But it was easily cleaned.
A picture my son colored in second grade. Wait until you read the story he wrote about it below!
Funny how it takes guests staying with us for me to get motivated to clean closets. I successfully emptied the casita closet. It had turned into storage space for all sorts of stuff including blankets, air mattresses, slippers, Sorel snow boots, hiking boots and even a box full of canvases and paints. Now it holds an appropriate number of sheets and towels.
That felt so good. I continued my cleaning spree in my own closet.
My efforts filled a car with blankets, books, comforters, and more that made it to Kiwanis Thrift Store. It’s amazing how things can accumulate after three short years of being in our new home. To be honest, a lot of stuff that I stored in closets moved with us.
Next, I went through my bathroom drawers and threw out ancient makeup, cough drops, unnecessary ointments and mini lotions and shampoos from years of hotel stays.
I have a guest bedroom closet left to tackle and I’ll be done! But it has all the personal things like photo albums, boxes of photos from my mom including her notebooks and diaries. I have generations of things to go through. Like the photo above, I saved things my kids created, report cards, school awards and swim medals. I have my daughter’s set of Madame Alexander dolls from the Wizard of Oz. I think it was easier to clear out the big stuff — especially because there’s no emotional attachment.
Here’s the story that goes with the photo:
What are your thoughts about the story? FYI, “derend” is a unique spelling of turned.
I noticed a helicopter circling our backyard after our guests left Friday night. That was odd. When we moved here a little over three years ago, I felt so safe. We went to bed without locking our doors. Our doors were unlocked when we went shopping or on walks.
Now I make sure the doors are locked even while we’re home in the daytime.
That’s because there’s an organized crime ring, using high tech gadgets to scramble WiFi and cameras, breaking into homes.
From the AZ Central:
Thieves responsible for a series of dinnertime burglaries in Phoenix, Scottsdale and Paradise Valley have targeted homes when residents were away and under the cloak of darkness. Jewelry, cash and precious metals stolen from homes have been sold on the black market.
Scottsdale police said a total of 33 burglaries were confirmed in the city; 131 cases have been throughout the Valley since the first trend of burglaries started in 2019.
Lt. Jeffery Hawkins, Scottsdale’s expert on the topic, worked on recent surveillance operations that saw the burglars in action. He said crime tourists were believed to be exploiting a visa-less entry into the U.S. through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization program. The waives a visa for tourists and businesspeople like bankers who are entering the country for a short time.
“We don’t know who they are. We don’t know their family. We don’t know where and if they’ve done any criminal activity in their native country like Chile, we don’t have access to that information.” said Hawkins. “It’s a blank slate that we have to start putting together,” added Hawkins.
Hawkins said the crime tourists often ship stolen items to South America or to be sold in larger black-market rings on the West and East coasts.
“This crew is fast, elusive and professional,” said Hawkins, who described the burglars as “ghosts.”
Hawkins also added that police have found the group using Wi-Fi and cellular signal jammers, which can disable the signal to a home’s security system. The device, which consists of a green plastic brick with dozens of black antennae exiting the top, can invade a signal from 30 to 50 feet away.
When we lived downtown Palm Springs, we had a homeless guy living in our yard. I had my bicycle stolen and we had two break-ins. One of the things I liked best moving to Arizona was the sense of safety. I’m so disappointed that I feel afraid in my own home, have my doors locked and watch helicopters circling overhead.
Have you heard about dinnertime burglaries or crime tourists?
Beautiful Christmas present we received from my husband’s assistant. It’s of my son and DIL on their wedding day this Fall.
Our Christmas didn’t go as expected. I got sick. I’m still sick. I have a headache, low-grade fever, congestion and cough. I am miserable.
I called our friends we were supposed to join for prime rib dinner along with their four kids, spouses and sister and husband. I could barely squeak out my words and ended in a coughing fit.
No, they didn’t want me around.
So far, my husband is fine. Knock on wood.
My daughter was exposed to COVID her last day at work before her break. She was supposed to spend Christmas with her brother and sister-in-law (photo above.) She instead had to isolate.
My son and his wife stayed home alone for Christmas, because she is halfway through chemo and did not want to catch any bugs. It would delay her treatment if she did. I’m not sure that went over well with other family members, but their priority is her health.
All in all it was a sad little Christmas.
Here are few highlights from staying in bed:
Christmas Eve I watched “Meet Me in St. Louis” after my son said he introduced it to his wife for the first time. I love that movie. There’s one point in the movie where the husband comes home with a lavender tin of chocolates and the wife says “Oh! Louis and Sherry!” That was a chocolate and ice cream company that one of my husband’s clients owned. I had the lavender tin on a shelf in my kitchen in Palm Springs, because it’s so pretty.
Once when my aunt was visiting us in Palm Springs, my son asked if she wanted to watch TV with him. He was five or six years old. He turned on “Meet Me in St. Louis.” She was pleasantly surprised because she thought she’d be watching Barney.
I finished reading a book “Bees Don’t Get Arthritis” by Fred Malone, copyright 1974. A friend loaned it to me in August and called to ask when she could get it back. It’s interesting about how many doctors from the 1930s on treated arthritis with bee venom or honey with pretty good results. Many doctors tried to get it approved as a legitimate treatment after having held trials, but somehow it never made it mainstream. Maybe big pharma doesn’t want something so simple?
I watched the mini-series “Black Cake.” I have one episode left. It’s very good but doesn’t follow the book exactly. I wrote a review of the book HERE. It hasn’t added things, but the TV version put more emphasis on things than I felt was necessary from the book.
I finished Lisa See’s “Peony in Love” which I’ve struggled with. The ending picked up. Then I started reading this one:
Because I’m not feeling that well, I put down the book above and used Audible to start Ann Patchet’s “Tom Lake.” I’m really enjoying it and I can lay in bed and listen.
What were some highlights of your Christmas?
How do you decide if you have a cold, flu or COVID — besides testing for COVID?
The entrance to our old home. Our homeless man, who believed he bought our house, slept on the steps.
The back yard, which had our front door, once you walked through the gate above.
Sometimes I miss my old home. We lived there for 28 years. I had my babies there and raised them until they went off to college. I never thought I’d leave. But then COVID hit and my husband worked remotely from the Master bedroom. I worked remotely from our son’s bedroom.
Prices were going crazy high because people were fleeing the big cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Our town offered more space and much lower prices compared to the city life. My husband believed it was time to make our move to Arizona.
When I feel like I miss the old homestead, I read my emails. Every morning I get a “Personalized Spot Crime” report for my old neighborhood.
It’s gotten so much worse since we moved three years ago in December.
Here are a couple examples from my inbox:
In the 28 years we lived there, we had very little crime. My bicycle was stolen from the carport, which didn’t lock at the time. We had a homeless man who slept on the steps of the archway.
Oh, we had someone break into the home from the hospital mental ward a few blocks away wearing his “robe” with a bare behind. My daughter was the one who ran into him in the kitchen. She was in third grade and named him Hobo Joe. My husband threw him out of the house and called the police. They caught him trying to enter the house across the street.
But through 28 years, those were off events. Nothing like the crime I see reported on a daily basis now.
Once, after flying home from Seattle visiting family, I had to take a Lyft home. My husband had COVID. Anyway, the Lyft driver told me he was once a deputy sheriff in my neck of the woods. He said the number one crime was speeding. I sure hope it stays that way! It makes me appreciate my new home and where I live.
I had crime on my mind after a run in with the Mexican police on our recent getaway. If you missed it, I wrote about it HERE.
Is there crime in your neighborhood? Do you feel it’s gotten worse or better through the years?
With the kids on their way to visit, my husband and I kept our promise to quarantine. The days at home gave me new appreciation for life in our backyard. (I wrote about the need to quarantine HERE.)
“Hey, it’s not that bad!” were my famous words I’d tell my swim coach after a hard set. We emblazoned the saying on t-shirts after the coach joked that he should advertise his Masters with my expression. (I wrote about not giving up — whether it’s swimming, fishing or writing HERE — complete with t-shirt pics.)
I discovered staying home “is not that bad” — and I that I love and appreciate my backyard.
The following are views that make me enjoy living where I do:
I watched three Harris Hawks land in a tree across the wall. They love to hang out there. Then one by one, they flew into our yard. I lost sight as they flew over our roof.
Here’s a video of one flying I captured in slow motion:
Look at the sparkle in our pool.
Here’s a young cardinal visiting my Bird Buddy until a Gila Woodpecker takes over.
I was standing outside and these quails didn’t seem to care that I was nearby.
I can’t wait to see my son, daughter-in-law, her brother and my daughter!
What are your favorite things or views from your home?
