Our 80 degree weather with sunshine vanished. We had one day and night of rain and cool temps — back into the 50s. Then yesterday was a cloudy cool day. But I enjoyed the beauty of the clouds and will share them with you. Most often our days are filled with bright blue skies.
I walked into the backyard to get this photo of the sunrise among clouds. It rained during the night and the world smelled like creosote.This is our front yard during yesterday’s cloudy day. The previous owner loved gardening and he was quite proud of his cactus garden. When we first looked at the house, my husband confessed he hated cactus due to a run in with one when he was young. I think cacti are growing on him now.A morning walk view in our neighborhood.More clouds.
I’ve decided cloudy days are beautiful and they add a nice contrast to our regular sunshine. I want it to warm up though so I can jump back into the pool and swim laps.
Do you like sunny or cloudy days more? Why?Do you think a sunny day makes you feel more hopeful or happier?
Ruth Hardy Park, Palm Springs with Mt. San Jacinto in the background. The park I visited every day for 28 years.
My days of mothering my kids is over — at least for now. I opted for a one-way ticket from Oakland to my old home town Palm Springs where I was picked up by my husband. We had dinner with friends at our favorite restaurant Spencer’s and spent the night at my dad’s. We drove home together to Arizona today.
This is the first time I’ve returned since moving a year and two months ago. Looking out the plane window at Mt. San Jacinto, the landmark of Palm Springs, I felt emotional. I wasn’t expecting that.
We met dear friends for coffee, then my husband and I walked around the park that was blocks from our old home. Every morning for decades I walked around the park. I spent hours with the kids at the park when they were young. I thought I’d see some familiar faces, but they were all new.
Then we walked around our old neighborhood and our house.
The hedge outside our old home.Outside the hedge and backyard is our ponytail palm. That’s me next to it. We brought it with us two-feet high in a pot when we moved into this house close to 30 years ago. .
I couldn’t believe our ponytail palm. It was two-feet tall when we moved into our old home. Think how many other things changed in our lives during that growth of that plant during the years there. We thought about moving it to Arizona with us, but thought better of it. It might not have liked the change or the trip in the moving van. It felt like leaving a part of the family behind. My husband had this palm before he met me. It sat in a pot in our first home and an apartment before that. When someone dug a ponytail palm out of our yard, we decided to let this guy free from its pot by the pool and planted it in the spot of the stolen one. In ten years it grew from two feet to 10 feet. Look at it now!
This was taken right before we moved a little over a year ago.
After visiting with friends, walking through my old haunts, I got through my emotions. It’s a beautiful neighborhood and town, but I can go back and visit anytime.
Have you returned to visit a place you lived or vacationed before? Have you been emotional about it or not?
We played a lot of ping pong this past weekend. Perhaps too much. We also ran errands like going to Costco, looked at art galleries and planned a trip to the Musical Instrument Museum.
It was Sunday afternoon when we really got into ping pong and didn’t stop playing. We had completed three matches, where someone needs to win three out of five games. We were pretty much tied on each game and the matches went all five games.
So that was a total of `15 games played when we decided to play a fourth match. All of a sudden the world came crashing down and I was laying on the concrete.
It scared me so badly. My right hand and knee took the brunt of the fall. I literally was trying to return the ball to the right of me when I fell. I think what happened was my shoe got stuck in a space between concrete tiles. The patio is very bumpy and uneven.
Sitting on the sofa with my knee wrapped in a cold compress and my hand clutching a ziploc bag of ice, I was trembling.
If this is what getting old is going to be like, no thank you! I don’t want to be afraid of falling while playing a game of ping pong! I know I need to get back out there and play. But maybe be more aware of my feet or wear different shoes. Do they make ping pong shoes?
Have you ever had an experience where you got injured or fell unexpectantly? What happened?Did you feel unnerved?
Sometimes I’d prefer to stay home and play ping pong with my husband.
Today we are going with a couple in our neighborhood to a local happy hour and art show. They came to our party Saturday and invited us over for the Superbowl. I’m a little uneasy today, thinking about the evening ahead.
I think it’s because we are so used to being home alone. Also, moving from a town I lived in for 30 plus years to a new area makes it challenging to be social.
I was reading the Wall Street Journal and discovered my feelings are not uncommon at all. The article was called “Why Friendships Feel Weird Right Now” By Alex Janin. She said that “new tensions and discomfort are emerging as people socialize more.”
Here are a few excerpts:
We’re getting together with friends again but it can be awkward.
Two years of getting together less often—or not at all—with friends in-person have created new tensions in relationships, psychologists say. We’re more sensitive to slights and we’re out of practice navigating conflicts. Being left out, even by accident, can make us feel more insecure.
Less in-person interaction can make us feel lonelier, which can cause insecurity and over analysis of our interactions with the people we care about, says Marisa G. Franco, a psychologist based in Washington, D.C., who studies friendship. An innocuous delayed response to a text message or the lack of an invitation to a social event can balloon into something worse.
“When we’re lonely, we are hypervigilant to social threats,” says Dr. Franco. “Our minds go into overdrive overthinking things, thinking a friend is rejecting us, or reinterpreting events in our friendships more negatively.”
One of two charcuterie platters at our party. One of my son’s girlfriend’s sisters created this masterpiece.
Saturday afternoon the big day finally arrived. After shopping and trying out recipes and living on finger foods for a week, our violist and one of her sisters arrived.The guests came over in the early evening and I realized we had too much food: spanakopita, a Costco-sized shrimp platter to feed 20 (I’d say 60) and meatballs that turned out superb thanks to my fellow bloggers’ suggestions. Add to that two huge charcuteries with my favorite brie and Humboldt fog cheeses and my husband’s favorite stilton with mango and ginger.
We arranged chairs in the back yard for Alexandra Simpson to play. Here are a series of short videos from the concert. The evening was divine. After the guests left and I cleaned up, I sat and drank wine and chatted with Allie and her sister Brett. I think next to the concert, that was a highlight of the night.
As the sun began to set Allie’s ipad lit her in a soft glow. She uses the ipad for her music.
Here’s a music video that dropped Friday with Allie accompanying Chuck Prophet in “Meet Me at The Roundabout.”
That was the highlight of my weekend. What was your favorite thing about your weekend?
Things are opening up in our neighborhood. Finally. I got a call last night from a neighbor who said the social clubs are reopening and would I be interested in joining coffee club or wine club.
I’ve already said yes to book club. Our first meeting is in March and we have been assigned a book called “The Arctic Fury” by Greer MacAllister. Has anyone read it? What did you think? I haven’t heard of the book or the author. It’s historical fiction which I enjoy.
As for the other two clubs, I’ve decided to jump in and give them a try. Wine club is for couples, and since my husband sits in his office all day, I thought it might be good to get him out of the house, too. But, after accepting the invitations, I found out that wine club has NOT reopened. But I could be chairperson and open it if I wanted. Nope.
It was a bright sunny, clear day for our morning walk. And not too cold. It’s been in the low 40s and windy lately which is too cold for my blood. But today was spectacular. Just the right temperature. There’s a couple who lives around the corner and they have a white lab and a black lab. The dogs can’t wait to say hi to us. The owners are friendly too. Another neighbor stopped to chat. Normally, we walk and wave without talking.
People seem happier lately and eager to socialize. It’s kind of hard to get back in the groove of social interaction, but I’ve decided to put myself out there and see if I like the clubs or not.
Also, it’s warm enough for me to sit my zero gravity recliner with my new book and read!
I think it’s the webinar about what makes you happy that’s pushing me out of the house. If you missed it, I wrote about it HERE.
Have you noticed an improvement in people’s attitudes lately? What changes have you seen around your neighborhood?
I’m glad I found this photo from Christmas pre COVID, December 2019 to be exact. My son is a master at creating delicious and gorgeous charcuteries. (It only took my two years to pronounce that word). I will study how he put it together and try to make something similar.
Saturday we’re hosting his girlfriend’s sisters and one has offered to play viola for us. She suggested we could invite some friends. I immediately thought of our fellow California refugees who live a mile away. I then invited two couples I met working on the HOA newsletter.
I counted my RSVPs and my original thought of four to six people has turned into 16. My husband keeps asking me what we’re going to serve. I keep telling him charcuterie, veggies, chips, dips, shrimp platter, several hot appetizers.
“What about meatballs?”
“Okay. Meatballs, too.”
We went to Costco a week ago and they once again had samples after two years of not allowing them. Yay! We tried a number of different bites, and bought a couple for our upcoming party.
Here’s the stitch. My husband wants something with puff pastry. He doesn’t want me to cook. I had gotten some ideas from my Santa Barbara friend, who caters parties and makes her spanakopita and other delicious bites — using her own puff pastry. She gave me several ideas where I could buy puff pastry already made and cut it into rectangles or triangles, bake it, and fill it with savory or sweet fillings.
My husband said no. I know he’s trying to save me from wearing myself out and putting too much time and effort into this. He suggested it would be easier for me to pop things ready made into the oven and put them in a chaffing dish or platter and let it go.
For the past three or four days, we’ve been living on appetizers. Everything looks good on the box, but I wanted to know how quickly they cook and how they taste. By the way, Kroger’s makes a delicious spanakopita. Costco has really good spring rolls — and you can order a shrimp platter from them, too. We tried meatballs in the crockpot but didn’t like the sauce I found on Allrecipes. There are some things that I really like but don’t think will work for a party, like my favorite soup dumplings with pho.
Last night I was scouting for more appetizers and I swear my car took over and stopped at Burger King on the way home from the grocery store. I ended up with two Whoppers for dinner.
Any suggestions for easy appetizers? What are your favorite finger foods?Do you have a delicious sauce for meatballs in the crock pot?
Here’s the link to Alexandra Simpson’s website who will be playing viola for us. Her website has her bio and videos of her playing. She’s visiting Arizona to play with Kygo, who I never heard of before her upcoming visit. Have you heard of Kygo?
