A cactus in the backyard with a bee enjoying the one-day bloom.
I learned something nice the first week of my husband’s surgery. We have a lot of kind and thoughtful neighbors. My husband got phone calls. People called me for updates on his surgery.
Then our friends from Palm Springs who moved a mile from us, three months after we moved here, called to say they were bringing over a treat. It was a pork loin roast with apple chutney and polenta. The husband is following Chef Jean-Pierre and is getting some amazing results from the chef’s recipes. What a treat. We got several meals. And I didn’t have to cook.
You can check out Chef Jean-Pierre at his website HERE.
Then another friend/neighbor came over to visit my husband and sit and chat. He’s been having his own medical challenges. He’s had a variety of diagnoses the last few months from rare autoimmune disorders to the doctors not having a clue. He said he finally got a diagnosis and it was something quite simple. Iron Deficiency.
When I heard that, I told him I would make him pate. Post my DIL’s surgery and six months of chemo, she was suffering from Iron Deficiency too. Our kids and DIL were coming to visit and I found a recipe for pate that she said she could feel the iron rushing into her blood. It includes chicken livers, butter, scallions, garlic, capers, thyme, brandy and heavy cream.
He was thrilled and said he’d be over with his famous ribs and corn and we’d exchange goodies.
Now those are good neighbors!
Another cactus with a one-day bloom I captured.
A hummingbird sat still and posed so I could get a few shots.
What do your neighbors or friends do for you to help out when needed?
I noticed a squirrel sitting on a rock across the pool in the morning sun. I like how the sunlight highlights his fur.
Count Your Blessings was how our weekly zoom call ended. Every Thursday, I have a zoom call with about a dozen other people where we discuss the world’s geopolitical problems, religion, local politics and news. We were on a dour note talking about how the world has changed from when we were young whippersnappers and how on earth our country is going to survive with 38 trillion dollars in debt.
Then one member of the group, who is a former history teacher and Jewish, said some insightful things, like there’s nothing new under the sun. If we think things are bad now, remember our country survived the Great Depression, World Wars and people of his faith faced the Holocaust.
He said to count our blessings. He said he looks forward to every Thursday morning to have an in depth discussion with a group of intelligent people who want to make a difference. He reminded us that none of us are homeless, we’re in good health, we have our families and our homes. He said in the Jewish faith they say blessings all day long. His favorite blessings are for bodily functions. He gives blessings that God has given him a miraculous body that still works!
I googled blessings because this was something new to me. I learned that people of Jewish faith aim to say 100 blessings a day.
We left the zoom call with positive feelings and gratitude for the important things in our lives.
A squirrel on a bench in our backyard.
I’m grateful for my family, my home and the wild creatures around me.
I spotted a Gila Woodpecker feeding somebody in the Saguaro Cactus nest.
He’s been going in and out the past few days. Maybe he’s preparing the nest, or there’s already babies in there.
I scared him away with my camera.
What are you grateful for today? What do you think of counting your blessings?
One of my friends who lives near Santa Barbara suggested we have dinner at the beach for Labor Day. And for old time sakes, have a bonfire and make s’mores. She’s the one starting to build the fire. We gathered small pieces of driftwood for kindling and used some napkins and paper plates from dinner to fuel the fire. One couple brought fire wood.
We had a potluck dinner with two other couples. One brought homemade pizza and pasta salad. I brought goat cheese brie with crackers, sweet peppers with hummus, and roasted cauliflower and zucchini. The third couple brought skewers, marshmallows, graham crackers and assorted chocolate bars including Hershey’s and Ghirardelli dark chocolate bars in different flavors including caramel and orange.
The s’mores and bonfire brought back memories when we visited these friends for Spring Break when our kids were young. We’d camp in our tent at Carpinteria State Beach and enjoy campfires at night. We always had s’mores.
Camping at Carpinteria State Beach with the kids and Angus, a few years ago.
Here are photos from our Labor Day picnic at the beach:
It’s almost sunset.
The guys (hubby on the left).
The wives and my empty chair. Somebody had to take the photo and everyone was too comfy for a selfie.
Our friends set up a camping table behind the fire to hold our potluck dinner. The campfire brought back many memories with our family camping at the beach — even when I was a child. But also a memory of surprise one summer when my high school-aged kids planned a beach campfire with their swim team friends and I wasn’t invited!
The lights of Santa Barbara can be seen across the water. The train tracks are in the foreground. Time to say goodnight and goodbye.
Have you had campfires or camped at the beach? What are your thoughts on s’mores? What foods bring back memories to you?
Nine-month old Nina hanging outside in our friends’ backyard.
It was an arduous few days, but we’re on our way to getting settled into the cottage at the beach.
We packed a day early. My husband magically managed to fit into our car all our stuff — his office equipment, our suitcases, cooler and bags of stuff I didn’t want to buy on vacation, like condiments, paper products and our Keurig and coffee.
We hit the road early and dropped in on two clients, one for lunch as we passed through our old hometown.
Then we met long-time friends for dinner in their hometown. They were celebrating their 45th anniversary and we got to treat them. We hadn’t seen them in at least 10 years. It was so much fun to catch up and we talked late into the night.
We ended up driving close to six hours on day one. Day two was a little easier with only three hours to drive. Strangely, those three hours seemed to take all day long!
Then arriving at the cottage, we spent hours unpacking and getting organized, grocery shopping etc. I slept that night like the dead.
Our first morning began with a beach walk with our friends and Nina, the rottie. They invited us over for omelettes after the walk.
View from our friends’ backyard.
Now it’s time to relax! One challenge for me is we have more friends in our vacation area than we do in our new state of Arizona. Through COVID, I got used to having lots of downtime. I need to be balanced with our friends here and not over schedule our social life.
The last few days reminded me of Lenny Kravitz song “Fly Away.”
Do you need to have downtime in your weeks, too? Or can you be super social and enjoy it?
The stone lantern at the start of our exploration of Rohoen Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix which is designed in the hide-and-reveal style. I wrote about more exciting parts of the weekend with Japanese gardens, guests and fire HERE.
Our docent guide was in her late 70s, from Japan and was a foreign exchange student when she came to the US. She laughed and said she was into “rock and roll” and loved the West.
She explained the meaning of the garden’s name Rohoen:
The characters on the brochure are our gardens name, Rohoen (鷺鳳園), and represent the following:
鷺 Ro – Japanese word for Heron, a symbol of Himeji City. Shira Sagi Jou, or the White Heron, is the name of the famous Himeji Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. (Himeji City is the sister city of Phoenix.)
鳳 Ho – Japanese word for the mythical Phoenix bird.
園 En – Japanese word for Garden.
How amazing it is to have an authentic Japanese garden in the middle of a desert? The architect and designers from Japan had to find native desert plants and others that would thrive in a climate very different than Japan. Only 17 out of the 107 varieties of plants are Japanese.
From the Visitor’s Guide:
The Japanese Friendship Garden, Rohoen, is an authentic Japanese stroll garden designed by Mr. Nozomu Okita in the traditional miegkaure (見え隠れ) style. Miegakure, or hide-and-reveal design, is prevalent in Japanese stroll gardens where the entirety of the garden is never visible at once. Instead, the viewer is led to uncover intentionally hidden views of the landscape while strolling along its curved paths. New visual compositions are revealed as one moves through the various garden regions. Each rock, plant, and ornament has been selected and placed with skill and sensitivity.
Kasuga-doro (春日灯籠, stone lantern from Kasuga) are the style of lantern most frequently used in Japanese gardens. They originated at the Kasuga shrine in Nara, Japan’s ninth century capital. Our ten-foot tall Kasuga-doro is our main lookout point, where the garden’s four distinct landscapes are easily viewed. These include the low-lying grasslands, the woodlands, forested mountains, and stone beaches.
Out friends from our swim team days are into gardening. Especially Japanese gardens. They planned a trip to Phoenix from Palm Springs to visit the garden and stayed with us. They have flown to Portland, Oregon to see a Japanese garden. They are planning a trip next year to Japan to see more Japanese gardens and have invited us to join them. We’re thinking about it.
At their home, they have Japanese elements like olive trees pruned in the bonzai style. They are building a koi pond. Also, their amazing garden has mangos, peaches, mulberries, and other fruit and many vegetables.
Our guests brought us fruit from their garden:
Fresh peaches from Palm Springs. I never knew peaches grew there. I thought it was too hot.
Two of the basket of mulberries they brought us. I’ve never seen or tasted a mulberry before. They are super sweet and juicy, and filled with health benefits like vitamin C, iron, and mulberries help reduce cholesterol, blood sugar and cancer risk!
Here are photos from our tour:
Looking back at the lantern from across the koi pond.
A cormorant on a rock in the water.
Shachi, a mythical creature with a dragon head and fish body.
I learned that a true bonzai has to be in a pot. There were many trees in the garden that were pruned in the bonzai style.
One last beautiful view of the garden’s many shades of green. It was so special to visit the Japanese Friendship Garden with good friends.
Where have you visited Japanese gardens? What was your favorite part?
We’re having house guests for the weekend. I’ve been running around, cleaning, planning menus and buying food. Our good friends from Santa Barbara that we met as newlyweds are driving out to see us in Arizona.
Our husbands met each other during training in Princeton at the beginning of their careers with Merrill Lynch. They hit it off and since we all lived in California, they invited us to their apartment in Santa Barbara. We made the four-hour trek from Palm Springs one weekend.
I’ll never forget pulling up to the curb at the place of people I’d never met and my husband’s friend said “Right mates, let go!” (He’s from Australia.) We jumped in his car and headed to the marina where his wife was waiting for us on their boat.
Soon, I learned how to skirt the jib and follow other commands. We were in the midst of a race with the Santa Barbara Yacht Club. They asked if I needed a jumper which I had no idea meant a sweater. Other Aussie phrases I learned that weekend were “G’day mate” and “for sh*ts and giggles.”
That was the beginning of a friendship I treasure. I overheard the friend tell my husband, “The wives are getting along. It doesn’t always work out that way.”
We don’t have anything nearly as exciting planned for their visit as being in a yacht race. But we’ll enjoy each other’s company, hike some trails and check out the water level at our nearby lake.
What are your favorite things to do with friends?
How did you meet your best friends?
Do you have couple friends that both you and your spouse enjoy?
You can barely see my friend’s head over her husband’s back on one of our sailing trips.
Last week I wrote about our pets we adopted on Thanksgiving in years past. This year, we visited friends and met Buddy. I would have taken him home — if our friends allowed it. Buddy was a rescue dog who is seven years old. According to our friends, he was being abused by his owner. The owner’s daughter already had several dogs and cats and couldn’t keep him. I’m not sure how our friends found him, but they are fortunate they did.
He was the most delightful, happiest little creature I’ve ever met. He was so happy to greet us. Happy to sit by us. Thrilled to go for a walk. His entire little body vibrated with his happiness that he shared with us.
We’ve spent many Christmas and Thanksgivings with our friends of 30 plus years. They moved to Arizona before us and have a new home two hours south of us. It’s the first time we’ve visited them in their new home by Tucson and we laughed and shared stories the entire weekend — with Buddy enjoying every moment.
Here’s a view of the dramatic mountains near Tucson while out walking with Buddy.
Did you enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends? Who was “Buddy” during your weekend?
