Merry Christmas - Happy New Year!!
It is 8:30 pm, I just got back from a nice half hour swim and 5 minute hot tub. I have been trying to get at least a half hour of exercise in every day just in case we don't get out on the bikes or for a hike.  It is pretty easy to do, really no excuse, there is a gym, 3 pools and numerous aerobics and water aerobics classes daily.  I have discovered that the indoor pool is not busy in the evenings so I can do lane swimming without running into anyone and it is warmer than the outside pools - especially on exit.  It is only about a block to the pool so even the walk home is not bad as the swim and hot tub really warm you up!

Since the last blog we have had pretty decent weather for the most part - considering it is December. This week temperatures are above normal which is awesome!

This is my Christmas decoration - which has a string of battery operated lights that come on at 5 pm and stay on for 6 hours. The birds have been loving the feeder and bird bath.  Yesterday we were sitting out with our neighbors and I was wearing a bright coral top with flowers, a little hummer came within 2 feet to check them out.  Totally cool!
It is really hard to feel Christmassy at all here really, doesn't seem like it without family or snow (not that I miss snow!)

We sat out and watched the annual Christmas parade with some of our neighbors.  It is really fun and everyone has a good time.  They even throw out treats, Linda ended up with a tootsie roll in her drink.

I did not do any Christmas baking but the Christmas angel's kept on dropping of trays of amazing things!  There was another tray full too but I forgot to take a picture and somehow it disappeared.  I tell you , the ladies around here really know how to bake!  Thanks so much to Glenda and Terry, Maureen and Glen and Angel and Bob.  We spent Christmas eve with a group of people, lots of them from our block that we knew from last year.  It was a super fun time and the first time ever I have sat out until 10:30 pm on Dec. 24th
Our friends, the Taylor's, came for a visit on December 17 so we spent a lot of time sightseeing and visiting.  We were lucky to have them here for Christmas and we cooked the full meal deal at the place they were staying as it is a lot bigger than our motorhome.  We had a relaxing day, cooking easy style, going for a walk and sitting in the sun and some fun games after supper.

These are pictures of the Mormon temple all decked out beautifully.  We went and walked around there after a trip to the Organ stop pizza.

These are pictures from the trip we took out to Tortilla Flats.  It is so beautiful out there, I never get sick of looking at the Superstition Mountains.  As you can see it was a cloudy day and there was wind as well.  None of us had dressed warm enough so there was a bit of shivering going on and we did not stop for ice cream.

 Not sure how I got Don to church.  LOL

We did stop at a fun restaurant that has these silly things in the washroom which of course Jocelyn and I had to take pictures of.  She made up this cute little collage for me.

These pictures are from a 3 mile hike Don and I took at Usery park.  The sky was beautiful and it was a pleasant day for a hike.  In the bottom one you can see a gila woodpecker going to town on the saguaro cactus.  Since then we both have got proper hiking boots and awesome comfy socks.  We also have maps for lots of hikes both walking and biking.

 This group of pictures is at the Gilbert Riparian area.  We love it here, there are all kinds of areas to walk and bike.  It never disappoints in the bird sighting area either.  These cormorants were out sunning.

 this is some kind of Heron.

 These were the biggest, fattest Canada geese I have ever seen.  Seems they should be all skinny after all that flying.

Turtle - just sunning on the rocks.

One of these things is not like the others.

These 2 pictures are taken in the area adjacent to the Riparian area - we loaded up the bikes and went there for about an hours ride yesterday.  The first picture is the canal which is paved so a great place to ride along, the sea shells are everywhere right beside the canal.  I guess some sort of little sea creatures must live in the canals and get picked out and eaten by the birds.

 It was a great spot to ride and we saw such diverse things along the way. It is such a mix of rural and urban, green space and nature area all rolled into one.  Look at the size of this house!!

 And then we would see animals and hear chickens.

 Even a llama and a donkey and some pot bellied pigs and some goats.

 And some birds too - see the herons perched up there?

There's one close up.
Then when we were almost back to where the car was parked there was a nice path so we followed that for a while too.  Don found a nice place to try and do some metal detecting.

 That's Don, and beside him a beautiful mesquite tree.

 This is an aloe of some sort I believe.  This thing was like 8 feet tall.

Mountains in the background and a palo verde tree on the side.  Such a beautiful area for bike riding.

 Can you imagine getting a dozen huge yummy fresh oranges for $3?? 

Jocelyn or Wes took this of us in front of our motorhome.
We are looking forward to Kylie coming in January.  I have signed up for Spanish lessons which start in 2 weeks, also I have signed up for an iPad course.  I realized it is not just the iPad that is dumb, probably it is mostly me so I should really find out all the things I can do on it.  Also I have met the ladies that run the sewing club.  Maureen has offered to get together some scraps so I can make a casserole carrier.  Then as we got to talking and her showing me her amazing quilts I have decided to make a lap quilt.  I have made quilts before but she is a real expert and I am lucky that she will share her knowledge with me.  Hoping I can still work in the wood carving class and of course the bird walks.  There is also a rock class . . .   hmmmm

And we're back in Mesa . . . 

We did manage to take in the Tohono Chul  in Tucson-said to be one of the top 10 botanical gardens in the world before we headed to Mesa.  Although of course there were not a ton of flowers this time of year, I was surprised at how many we did get to see!

There were a ton of these pretty little primroses.

 I thought it was just beautiful, but Don thinks once you have seen a cactus they all look the same.  I never get sick of looking at them.

Pretty sure, I have NEVER seen a heart shaped cactus before

This saguaro had a really interesting crown.

 There was a huge pomegranate tree

 This bush had the most interesting foliage  - it is called a sandpaper bush

 Peek a boo!!

 It was very exciting to see this little pyrroluxia - he was very well camouflaged except for his pretty red feathers.

 They had a few feeders out so there were lots of finches.

 I thought the gold ones looked like gold-finch wanna bee's but turns out they are lesser goldfinch.  They sure brightened up the branches with their bright yellow feathers.

 One of the most interesting parts of this botanical garden was what they called the Ethnobotnical garden.  Basically this is the study of the relationship between people and plants. The natives would grind the pods of the mesquite trees (not these red ones - but they are super pretty so I had to take a picture).  I tried grinding the pods and tasting the flour.  The flour is very tasty, sort of spicy like cinnamon.  You can buy the flour on line - gluten free!!

 This is a cross section (dried) of a saguaro cactus.  Of course it has shrunk up quite a bit as it dried but it was interesting to see what the insides look like.  The white part is normally slimy and moist.  The gila woodpeckers make a hole in the cactus and pick out the white part. They then build huge nests called boots - that's what that is beside the cactus. These boots are used by lots of different desert birds as the gilas like a new one every year.

This is a globe cactus, all their fruit is ready now.  Inside the yellow flesh are a ton of seeds.  Apparently this is very sour and sort of lemon like.  The pretty red fruits from the prickly pear were pretty much the only sweet thing the natives of the area had to look forward to in the spring.

We have been in Mesa, which will be our home until April for a week already.  The week has flown by and we really haven't done anything too exciting.  To be honest it isn't as exciting as last year as we have already seen a lot of things.  Also, the weather has been pretty cold and there was a frost last night.  We have been trying to get some of the things done that you really can't do when you are not in one place very long.
I finally got my glasses fixed and picked them up today.  After visiting a few glasses places we finally found one that carries this brand, and had to call my store in Saskatoon to find out the replacement pair number - as of course my frames are discontinued.  Don had a couple of projects that he needed to get done.  One was making a bucket light that Terry had shown him last year.  He wants to be able to barbeque for supper and it gets pretty dark by 5 or 6.

Lights up the garbage cans quite nice too   LOL   We also went and got a new barbeque as ours was at the end of its life - this one is bigger and now we have room for veggies!!

This was such amazing broccoli.  I put a little of my new lemon infused olive oil on it and some salt  - amazing.!!1

This is the fountain at Fountain Hills.  We went to the farmers market there and that is where I got the olive oil.  If I could pick anywhere in the world to live I think it would be there.  We stopped and walked around the fountain and then went for lunch where I had the best sweet potato fries I have ever had in my life!
We also went and got a propane tank - we tried to get one with a gauge on it but were not successful.   Took a few tries to get one but now we have it hooked up so we can just go and re-fill the small tank.  Very happy to have this already as the propane furnace heats the motorhome up really nice.

I also found a place that can fix my glass on my new phone.  Don is out right now getting quotes for the new struts we need on the car.  Hopefully that is all we need to fix for a while!
I have been trying to make sure I get some type of exercise every day and have been swimming in the morning (indoor pool cuz I'm a wimp) or walking outside or at the gym.  Today's plan was to go for a 3 mile hike but it is cool and the wind chill makes for really cold ears.  I really hate to put on ear muffs but hopefully it warms up enough this afternoon so I can go for a walk.  I have been eyeing up a beautiful tree down the road that is loaded with pink flowers.  Need to check it out quick in case the frost gets it.
We have also been trying to figure out what activities we should sign up for and try and what not.  I tried line dancing last week - no surprise that I sucked at it but enjoyed it anyway.  The people here are so nice and everyone will help you.  I was going to try it the next night as well but we ended up having "Mexican lasagna" with Ralph and Linda.  It is a new recipe that I tried and its a keeper.
We went to the music in the courtyard and met up with Terry and Glenda and also a lot of other people that we met at the end of our stay last year.   We only went to the courtyard twice so far as it is pretty cold and they have moved it indoors.  I like to sit out side so I am waiting . . .
Mona lent us her pickle ball rackets and Don and I gave that a try - it was really fun and pretty good exercise.    So far I have signed up for Spanish lessons and am trying to decide what else to do.  I don't like to have all my days planned out but want to be busy.  I got used to being pretty busy this summer with a lot of structure and it is honestly a little hard to adjust to having the day to do as I please.  There is a camera club and I think I am going to finally splurge and get me a better camera.

Don hung up my hummingbird feeder and we have enjoyed them a lot already  These are Anna's hummingbirds.  We have also had a little verdin stop in and try to sip some nectar and this morning there was a cactus wren sitting on the top of the stand.  We are going to get a bird bath soon!  Do you think it will scare the hummers away if I wrap up the post with white and red ribbon to make it look like a candy cane?? My (small) attempt at a little Christmas decoration.

The sunsets have been absolutely incredible.  This looked like the sky was on fire.

 Yesterday we went out to the Gilbert Water Ranch.  It is a place we went a lot last year but I never get tired of it.  It was still chilly on the ears with the wind in the afternoon.  Can you find the 2 birds perched in this picture?  the one on the let is a green heron (I think)  and I sure wish I knew what the one to the right is.

 This is a desert pocket mouse.  These kinds of critters give me the willies, there were quite a few of them just sitting there eating.

 These are black neck stilts.  They were all lined up standing side by side in 2 neat and tidy rows.

Can you see this pretty great heron?  We also saw a kestrel but I could not get a good picture of it.  There were cormorants and also egrets.

Don was pretty proud of his shopping trip the other day  - he picked up all this wine for 37.00   One thing about Arizona, the food and alcohol prices are so cheap.  I have been to the Superstition market twice now, both times bringing home 2 bags of produce and spent $4 once and $5 today.  Awesome!!

Don just got home (the garage we took the car to dropped him off) and our car is finally getting new struts.  We just never seemed to have the time this summer to get that done.