Happy New Year!

 We got back to Arizona yesterday after spending the last ten days back in Saskatchewan.  The temperatures there were frosty and I have to admit we were not acclimatized and did a fair amount of shivering.  On the plus side, when I went on my walk today, the temperature was only 11 here and it felt incredibly warm! 
We didn't do anything exciting today but I thought I would write about our park and what I  saw on my walk today.

This is our "home" for the next month and then we have to move a few streets over for February.  We decided to stay in this park as it is not as easy as we thought to find spots in January and February. 

There are a few lemon trees in this park along with the grapefruits and oranges.

There are a lot of hummingbirds here.  There are 18 species of hummingbirds in Arizona and you can often hear them flying by your head before you see them.  I was pretty close to this one and was wishing I would have had a camera instead of the phone.

Pretty flowers on top of someones cactus.

 This is a giant shuffleboard game area in our park.  There is pretty much every sport you can imagine.  We are going to go to a pickle ball lesson - which is a game very much like table tennis but you actually stand on the "table"  which is like a small tennis court.  There are 3 outdoor pools and 1 indoor one.  There is a gym and also aroebic  and yoga classes.  There are even clubs you can join to learn jewellery making, quilting, woodworking - you name it really.  There is a huge library as well.

 This is walking down our street

There are tons of flickers, hummingbirds, sparrows, doves and an unidentified bird that will not let me get too close.  There is a bird watching course and field trips so I will be checking that out for sure!

 This is the pool and bar area (bar closes at 6 PM - which is pretty funny)

 Just out side the park about a block is a canal that runs as far as I can see both ways.  While I was trying to research this canal I came across a very interesting place that is close by called the Park of the canals.  Sweet! another trip for another day.
http://www.mesa-goodlife.com/ParkoftheCanals.html
Basically the canals are necessary to keep enough water available to irrigate crops and for city water usage.  I want to ride my bike along the canal as it is very interesting but I am warned you have to watch out for cactus as they will attack your tires.

This is my reflection in the canal, as well as that orange that is floating in it - There are orange trees right along where the roads are and I just found it amazing to see one floating down the canal.

 I think this is an acacia tree, very pretty!

 Along the canal there were tons and tons of sea shells.  This is such an interesting ecosystem,  as far as I can read it is man made but I think parts were natural.

Some areas had really huge cactus's.

 This was the prettiest tree in the middle of a lot that I walked by.

 I will strap this giraffe on the roof rack and bring it back to my mom!  Price tag was 1800.00 and I think it might even be life size.

There are mountains in the background but hard to see in this picture.  It is fun just to walk along the roads and see things you might not notice when driving. 
It was a great visit back in Saskatchewan.  We saw a few friends and some of our family.  I walked in the forest with my sister and it was amazing  (except the part where I wiped out).  We had some great meals and visits.  We are looking forward to our daughter Kylie's visit at the end of the month and also to seeing Wes and Jocelyn in February!