I decided it was time to clean out some photos on my phone. This is one that brought back some smiles. It was when we were at Cape Blanco in July and there was a minus 2ft low tide. It allowed us to walk out in areas that are normally underwater. Great fun looking for marine life and savoring the exotic textures and colors.
I just paid for tickets for Randa to fly to Minnesota for a week. What a hassle! Commercials show folks smiling as they order tickets on line. They may be smiling if they are using someone else's credit card. Otherwise they would frowning, growling, even swearing.
First: Tickets are too expensive. The differences in ticket prices because it's a different day, or a holiday is just wrong. I know, hotels do it too. It doesn't make it right.
Second: How many people can you cram into an aluminum cylinder? The seats might be ok if all passengers are under 5ft 7in and under 170 lbs. Otherwise, not so much. And then the passenger in front of you reclines.
Third: Food ( what food? )
Forth: Added charges, BAGGAGE CHARGES ! Who flies without baggage? The charge for one carry-on was $61 per trip. So the "added charges " was almost half of the "discount flight rate".
Again, I say Frowning, Growling, and.....
If I had a choice, I'd drive.
Today was our turn to host Nature Play. I t runs form 10 -12 every Saturday. The idea is to allow children to use "natural" items ( sticks, rocks, leaves, bark =, etc to make art. We provide the ingredients, our guests provide the inspiration. It turns out better that you can imagine. The kids are involved and some of the parents get involved as well. It is interesting to observe the activities, and results.
The ingredients today were rocks of various sizes, shapes and colors along with cardboard and Elmers glue. Everyone seemed to enjoy thamselves. the count was 42 children and 50 adults . I would say a successful day.
Yesterday ( Friday) we had a group of 72 Kindergarteners from a charter school in Phoenix. Normally our groups are elementary school level, so we tried to adjust the program to account for the age level. We talked about it at our Wednesday meeting. Even with the adjustments, it was difficult to teach even a less involved lesson to that age group. I did my best, but I don't think many kids got much out of my efforts. They did, however, get to walk around in the outdoors and see a Cardinal, and several Hummingbirds and it did succeed in wearing all of us out.
Right around New Years we received text from the neighbors behind us hat one of our big fir trees had toppled into their back yard. It broke our fence and slightly grazed their house. They got it taken care of quickly (fence to be addressed later). There was another big tree still standing, but for how long? We made the decision that the time had come to remove the danger of that tree coming down. That happened yesterday.
There are many views of Boyce Thompson Arboretum (BTA)
Many areas to explore. Many trails to tread. Many changes that occur during our 5 month stay here.
I will be including photos along the way.
