Dull Days and Exciting Days

We are not sad to see the end of March - I don't remember what it came in as but it went out like a Lion. We had lows of 45 and highs of 91 and lots of wind all month. Winds yesterday were sustained at 30/40 with gusts at 60/65. We really haven't been doing much since I last wrote. But yesterday morning I contacted our gardener to ask him to come over to check the watering system. Figured we would hear from him today. So we got ready to go out - YES GO OUT. Bill wanted to go to Lowes and I thought I'd check out JoAnn's to see if they had any thing I wanted. (No they didn't) I did complete and frame another diamond painting. They are hard to take good pictures of. The colors are brighter than this looks. It is a really bad picture but you get the idea. 

No blog is complete without some Sphere pictures. Sometimes he even has a coffee cup in the morning. 

But back to yesterday. Just as we were getting ready the gardener texted that he was in area and would be at our house soon. When he came we walked around the house checking things out. Sure glad he came as you will see. When we were in side yard I happened to look at the Wetlands. OH NO FIRE!

I grabbed my cell phone and dialed 911. When she answered guess she saw the address and asked "Is this about the fire in the Wetlands?" I said yes and she told me fire trucks were already on their way. Whew. Also the the wind was blowing straight north which kept it from traveling towards our homes. When we first saw it, one big plume of smoke. 

With the strong winds it didn't take long for it to spread. It took about 10 minutes before we heard the fire trucks. Seemed longer than that. Lots of trucks though. 

Continued to spread quickly. 

More fire trucks coming down the access road behind our wall. They went down quite a ways then turned into the park. 

Finally some white smoke from the water. 

Thank goodness the wind was blowing straight north. I'd hate for all that smoke to be coming our way, not to say the fire...

We didn't leave for errands until it was pretty much contained. It burned 34 acres right where we always walk. This is from the TV this morning.  We walk on both of those paths. The path to the right goes right through the Cottonwood grove (the first two pictures of artists I put in last blog were in that area.) Also it is where the owls nested last year. I think the trees are pretty much destroyed. The park is closed today for "mopping up" and making sure no embers get going again. 

You can see the big cottonwood trees in this one. Maybe they made it. Hope so. 

Today the winds are down to into the high teens and a cold front is moving through. I'll get out there when I can. 

Bill has an appointment for testing with the  neurologist tech the first of May then with the actual doctor the second week of May. The days are passing slowly. By later in the day his eye is usually completely closed. Frustrates him.

More from Art Day in Wetlands

 Not doing much since walking so thought I'd show you some of the painters and their paintings. Interesting how different the paintings of the same area are from artist to artist. This is the Cotton Grove area, last year the owls were nesting here. There were two men working on their art here. How different their paintings were.  He is painting the tree with the cross. 

He is looking out towards the trail and the vegetation. He said he likes bold colors. Yep he does. 

We walked further to the Vern's Island area. And found three more artists busy at work. They were all doing some version of this interesting tree and the pond behind it. 

The three of them. 

Her version. Interesting choice of colors. Of course every one still had a lot to do. 

They all were using different mediums. 

He was quite far along. He said he was using an ? oil chalk? I like the tree. 

Further along a site at a different area - This is Vern's Pond. The view they were drawing. 

Three here also.

This belongs to the lady in the above picture who is standing up and talking to the other artists.

This was the lady with the mask on. I really like it. Interesting to watch her add shading that completely changed the looks.

She said she was doing an abstract. Okay. 

Back at the nature center, some kind of class in the lounge. 

Outside, finger painting in bright colors for small children; the guy on the right is trying to get a glob of blue paint off the bottom of his shoe. And the

lady bending over is mopping up paint from the cement. 

I thought this was interesting for older children. A blank pure white puzzle. Then they got to paint their picture and had a puzzle to take home. The volunteer was warning them to NOT TAKE the puzzle apart before they painted it and before they got it home. Good advice. 

Even music available. I'm sure there were a lot more painters but we didn't go back through the park looking for them. By now we were getting tired and it was still a mile to get home.

There were also watercolor classes for adults for a fee and food trucks. All in all quite an event. I am so glad we live right next to it. Haven't walked since. Monday morning I had to get my taxes done and today the food pantry truck comes in the community for the people who live here and want to take advantage of it and my walking friend volunteers with it. 

Haven't heard from the neurologist for Bill's eye yet. They said by the end of the week someone should call us. Sure hope so. Yesterday it was 88 here and today supposed to be over 90. Then back down into the high 60's in a few days. 

Good and not so good goings on

We've had a busy time since I last wrote. I mentioned that the back seat window in the Jeep disappeared into the door and wouldn't come  up. So off we went to Pep Boys to get it fixed. I'd forgot about the Pep Boys logo. Here they are in all their glory. 

We got checked in. Also needed to get the back right turn signal fixed - new bulb. We were there before the mechanic, so sat around for a bit and waited. He finally got there and told Bill it would take a couple of hours!? Okay, so we thought we'd walk up to the Carl's Jr and have some coffee. So off we went, then Bill decided why not go home and relax. After all it's a couple of hours. So called Uber, he was there in a few minutes and off we went home. We hadn't been home twenty minutes when they call and say the car was ready !!! Another call to Uber, again he was close and back we went. So that is taken care of. From there we went to a big Mexican Supermarket up the street. El Super is the name. And it was huge. Amazing meat market. Bill found some stuff he wanted to try. So we bought a few things and will probably go back there again. But NOT to buy eggs. 1 dozen $18.97 - WOW I've been buying 18 extra large for $8.59 at Walmart (now $6.50) ever since the egg thing began. Maybe they were priced in Pesos. 

We also managed to get an appointment with the eyelid doctor. Not good news. He doesn't think another surgery will work. He thinks Bill has Ocular Myasthenia Gravis. That explains the double vision and the drooping that gets worse during the day. So he referred him to an neurologist. I called there Friday - and got a real person who was very helpful. She told me doctor has all the paper work and needs to check it over, decide if she can/will see him ? and call our insurance. Should hear from her by end of this week. Sure hope so. The lid barely stays open any more. 

Saturday my fast walker friend and I went walking. I mentioned that I didn't want to go too far, no off the trails stuff. We do a lot of stopping and looking when we walk. The orange plastic thing with the blue rope on it is a crawfish trap. We had no idea but the person who pulls up the traps came while we were there. Wonder where the crayfish come from. Also this was the pond with the two new koi/goldfish and a lot of catfish in it. Yesterday we didn't see one fish. Hum....

We saw two bunnies, this one was nice enough to sit still long enough for me to take a picture. He was pretty small maybe very young. 

It was a very overcast day so even though it was in the high 60's with a slight breeze it was nice walking. 

A canopy set up for the artists who were going to be in the park that day. Plein Air artists "Paint en plein air at Clark County Wetlands Park during Wetlands Art Day."One of the trees in the area they would be painting. Also the river and the bridge. 

A palm tree floating down the river. Wonder where it came from. 

A flock of white pelicans flying over us. 

So on our way back home we went to a few areas that we thought we might see artists painting. Found quite a few. And ended up walking FOUR - that's right FOUR miles for the day. 

More about the artists next time. Another picture of the Sphere. Looks like you could walk right into it.

Going to do some sewing and then watch NASCAR. It is supposed to be 90 here by Wednesday. UGH!