HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL. 

As usual not a whole lot of things going on around here. Before Christmas I saw this angel made out of clothes hangers to I gathered up a bunch we had "hanging" around and wondered if I could duplicate it. That is a paper plate for the head. Kind of cute. But, no I didn't really put it together. Did put the hangers in the sewing room closet though in case I really want to make it and fasten everything together some day. Not sure what to use though, zip ties or glue. or ribbon. 

I finished my chicken diamond painting and even bought $$ a frame for it. Haven't hung it yet though, not sure where to put it. I want it in the kitchen but need to find wall space. 

The weather here remains above normal by about 10 degrees. Getting into the high 60's every day. No rain in sight. Low 40's at night. Makes for comfortable walking at about 9in the morning. No walking today. But I got in 204 miles for this year. Even with being gone a month to Mexico and hardly walking during the HOT HOT summer. We average about three miles a walk.

A pretty sunrise last week.

Some pictures from our last walks. Looking across the desert. The river is down between the rocks and and reeds. Cloudy day. 

No bright colors like back east but lots of golden browns and pale oranges. 

See the dark cloud right above the mountains. At first we thought it was smoke,  but was really rain in the mountains. 

Another one of the river. 

Bill is still feeling pretty good, though the long- Covid hits him every once in a while still. Guess it never goes away. He is in a cooking mood. Lots of crepes. Our son took half of them with him when he came over on Christmas Day.

I'm working on a Valentine pillow cover. Not sure how it will  turn out. Glad I took this picture though cause I dropped the whole thing on the ground and then couldn't figure out how the pieces went back together. 

We aren't seeing as many turtles this year. Just once in a while one shows up.  

No wind that day, so great reflections. 

Ducks in a row.   I hope.

They are different species. The one in flight is much smaller. No idea what it is. 

He didn't fly far. 

We haven't seen the pelicans since I took their pictures. 

I'm starting on another diamond painting. I saw it on line and going to buy it for $9.99 - but kept looking and found it as a part of a set of 10 for only $19.99. So I got all ten. They are pictures of European cities and towns. Lots and lots of different colors. Will keep me amused for a while. 

About all going on. Tomorrow New Years Day is also our 60th anniversary. Where has the time gone? 

Acouple of surprises

Been walking pretty regular. Yesterday we got in 3.5 miles in an hour and a half. So needless to say I didn't do much the rest of the day. I just liked this picture so thought I'd share it. 

This one too. 

Remember when we had the tiny brown mouse. All of a sudden we didn't find any more poops or signs of him. Thought maybe he'd got back out. Well Nope, Bill has been complaining about a smell in his bathroom for a couple of weeks. We both looked in the cabinet under his sink, move things around and didn't find anything. Maybe something had died under the house. Well yesterday he came out and said he'd found the smell. The little brown mouse managed to get caught in one of the wooden traps. We didn't see it because it was behind the one roll of toilet paper neither of us moved. The trap was in the corner and upside down so even if we moved the roll a little it didn't show up. So two problems solved. We know for sure mouse is gone and so is smell. 

We went out to lunch the other day, just us. To a new Argentine restaurant about 10 miles from home. On same side of town but towards Henderson. They have another restaurant on the Other side of town, has been there for years. But this one is closer. Nice place and easy to drive to.

Bill's leftovers. The piece of Milensea was huge, plus french fries. He said it was delicious, just like his mother used to make. 

Nice place inside and wait staff was excellent. 

He was checking out my empanadas, which were also delicious. But I think the ones I make are better...They also have a deli and a market. Bought a lot of stuff to bring home. 

UGH - Bill's Roku TV which he has his computer and Dish TV hooked up to blew its speakers the other day. I checked Walmart and they had the same one for $124 so put it on my order and used my Express delivery coupon to get it. It was here in 45 minutes. Hed gone in to lay down so I got it put together - feet on it and set it up: thinking I'd have it all ready for him to use when he got up. HA- NOT!  Could not get Roku activated. Was on the phone with them two different times. Took about four hours to get it up and running. For some reason their activation EMail would not come to my email address. Ended up having to use Bill's email and it would only go to his phone. Which I had to hook up as a hot spot....Thank goodness the technician had a lot of patience. Walking me through everything that I knew nothing about. Finally got Roku activated, hooked up computer and Dish, then went looking for some Roku apps to add. I had to go take a nap after all that. 

Some pictures from one of our walks. Have never seen this bird before, no idea what he is. Had to get a good picture cause he was quite a ways away and the reeds were moving. 

Good old Harry and a bunch of ducks. 

Oh my goodness, heard a noise out front and discovered the management was finally replacing the rocks that were washed away in the flood over a year ago. Works for me. All the homes on our side of the street now have new pretty rocks in their yards. Looks so much better.  

Another walk, we usually get in three miles a walk. 
Again no idea what this one is. Neck is long enough to be the same one as the other brown one.

OH BOY-FINALLY we got to see a couple of the White Pelicans that hang out in another part of the wetlands. They are so pretty. 

One of the herons hanging out in another part of the river. 

The weather has been really nice for over a week. Getting up to high 60's during the day. But tomorrow we might get rain and wind and lower temps. So far it has been a warmer than usual winter. 

Bill has been cooking up a storm. He made a huge batch of apple fritters. Luckily they freeze really well and yesterday he made a big batch of crepes. 

I am about 4 miles from getting in 200 miles walking in the Wetlands for this year. Not bad since we couldn't walk in the summer in the heat and I took a month off to go to Mexico in January. 

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas Eve. 

Not sure what to do

Well I've got no holiday coming up to sew pillow covers for. I've finished my diamond painting of three old hens. Just need to find a frame for it. So far all the frames I've found on line cost 3 times what the picture did. It is actually much more colorful than the picture shows. And we don't have any doctor appointments for a month. So not sure what to do to keep myself busy. 

The weather has turned cold for here. This morning it was 32 out when I got up at 5:30. Only warming up to low 50's during day. We both need to get some winter clothes, I need shoes only have my walking tennis shoes and sandals. Makes for nice walking though. Have got in a couple of three mile walks so far this week. Seen a few unexpected sights. Just some pictures from the Wetlands. It is getting its winter look.   

Only one turtle out taking its sun bath. Guess the others are still asleep. 

One of the ponds, the water was so still I like the reflections of the reeds and bushes and sky. 

The Strip from the bridge in the Wetlands. People over there would never think we were standing on a bridge over a rushing river full of water fowl. Some snow on the mountains, they should get more tonight and tomorrow. 

A guy with one of those cameras with the huge lense was watching something in the river. He came over to us and pointed out this coyote in the reeds watching the ducks in the river. Would never have noticed it if not for him pointing it out. There were also a couple of racoons running around the same area. I just saw their tails as they headed inland. 

Another pond with autumn leaves on the trees. 

The Nature Center has holiday walks through the reeds. Always with a little story. We decided to take the Christmas walk yesterday. Cute story. 

It is about seven different animals going into a white mitten to hide. 

One of the mallard drakes on a rock. 

Yesterday it was quite cool, about 47 when we started our walk, maybe in low 50's when we got home. Also overcast so no sun to warm us up. This is looking towards The Strip too. 

Came across this road runner all puffed up. Don't know if he was trying to look bigger and menacing to keep the other males away or if he was showing off for a female. 

Very seldom do we see a group of road runners, usually just one by itself. These three stayed together quite a long time.

Two males and a female maybe? A little showing off. 

Bill went to the eyelid doctor on Tuesday. He for sure needs the surgery. But it has to be approved by our insurance company - grrr - before it can be scheduled. Might take 4 to 6 week for approval, especially with all the holidays coming up. Doctor said it takes about ten minutes with only about three stitches.That sounds good, I thought big incision and black eyes. Guess not.  We took an Uber over there, on the other side of town. Glad we did so much construction going on around the office. 

Bill has been feeling really good lately, almost like his old self. Doing a lot of cooking. He made this big batch of French Toast. We'll freeze a lot of it for later. 

Posing for the camera. 

Going to lunch with our son today, he just called. Good to get out. 

Mostly sunsets and sunrises

Hadn't planned on doing this today, but I'm sitting at the computer to keep out of the way of the ladies that clean. Got an unexpected call from my son asking if I wanted the ladies to come over and clean our home. Of course! He called just in time as I was thinking about getting out the vacuum ... Well maybe not. 

We haven't done too much this week to write about, but have had some spectacular sunrises and sunsets. This one was the beginning of the week. There was rain and snow in the mountains so a lot of clouds. 

I have my Christmas craft decorations up. The pillow covers. 

Two on each couch. This is a small quilt I made a long time ago. 

A closer look at it. The white areas are embroidered.

The place mats I made last year. 

The stained glass I made a long time ago. But never got to put them up cause we usually weren't home for Christmas. Ran out of things to make. 

Remember the rocks I was complaining about a month or so ago. The ones the wall builders knocked off our backyard into the drainage ditch. Well they are finally back up on the yard. I caught one of the community's gardners cleaning the trash out of the ditch and asked if he could put them back on the yard. No problem.YES!!! Doesn't take much to make me happy. 

Here is a picture of the inside of The Sphere. I think I'd get sea sick watching it. It moves just like outside. 

Sunrise one morning. The funnels are virga. (A virga, also called a dry storm, is an observable streak or shaft of precipitation that evaporates or sublimates before reaching the ground. )  Made for an interesting looking sunrise. 

Same day a weird sunset. Looked like funnel clouds all over the sky. Simply the same as at sunrise. Rain trying to reach the ground. 

Only got in one walk of three miles so far this week. Tomorrow we are going to walk around the community as there is a Holiday Crafts and this and that sale.

Just a different look from one section of the Wetlands. Mountains in Henderson in the back ground. It has been great walking weather. In the high 50's but with bright warm sunshine. 

On Monday  Bill had an appointment to get a heart monitor put on so missed walking that day. Last blog I wrote about the new medication he was put on. He had an horrible reaction to it so he stopped taking it. I never got in contact with any one over the phone. So while he was at the doctor's office Monday I talked to the office lady and she sent a copy of what had happened to Bill to the "doctor's nurse." Never heard back. Yesterday I finally got through to a different nurse. I went through whole story with her. She said she would let Doctor know. Still haven't heard anything and Bill is feeling better than he has felt in  months. Not going to worry about it. He sees doctor end of January. Go the monitor off on Thursday. Next week he sees the eyelid doctor. No idea how soon he can get them fixed. Like I said not much going on.