New Years Eve 12-31-10

It'll be the last time I write 2010 - now I must retrain my brain to 2011. It is a problem for me every year, which is why I rarely write '10 or, now, '11. It takes the first two digits to get my brain in gear for the correct last two digits.

Here is the Poodle Prince at his house in the desert. This was the only picture that turned out of the several I took, he just wasn't much interested in posing for photos this week. We had a good chuckle when I groomed him yesterday - after he was all brushed up and I went to put his collar on (sans the wonderful green/red Christmas collar cover that Karen sent him) I realized he had "ring around the collar" in green! Just a very faint tint, such as one would have from wearing a faux gold ring around their finger. Too cute.

Easy drive home for me today, no wind, few trucks and not a lot of cars on I-40. They were mostly all going the other way. And on I-15N (toward Las Vegas) they were spending time standing still. I arrived in Orange County about 3:40pm, but I detoured to get gas at the 'cheap' station ($3.19/gal for 87octane), so I arrived at my house about 4:10pm. The temperature was in the low 40s most of the way home, but dipped to 39F over the Cajon Pass ( 3,777ft). By 6:30pm Placentia was 45.9F. Sometime since I left on Tuesday my recording thermometer showed a low of 31.6F and it is supposed to about that tonight. Every year I wonder how the Rose Parade fans survive their long night vigil on the parade route in Pasadena - it is probably colder there! In about 1959 when I lived with my Little Grandmother in Arcadia (right next door to Pasadena) I went to an all night New Year's Eve party with the intent for everyone to attend the parade in the morning. It was, as I recall, a great party, but when my date drove me to my house to change clothes I realized how cold it was and how tired I was..... We both decided to just skip the parade. So, I have never been. However, Floyd and I went several times to see the floats after the parade when they are parked on the street in a section of Pasadena - they are on display for two or three days. A MUCH more enjoyable way to see them, but we did miss the marching bands and the equestrian teams.

I have already been to bed for several hours! But got up to Blog. I couldn't let the old year end without wishing all of you a....

.... happy, prosperous and healthy 2011.

Love, Del-at-home

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Cacti at Lake Havasu City, AZ 12-30-10

This form of cactus has very long sharp spines. I don't know what the 'drawing' is on the pads, could be natural, but I suspect it is an insect burrowing inside the pads. All the pads on this cactus had these markings.

The cacti are mostly bearing fruit right now, but there are a few blossoms here and there. This is a slightly different variety of beavertail cactus than the next image. I believe that all of the beavertail fruits are edible - usually we see them as "cactus jelly" in novelty stores, but the Mexican people cook them in different ways and they are slightly sweet like most fruits.

This variety has larger "pads" and the fruits are slightly different.

This is the same plant, but I like the single fruit growing right out of the middle of one of the pads. I've not seen that before - it looks very strange to me.

This plant had two flowers and the other was quite faded. Notice that the spines are very short and grow in tight clumps, but they are still lethal.

More desert driving 12-29-10

Yesterday driving across I-40 I was taking pictures on the go, as I usually do.

But one has to plan ahead and see what is coming up between the image I seek and my vehicle when it gets to the correct location. Sometimes one gets a bush, tree, or large truck.

This is what I was trying to photograph, the Barstow-Dagget airport which seems to sit out in the middle of nowhere. It has no commercial traffic, but it is used by military aircraft about half the time - Army, I believe. Nearby is a "solar farm" where power is generated by reflecting sun light into a central tower where it is converted to electricity. I cannot take a picture from the highway and I can't explain the process. Here is a Wikipedia article about the solar farms in the Mojave Desert. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_plants_in_the_Mojave_Desert

The heavy rainfall last week in Southern California also dumped a lot of water in the desert. All along the highway are large, shallow 'lakes' that take a long time to drain away. And, when they do, they leave salt deposits on the top of the soil - looks like snow!

There are some places that always fill with rain water. The water gradually drains or evaporates and leaves dry lake beds.

Drive to the Desert 12-28-10

Oh, my goodness, how I love driving on the highway, out of the LA Basin - the "open road" has always called me and I have been missing it the last year or so. The five plus hour drive to Lake Havasu City seems more like being on a road trip than my drives north on I-5 to San Juan Bautista and Pacific Grove. I think it is due to the miles and miles of uncultivated desert and the rough, rocky mountains.

Of course, one must first get out of the basin. This image is on I-15 (which starts at the Mexico border and ends just south of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada) and we are all stopped quite near where Hwy 60 crosses - the high roadways you see are part of the Interchange. Just beyond this point all lanes of the road were closed due to a seven or eight car pileup with serious injuries - all northbound traffic had to exit either Hwy 60 East or Hwy 60 West. I chose west because I had an idea how to go around the blockage on surface streets. And I did fine. But instead of 1 to 1-1/2 hours it took me two hours and twenty minutes to make the drive from my house to Lenwood just south of Barstow. I really can't sit that long without suffering great pain in my hips and back, so when I got out at the Arco station in Lenwood I had to hang onto the car at first. Pitiful! I felt I needed a special lunch with lots of protein, so I lined up at the In & Out Hamburger drive-thru. One thing about In & Out, they know how to keep things moving. And the burgers are cheap and delicious. The last time I had one was late August when Liz and I stopped before I did the program in the garden for Westside Quilters.

Then I was on the road again, At Bartsow I turned off busy I-15 north to Las Vegas and took I-40 east which usually has light traffic, but lots of big trucks. This sign where I-40 begins always starts me daydreaming about driving across country again - "Wilmington, NC, 2,554 miles". I-40 follows the old Route 66, crossing and recrossing and sometimes it is the same roadway. The first time I drove/rode this route it was a great deal of Route 66 interspersed with short sections of the new Interstate. That was a lot of years ago.

Because I was delayed today, Corky's parents and grandparents left for Laughlin, NV, where they had tickets to see Debbie Reynolds in concert - she is 78! - leaving Corky alone for maybe a half an hour. He was glad to see me, but spent most of his time sitting in the front window looking for his parents to return. They got home about an hour ago and the three of them are sound asleep.

While I was unloading my car Corky wanted to go out back to do some business and this is the view I saw. I had been too busy to even look out the back windows. I have taken a zillion pictures of Lake Havasu sunsets - so many of them are spectacular. Almost as good as the South Pacific, but not quite so gaudy. I have more pictures to share with you, but I cannot keep my eyes open and keep typing on the wrong keys, so I'll post more travel views on another day.

No snow, but bare trees! 12-27-10

Watching the TV news about the terrible snows in the eastern states gives me a feeling of great anxiety! I have never been fond of snow, which is one reason I live in SCalifornia, and I do remember some snowy winters near Portland, OR. when I was a child. My best snow memory was the year my husband and I spent Christmas at the Ahwahnee Lodge in Yosemite Valley. It snowed a few inches Christmas Eve day and a few more during the night. It was an awesome sight to look out at the snow covered valley floor just after dawn - there were only deer tracks and crow tracks. We did go out walking, but not far because we couldn't bear to put footprints in that pure white snow. I think I will let that be my lifelong memory of new fallen snow.

Sue Benner quilt in TCQC posted on Blog 12-26-10

Here is another quilt from the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles November sale "High Fiber Under Five".

"Checks & Bars Jumble" Sue Benner 2009 11" x 11" Fused and machine quilted.

Sue is very inventive in her quilt making. I took a class from her at Empty Spools a number of years ago and she did challenge her students. It was an interesting week.

Interesting back - Marimekko fabric with title and signature in gold. One of Sue's signature techniques is leaving the tails on the threads she uses to overcast the edges of her quilts. Whenever I hang one of her quilts I fear that some helpful quilter will whip out scissors from her purse and trim off those dangling threads.

www.suebenner.com

The Gifts of Christmas Past 12-25-10

Do Corky and I look younger? This photo was taken Jan 3, 2004, at Corky's house in Long Beach. The Santa quilt was made by Chris Huben and I purchased it at a guild auction, but donated it back to the guild when I stopped doing Christmas a few years ago. So, they made money twice on Chris' gift.