Beautiful Evening

Wow

Our sky is really spectacular tonight

Quite orange with the setting sun

and some very interesting clouds!

Phoenix gets what are called "Haboob"s

They are huge clouds of sand and cloud that "ROLL" over the landscape.

Last weekend they had some really incredible ones and lots of people

were filming and taking videos of them.

FB and YouTube are full of them.

We don't get them down here in Tucson,

You have to be in the planes areas and we are in a valley

between lots of mountain ranges.

(ok, I always tease everyone here about the "mountains"

because I have a hard time calling them that

after growing up and playing in the

Rockies!

And since it is Monsoon Season

here in Arizona

it is warm AND humid 

(ok, for us desert people anyway)

And my trees are LOVING it!

There is always so much color this time of year

as the plants are blooming

and so colorful

and the ground is green with undergrowth that

also loves the monsoon rains and the humidity.

I am obviously NOT a plant

because I do NOT love the humidity!

ha ha

So, we are off to our "mountain" home this weekend.

It too is loving the humidity and the rain,

They have been in a bad drought

with HIGH fire hazards

for all of the spring time.

Around there,

they are used to the spring run-off

from the winter snows.

However, this last year,

they hardly had ANY snow,

so it has been REALLY dry!

Lots of prayers for moisture.

And it has finally come.

We were up there over the 4th of July week

and we started to get some nice rains about Thursday

and the neighbors (full timers over the summer)

said it had been raining most afternoons all week.

The next weekend, when were were up there again,

we received lots of rain in the late afternoons 

and sometimes during the night as well.

So it is nice and green again.

We do have SOME evidence of a normal springtime up there though.

This is the little family of "Fly Catchers"

that built a nest in the rafters of our back deck.

At the end of the 4th of July week up there

the momma was sitting on 3 little eggs

(no pictures, but we did climb up and have a look!)

Last weekend, she was in and out so often we finally started to watch her

Sure enough, she was feeding some little ones.

I climbed up and took some pictures.

Not great ones,

but you get the idea if you look close enough.

Then, on one of our bike rides

we saw this great way to hide your A/C units

It's just pallets on their sides,

with a board on the backside, then lined with weed paper

then filled with good soil

then you just poke holes in the slatted areas and plant your 

flowers, strawberries, whatever!

It's really pretty too!

So we just might do that.

We have lots of pallets at the office that we could take up there and use.

One last thing,

today, we spent the last couple of hours at our office with a vendor

that we have done business with for something like 18 years!

They are from California (LA area)

but are Korean.

They are such characters.

Greg and I have been out to their location to visit with them before,

learn more about powder (powder paint)

since that is their specialty

and we purchase powder paint from them to resell.

Henry, the owner

has been travelling a lot the last few years

so we don't get to talk to him much,

we work with his colleague, Moon

They are both great.

Bu Henry,

is a big talker

in that he LOVES to talk

talk about his family

talk about his travels

talk about the food he likes

talk about the businesses he has been involved with

talk about the people he has met on his travels

pretty much just talk.

But he is super fun to listen to.

His English is not great,

but then, he can also speak

Spanish

Japanese

Chinese

Korean

and even French I think.

Maybe others that I can't remember.

Quite impressive.

So after showing them around our new digs,

we took them out to dinner.

At Naomi's restaraunt

(it's not HER restaurant, but she works there!)

Yummy gourmet hamburgers.

More fun visiting.

Now they are off to Phoenix for the night then on to Sedona

Henry wants to
"communicate" with himself and

gain some 'power'

which he believes he can do in that area

I told him my nephew lives up there for that very same reason!

He loves that he can meditate

and be with nature up there.

Henry is looking forward to it

Moon... not so much I think.

He likes all the metropolitan -ness of the LA and surrounding areas.

But he will go along :)

So that's about it from our neck of the woods.