The First Half of May 2018

 On May 1, my day at the Desert Botanical Garden included sightings of many lizards.

Here is a short video of one of the lizards, then a couple more photos.

 

On the 1st, we also had our last Tuesday Docent Potluck Lunch.  I made roasted Brussels sprouts and cauliflower soup.  As always, Carolyn and Linda did an amazing job decorating the room including cookies and little May baskets of flowers for everyone.

We did some more painting of the master bedroom.  We decided to not paint the area over the mirror, as we plan to replace the mirror and lights when we do the sink and cabinets in the fall/winter of 2018/2019.

Megan's "red sled" now has 170,000 miles on it and has been in the family since late 2004.  So we decided to help Megan and found this 2011 Subaru Outback with 66,000 miles on it.

I continued to experiment with making soups, this time broccoli cauliflower soup that also included tomatoes, carrots, onions and shallots, among other things.

We began the process of digitizing four large boxes of photos.  It is a slow process, but we are working on it.  We have probably done about half and as we find old photos, we email them to others.  Here is niece Laura riding "Bess" one of the wedding gifts we received in 1975.

And a Christmas photo of my mother, sister Helen and niece Laura.

On Sunday the 6th, I volunteered to be a Bus Captain for the Desert Botanical Garden.  The garden is one of only three botanical gardens that qualifies as a certified museum because of the living plant collection, the seed collection and the library.  So when the American Association of Museums held their convention in Phoenix this year, the DBG participated.  Some 500 plus AAM attendees bought tickets to a private event at the the DBG.  As one of ten bus captains, my task was to help get the attendees on one of the ten buses, then ride the bus with them to the DBG, and while on the bus give them some scripted info about the garden and then answer their questions.  Once at the DBG, we then led them into the private evening of music, food and drinks while exploring the garden.  At the convention center, it was a busy place with the 5,000 plus attendees going off to many evening events.

On my usual Tuesday docent day at the DBG, it was Community Day - it used to be called Free Tuesday, and it is still free entry on the second Tuesday of each month.  Several echonopsis plants were in bloom, in this case an Argentine Giant.  These night blooming plants have blossoms open in the evening and that then wilt during the desert heat the next day; but while they are in bloom, they are amazing - these blossoms are about eight inches wide.

And this saguaro is starting to grow a new arm.

At lunch, after two years of service, out going Tuesday co-captains Linda and Carolyn pass the gavel on to Pam and Becky who will be our co-captains starting the new season in October.

It has been warmer than normal and we look forward to our escape to Prescott Valley.

On Sunday, Patty and I took a short five mile hike to the 7th Street North Mountain Visitor Center from the 7th Avenue entrance.  The saguaros seem to have more blossoms than we have seen in past years, so Patty got a closer look.

And on the 15th, we did a final inspection of Megan's car before shipment.  We installed new Weather Tech floor mats and left a box of Weather Tech window shields in the car.  I took about 30 photos to document the condition of the car.  And later that afternoon, the car started the road trip to the port of Seattle where it will be shipped to Ketchikan.

On the 16th, we made the short 90 minute ride to Prescott Valley.  Phoenix is 1,100 feet above sea level and the official high was 99 (our car showed in the low 100s).  Prescott Valley is 5,100 feet about sea level and the temp when we arrived was 79.  I slept with the window open, where the temp dropped to 49.  Oh, it is so nice to be out of the heat of Phoenix.