Prescott Farmers Market, Saturday, May 19, 2018

Saturday morning, we visited the Prescott Farmers Market early Saturday morning.   Our first stop was the food court for breakfast.  Patty got a breakfast burrito from one vendor and I got a breakfast pizza from another.  The pizza vendor overcooked the first pizza, so they gave us two cinnamon rolls for the delay while they made a second pizza.  All was tasty.

One of meat vendors had these skulls on display - for sale at $50 a head.

The market is on the main campus of Yavapai College - it is a county wide community college with six locations.  The grounds are very beautiful.

Watson Woods and Granite Creek, Friday, May 18, 2018

We decided to explore a different part of Watson Woods, the park land south of Watson Lake.  We have hiked the Peavine Trail before - it is the rails to trails path that borders the east side of the park.  Several times, we had gone north from the trail head and the Prescott Lakes Parkway.  This time, we went south and under the Parkway.  We started on the Peavine Trail which follows the former Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoenix Railway corridor that fed into Prescott.  But as we went south, the railroad trail had to jog and go under the Parkway bridge that goes over Watson Woods and Granite Creek.

As we continued south from the Parkway, we passed the Prescott Water Treatment plant and after a  mile or so, decided to come down off the former railroad trail that follows the edge of Watson Woods and go into the trails within the Woods which meander along both sides of Granite Creek - which was dry at the present time.

Some wildflowers are still in bloom.

We noticed a lot of trees that had bark stripped from them, with some, but not all, of the stripped back on the ground around the trees.  After our hike, I searched online to find out what was happening, but to no avail.  It does not appear to be done by animals, and is in a section of Watson Woods where they are working on restoration of the riparian habitat along Granite Creek.

Signs educated us about the water table here being close enough to the surface that many trees and plants can access the water even though this is a near desert area.  We came across many large Fremont cottonwood, Arizona walnut and western cedar trees, plus many young plants that have been planted as part of the restoration of the area.  We came by an area where there were several dozen large ravens, many in this one large tree.

We crossed over Granite Creek which was dry - our crossings were on bridges constructed as part of BSA Eagle Scout projects.  But while the Creek was dry, we also came by a pond that signs indicated was created by a gravel pit.  The water table/aquifer was close enough to the surface that water is constantly surfacing here, helping to sustain the riparian plants and animals in the area.  We also learned about the many stations they have for monitoring the groundwater levels.

After hiking for a couple of hours, we then headed off to Costco to stock up on supplies for our stay in Prescott Valley.

Exploring Prescott Valley, May 17, 2018

As the name implies, the city of Prescott Valley is in a valley surrounded by mountains, and is at 5,100 feet above sea level.  The neighborhood where we are staying is relatively flat.  From our street, you can see mountains to the east.

And you can see Glassford Hill just to the west of this subdivision.   It has a two mile trail to the summit and we hope to explore that.

About a half mile to the east, there is an intersection with a variety of stores and restaurants.  For the three stores aimed at Anglo customers, it is all fast food, convenience style stores - little or fresh produce or meats.  For the two stores aimed at Hispanic Customers, Azteca Market and Garcia's Market, they are full line grocery stores with fresh fruits and vegetables, and fresh cut meat.

About a mile west of our rental, my morning walk took me past Sunflower park.  It is a five acre park with sports fields, a playground, a walking/running track around the perimeter, covered picnic area and a small building with restrooms; one side of that building has been adorned with this mural that was a Girl Scout project.

Most of this subdivision is flat land.  The bulk of the houses are one story tall.  Many are duplexes, triplexes or fourplexes, all on one level, most with garages.  Our VRBO rental is a triplex and we have the middle unit.  Where there are small hills, some homes are built on the side of the hill - but those appear to be the newer homes as the subdivision expanded outwards from the central flat land area.

My afternoon walk took me north past Tonto Park, another city park with playground, picnic area, sports fields and restrooms.

We went to the 5:00 showing of Book Club, the new movie starring Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Diane Keaton and Mary Steenbergen - very funny and very good show about people in their 60s and 70s.  Harkins 14 Cinema is only a couple miles away.  After the movie, we went to Lonesome Valley Brewing, a local craft brewery, for dinner.  Patty had the tapas platter and I had a turkey wrap.

Then we made a quick shopping trip to the nearby Safeway to end our first full day in Prescott Valley.

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.