Mt. Lemmon and clouds

The Shady Ladies are finally all back in town after Barb and Beth's summer travels! We can't hike until I'm out of the sling (I wouldn't want to trip and fall), so instead we drove up Mt. Lemmon yesterday to enjoy the coolness. The clouds threatened rain, but we only had a few splatters on the windshield.

As you ascend thousands of feet you go through different climate and plant zones. The saguaros are toward the bottom, then you go through various shrubs and trees before getting to the pines at close to 9,000 feet.

Back home at 2,620 feet elevation, I've been enjoying spectacular sunsets like these ones looking across the street from my front courtyard.

The next three show the majesty 

of our summer monsoon clouds.

This one was on a calmer evening:

During Covid I started following Chris Mann, starting with his hilarious song about the toilet paper shortage. Here he is on Instagram recently:

And here is my child who survived, 

with part of her menagerie:

Have a colorful day

Everyday beauty and wonder

This past week has been full of amazing sunrises (like the one above from my backyard), sunsets, monsoon storms and other beauty. Everyday beauty, actually, if you take the time to look for it every day.

Sunset light reflected off the mountains to the east turns them pink.

Monsoon rains have clothed our normally brown mountains in velvet green that one wouldn't expect to see in the desert. The bottom picture is the view from around the corner from my house. It amazes me every time I leave the neighborhood. Sometimes it glows gold in the magic light just before sunset. Other times it's pink. With the summer rains, it's green.

I didn't take this spectacular photo of a rainbow and lightning in Tucson. It was posted on Instagram and credited to @lorigraceaz. Simply amazing! I hope you find some everyday beauty today.

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Noom, blooms and monsoon

While sorting through old photos this week I found this picture of me 40 years ago and about 40 pounds lighter holding one of my weavings. I decided to finally do something about the pound-a-year weight gain and joined Noom, the weight loss program that focuses on your psychological reasons for eating as well as having you track your food and exercise. 

So far I've lost three pounds and am actually having fun listening to the daily lessons and tracking my food. Entering everything I eat into the Noom app makes me super conscientious about what I'm eating and I've been able to eat a lot more than I thought and still lose without being too hungry. If I stay on track I should be able to dump the 40 pounds by the end of February, although I find that hard to grasp.

In the midst of our monsoon rain, we had a sunny morning when the light illuminated my Joyful Desert quilt and I found the same colors on my neighborhood walk.

Look at my foot to get an idea of the size of this blooming barrel cactus!

Those are the Catalina Mountains behind the Mexican Bird of Paradise, which is in full bloom all over town.

Here's a closeup:

Then things went wrong:

 

The rains returned and my house sprouted another leak, just two weeks after my insurance company finished repairing the first one. I don't have the emotional strength to call them again right now -- maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime, I started physical therapy yesterday for my shoulder and am diligently doing my home exercises. Here I am on the way with my sling strap, purse strap, and seatbelt strap!

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Recovering

I'm surprised at how much I can do with my dominant hand in a sling! I'm managing to eat, brush my teeth, dress and type with my left hand without too much trouble. And no pain.

Since I can't sew, I decided to use these weeks to organize decades worth of photos in some new albums. (And this won't include the 40,000 digital photos on my computer.) The very first picture is me at about five months, showing an early interest in pie.

I also dealt with the tree that blew down in my back yard right after my surgery. I tried to donate it to the zoo to feed the elephants, but so many people called in offering downed trees that they can't get to mine so I had my yard guy haul it away. It really opens up the yard.

I spotted this vintage turquoise truck rolling down Oracle Road with a big teddy bear in back! And the full moon was spectacular.

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She said YES!!!

My daughter called yesterday with the best news -- her boyfriend officially proposed and she said YES!!!

Jade is the kindest, most considerate guy and I'm absolutely thrilled that he will be my son-in-law! He even called last week to ask my permission to pop the question!

He's the type of guy who sends me hand-written snail mail thank you notes and makes CDs for me of music he thinks I'll like. And he helps Julia cook great meals for me when I visit, like these platters of vegan sushi rolls and spring rolls.

He'll graduate from nursing school in December 

and they're aiming for an outdoor wedding

 next spring or summer.

His cat, Charlie, formed a special bond with Julia's rabbit Charlie. It was all meant to be.

Welcome to the family!

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Surgery and more storm damage

I'm back home from my shoulder surgery after spending four days at Nancy and Don's house being pampered. It was so nice being fed, having my own comfy room, and having their company. After three years of living alone, I felt like I was part of a family and it was really nice. Plus their little dog, Charlie, was my buddy.

Here I am having my first meal after surgery, learning to eat soup with my left hand. It actually went a lot better than I expected! It was a savory Italian soup with beer bread. Yum!

And here is my pillow nest! I had to keep my shoulder elevated and this worked perfectly. I could've slept in their recliner, but I liked my nest better. I haven't had ANY pain and haven't had to take the narcotics that were prescribed, only Tylenol and Ibuprofen.

This morning, before Nancy brought me home, I got my first ride in a golf cart as we toodled down to the clubhouse in Sun City for breakfast.

But it wasn't all fun and games. We continued to have monsoon rain every day and Nancy's brand new roof leaked, bubbling out the wall paint and flooding the hallway and the carpet at the entrance to my bedroom. They just bought the house two months ago! So now she's dealing with that.

And I'm dealing with the big tree that fell down in my yard while I was away. Fortunately it didn't damage anything and is in the back yard, not the front. Best of all, I just read on Facebook that the zoo will take away downed trees to feed to their elephants! I have to take some pictures and fill out a form to see if they're interested in this one. That would save me the money I'd have to pay to have it hauled away and would help the animals.

Last, this is the view from the Walgreen's parking lot in Oro Valley yesterday. Gorgeous!

Have a colorful day