...and the Critters Keep Coming...

Critters come and go...I gave 4 away and made some more

Meet, Neon the Elephant and Sunshine the Piggy. 

Neon is the brightest critter I've ever made and he's just super dazzling!

Lake Cachuma 2019 and 2022

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December 2019

December 2022
We need some rain.

Goodbye 2022

Lots of things went wrong in 2022, but I'm not going to delve on them. 

I'm counting my blessings by looking at the things I want to remember that were good for me (just me) in 2022. 

I'm being selfish and I can as this is MY blog.

1) I have a wonderful, loving husband

2) I have great friends and family whom I love

3) I can walk without a wheelchair, walker or cane

4) My left hip is pain free

5) I love the freedom to live where I chose to live

It's been a challenging year and I'm ready to welcome 2023!

Happy, Healthy New Year.

Where is the Rain?

I stole this weather map from AccuWeather...there's rain in northern CA (which is good) but there's not a lot of rain in southern CA or southern NV. 

We need to tell the weather-gods to send us some water.

Where's the Normal Piggy?

Another piggy showed up in the menagerie. She's cute and loud and while her shape is "normal" she is unusual. So that might make you think the normal piggy is the pink one until you see her eyelashes. She's definitely channeling Ms. Piggy.

So, which piggy is normal? The loud piggy or the Ms. Piggy wannabe? 

BTW I don't know the answer. In the world of crocheted piggies, anything can be normal.

Meet Ella the Elephant...Eli is her brother. They are "circus elephants" or they started out as decorated Easter eggs gone awry.

Sometimes I Need to Make Toys

I love making critters. You've already seen the recent batch of piggies. Today I finished a blue elephant. I asked my friend Karen to name him and she said he looked like Eli the Elephant." Of course I asked him if he liked that name and he said "YES! Eli's a very handsome elephant. 

Like I said, I needed to make some toys....and more are in the works.

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas Eve. When I was a kid, this was the big Christmas celebration. We had a huge dinner with lots of family and then we opened presents. We even got Christmas presents from Santa. When I asked my mom why they came early she said that Santa was a busy man and he left early presents to kids who were good. My sister and I were pleased with that answer and never questioned it again. We were good kids and good kids got all their presents on Christmas Eve. We kind of felt sorry for the kids who had to wait for Christmas as they were not as good as we were. 

To that end, I hope you get your presents from Santa early. Merry Christmas everyone!

Flying Piggies

Sometimes I need to do something different...so I'm making flying piggies

. 

Of course flying piggies have unusual aerodynamics as their wings are small in relation to their bodies...

but theoretically bees are not supposed to be able to fly...so why worry about it.

Normal piggies

A quartet of piggies waiting for new homes.

Lake Reflections

This morning the water mirrored the mountains. 

I think it is magical to see a large body of water so still.

You can tell the water is low as the old road has surfaced. 

If you look very carefully, there's a fellow fishing on that old road. 

Morning at Lake Cachuma

It's morning at the lake. The fog is lacing the sky with tendrils of light 

Soon the sun will melt the fog

And the view will be clear.

Solvang

The tiny Danish town, Solvang, in the Santa Ynez Valley, celebrates Christmas with style. Not only are the streets decorated, so is the town park Last night was a community song fest of Christmas carols. The park has several real Christmas trees covered with lights and ornaments. The spirit of the season is happy and bright.

Main Street is lined with trees decked with strings of white lights. Solvang a perfect place to get last minute Christmas gifts with a Danish flair. 

Christmastime in the RV

We are winter camping in the fifth wheel in the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley in CA. It's about 60 degrees warmer than our home in the Rocky Mountains and that's why we are here. We have a little Christmas tree on the coffee bar and sparkly garlands hung on the slide outs...it a cozy cabin for Christmas.

Outside in the campground there are wild turkeys strutting around and woodpeckers are tapping acorns into the oak trees. We've seen deer and even a coyote crossing the street. It's good to be back at Lake Cachuma after a 2 year absence. BTW, the lake is at 31% of full. I'll show you pictures tomorrow.

On the Road, Again

We're on the road again...first time since October. The October trip was from summer house to winter house and was not very long. This one is much longer and will actually include winter camping. The plan is to spend Christmas with our family in northern CA then spend some time at our favorite lake in southern CA. Two days out and we're still following the plan.

We've been on the road many times in the fifty years we've been camping. Our first adventure was in July, 1972, which was a shake down trip to Crater Lake in an 18 foot mini-motorhome. We discovered the water pump did not work but that did not hamper the adventure. Since that first shaky trip, we've had many more adventures including driving to 49 states; 9 provinces and 1 territory in Canada. We've also rented motorhomes when we did not have ours. We've lived full time in our RV when we've built or sold houses too. We would not be who we are without the wonderful stuff we've learned while being on the road. The memories are many and we hope to make more. As the seniors in the campground, we take our time while enjoying what we can do and it's still a great adventure!

Christmas Lights

For the last few days our neighborhood has been texting about Christmas lights. The messages have been flying and we all decided to use the same set of lights and we decided on how we were going to display them. We ordered the lights (thank you Amazon) and they arrived on Monday. Yesterday we all installed lights along our common back fence and they went "live" last night. What a sight to see our lights all across the villages. Talk about a great neighborhood! Talk about cooperation! 

A little bit of light to get us in the Christmas Spirit. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sunset in the Desert

We've lived in the desert for several months now and we've discovered this desert does not have colorful sunsets. 

We were used to sunsets at our last home so we miss them. Then, last night we had a sunset!

As with any sunset, they are illusive. By the time we drove out of the parking lot, it was gone. What a sight to behold if even for a minute.