Living on AZ Time!

After spending most of the morning on the computer double checking art edits, answering emails that have piled up over the past week while teaching in Texas, I found myself just ITCHING  to get out in the Arizona January sunshine and soak up some vitamin D!

It seems I have not thawed out since Germany –and while dad joined his regular group here in Sun Lakes for a game of pickleball, on went my shoes, in went my ear buds and I took a long walk with James Taylor enjoying the sights, sounds and smells around me.

Smells??

YES, smells!

I didn’t catch it at first ---that fresh fragrance that brings to mind childhood summers full of long drawn out afternoons end endless daylight --

And then it hit me…FRESH MOWN GRASS!!

Someone had just mowed the grass I was standing on ---oh that delightful freshly cut grass smell!

With waterfowl!!

Looks like I wasn’t the only one enjoying the newly mown lawns that surround the walking paths at Sun Lakes!

Mallards floating around, green heads in the sun!

There are so many things in life I have taken for granted.  When life is so busy and so hectic that you can’t even find time to take a WALK ---this was the perfect way to spend just an hour –and I intend to do it again today!

Afternoon sun behind the clouds --

I have a love affair with palm trees.  I’ve loved them since I was little –I remember being in 2nd grade, moving from Minnetonka, Minnesota’s freezing cold  to the sunshine and warmth of San Jose California’s Almaden Valley,  with palms in our new front yard.  Majestic beauties, reaching upward with their crowns.  They  bring on images of feathers in quilting designs, texture demanding to be touched – and of Princess Feather appliques –something I’ve always admired but have never attempted.

Dinner last night was a heart filled occasion – with so much talking when we first gathered that our waiter had to come back FOUR times to see if we were ready to order yet.  The food I guess, just was not as important as the fact that we were gathered together – Dad, myself, my brother Mark, and  my sis-in-law Sharolyn.

Dad and Mark pose for a cheesy photo –who is who??

Mark is doing so well!  He has about a week of radiation and chemo left ---then some time off, and then he starts on a clinical trial thing.  He’s lost his hair, he’s lost about 20 lbs, and though he tires easily, he is still the brother I love so much!  And it hit me – wow.  you CAN tell we are family! 

Mark and Sharolyn

I am so happy to have been able to add these couple of days on to my Texas itinerary ---family is THAT important!

Tonight’s plan is for dinner at Mark’s house –and just more time talking, relaxing, just being ---there is a time for quilting, and there is a time for FAMILY.

Love from Arizona ---

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