December in Arizona!

Sometimes the photos I take surprise me.

I know what I see before my eyes is beautiful, but then when I look at the screen and what it captured – it’s almost like looking at a quilt that turned out better than you anticipated!

I took this photo while walking around Sun Lakes, the area where my dad lives.  The community is built in rings around a central park area with walking paths that are golf cart friendly – in fact everyone goes EVERYWHERE (Even to the grocery store) on golf carts.

As for me – I walk. And I watch folks drive their golf carts while dogs trot along side.

I LOVE reflections on water, objects in mirror image above and below, still water reflecting like glass.

Blue sky was making an appearance!

And the ducks were having a hey day!  Click to play:

A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Nov 30, 2017 at 12:20pm PST

There was only one thing to make these moments of palm trees and blue sky just that much better……and then I smelled it.  Fresh mown carpet of green lawn stretched out before me.  I took in as many lungs full as I could, it may be a while before I smell this again!

And a while before I see this beauty again.

Dad and I drove out to Rio Verde/Tonto Verde yesterday to have lunch and enjoy the scenic drive.  This is the area where my grandparents snow birded from the time I was about 16.  So many Christmas and/or winter visits happened and so many memories were made here in this magical part of the state.

 

Me & my papa!

We ate out on the patio, perfect weather – we talked and reminisced and made plans for future visits and just enjoyed being together. 

And after a while we got back in the car, reversing the way we came, past Rio Verde and Grannie’s old house, following the winding desert road back through Fountain Hills and all the way back to Sun Lakes.

There wasn’t much time to waste – we had a concert to get to!

I got to watch my dad sing with the Tempe Community Chorus in concert! Here are several video clips, not the whole concert.

Choral music has been a big part of our lives since I was very little.  I’m so happy that dad is still so involved with music, it is such a joy to see him get in there and give his all.

It was the perfect way to welcome in the Christmas season with a bit of “non holiday” music between the Christmas songs as well. 

And that brings me to now.  Do you remember what I promised to do on Saturday morning?

I’ve drawn for the winners of our Jan/Feb 2018 Quiltmaker Bundle Gift-Away!

All of this goodness is going to:

Entry 1342 out of 5604 entries!

Julie Sheehy, this is your bundle!

Congrats!

And if you’ve made it this far down the page with me, I congratulate you, too.  I know I’m jumping around a bit, but I can’t help the ideas that keep firing off in my brain!

I had an epiphany last night.  (It happens occasionally!)

I head to Oregon this afternoon.  My first class is tomorrow – Sunday.  I wouldn’t be able to post anything about the Oregon Class until Tuesday by which time I’ll be pretty screwed up in my posting schedule.

So let’s do this…..I am going to open this week’s Mystery Monday Link-Up, TOMORROW, on SUNDAY and run it an extra day longer. It will solve many problems for me, and those who didn’t plan on posting until next Thursday anyway, it won’t affect you….we’re just going to start it a day early so it runs an extra day, and it takes care of tomorrow morning’s post since I don’t get into Medford until later tonight.

Remember, you don’t have to rush to link-up tomorrow.  You can post whenever you are ready, it will just be there for you when you ARE ready.  It’s not a race, take your time.  The link-up will be available until midnight eastern time on Thursday.

Now that that is settled, I’ve got to start packing!

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

We don't need many true friends in this life, but be sure one of yours is YOU!

Have a wonderful Saturday, everyone!