Chilis!

I have been harvesting chili off my St. Johns Chili plants all winter long. I love to chop one up and put it in an omelet!

I've Got Bokeh

I was reading about bokeh on Michelle's blog the other day and had to go look it up to see what it was. I found it's the blur in out of focus areas of a photo or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions. This blur can be either pleasing or unpleasant and distracting. I went out and took this closeup shot to see and I do have points of light in the photo. Interesting, I'll have to experiment more.


Last night, I popped a bone in my ankle as I was standing up, it hurt as bad as spraining it would have and today I stubbed my toe and fell down on the steps outside, jarring my back and hurting my wrists. It's not as much fun to move around and fall down as it used to be, oh say 59 years ago, LOL! I'm sore all over now!

We're Still Frozen

It warmed up a bit today, just enough to make the snow melt a bit and water run off the roof onto our north facing sidewalk and then freeze and make a dangerous skating rink! John slipped and almost fell down going out the door! It's a dangerous world out there right now!

We went out for a drive this afternoon and found the Little Colorado River is mostly mostly frozen over!

Another Interview

John was interviewed and taped today for a video that will be shown in the North Country Health Care Clinic waiting rooms. Tony Norris interviewed him and Greg Hales did the taping. They spent almost 3 hours taping and visiting with John. I think they liked his art!


It warmed up last night, we only had 3.5 below zero! Cold day today, a bit of melting, it got up to 29 degrees midday! The weather says it's going to be a cold week, with maybe snow again later on. Summer, we need you!

Crunch, Crunch!

That's the sound my feet make walking outside. It's 14 degrees out right now, the low last night was -18 degrees! Burrr, too cold for me.


John got his crown in today, the dentist had a cancellation and so he was able to get it done a few days early. Yea, glad that's all done!

I'm Freezing!

More cold weather and snow last night. Maybe 2 to 3 inches on the ground. The low last night was -12.5! I guess it's cold all over, Kelsey said it was 31 in the valley this morning!

Snow Many Snowflakes

There wasn't much new snow on the ground this morning, we just got a light skiff. It's been snowing off and on all morning, but not much. Weather report says more is in store and I hear that the US is getting lots all across the country. I'm ready to book a flight to somewhere that has summer right now!

Stir fry for supper, yumm!

January is Ending Just like December!

Cold and we got snow. Hope this storm doesn't leave us with as much as the December storm did! We've still got snow on the ground from the December storm, it has been a cold and dreary January!

Eagle Scout Court of Honor

We attended an Eagle Scout Court of Honor held for Trent this evening. He seems way too young to be an Eagle Scout! He's growing up so fast! The program was very nice, they had it at Julie and Carl's house, then family stayed and ate together after the Court of Honor. Vicki and Wayne came up to see Mabel, she has been ill and isn't doing well, so Vicki felt she needed to come see her. I was shocked at how much she has shrunk since I last saw her, she seems so tiny and frail. She was having a hard time figuring out where she was and who people were. Don't know if it's the medications she's on or what causing that. I took my camera to get some family pictures, it just seemed like a good idea to do that while we had this many family members here.

New Koontz book is Out!

The library called to let me know they had the newest Koontz book in now! Yea! Guess you know what I'll be doing the next few days!

Mom made this cute little tissue cover for me.

I'm getting well acquainted with the wii board now and I think I'm toughing up a bit. I can "bike" all over the island for 30 minutes and go about 6 miles, then run another 2 miles around the island! Yea! (Wonder if I could do that in "real" life?)

Dentist and St. Johns

John and I had appointments to get our teeth cleaned this morning. Afterwards we went to St. Johns. The water in Lyman Lake was smooth and glassy, like a mirror.

Sandy called John asking if he would participate in a project that the clinic she works for is doing, they are filming short segments about the people in the area to put in the offices for people to watch while they wait for their appointment. They will film John and interview him about his art work. Cool! While he delivered the Airplane to the airport and talked to Sandy, I stayed at Mom's and checked out her computer and fixed it so Carbonite will start backing it up again. She was able to get everything put back on it that she lost, thank goodness Carbonite still had her backup!

We watched the sun set on our way home, it was beautiful, as always!

Quiet Day

John loading up the airplane sculpture to take it to St. Johns. He's going to park it at the airport for a while so the pilots can see it.

The snow is hanging around a long time! This snow fell last December!

John's going to be on TV!

John was invited to be a guest on Art Space, a TV show that airs on City 4 TV in the ShowLow area! The show will air in March and will also be available to view on the internet. There will be two artists featured on the show in March, John and Dennis Hill, who was in the Art Barn with us last summer. Taping of the show was today in the City 4 TV studio in Show Low. Steve Taylor is one of the hosts for the show and recommended John, thanks Steve! Peggy, Dennis' wife, and myself were able to view them taping on a TV in the waiting room of their studio. What fun! After the taping, we went out to lunch with Dennis and Peggy to catch up on what's been going on in our lives since we last saw each other. Jessie, Grandpa Steve gave me a hug to pass on to you and said to tell you "Hi".

John, Dennis, Steve and producer Jan vanDierendonck.

John with hostess Justine Wintersmith and host Steve Taylor during the taping of the show.

Struggling With Project 365

I'm surprised that after a year of taking a photo every day, I'm having a hard time keeping up this year. I think I've run out of ideas for photos to take. :-( Here's my angel wing begonia, Diane gave me the start at the end of the barn season.

De Plane, De Plane!

John has almost finished the airplane he's been working on! He put it in our yard to try out the mounting pole to see if it's strong enough.

Jewelers

Jessie and I love making jewelry together. Jessie loves to make necklaces and I like making earrings. Here's Jessie showing off the earrings I made. (She's wearing her necklace, but it's mostly covered by her hands.)

Jessie and Pa.

On the way home from meeting Jessie's Dad in Vernon, we saw a huge group of Antelopes! I got this shot of a couple of them.

Check Out John's New Sculpture

John has been working on a different kind of a sculpture recently, it's a man made of computer parts! He's looking pretty cool.

Jessie is spending the weekend with us. We picked her up yesterday afternoon after school and will take her home tomorrow. We played lots of wii games today and watched a movie she brought over. She tried out this new exercise I haven't tried yet, it looks like fun. It was fun to see her exercise with all the family mii's. Myself, Nikki, Jessie, Charles and Trish are in this class with Jessie.

Wow, I Biked Around WuHu Island for an Hour!

I have worked up to the long distance bike rides on the wii Wuhu Island now, and was having fun hunting out the location of the flags this morning. I was down to only 2 flags when a message popped up that I'd been exercising for long enough and they shut me down! Wow, it said I'd been cycling for an hour, I had no idea it had been that long!

John brought my fish in this morning, he said he hasn't moved all day and after watching him for a while I had to agree, he's a goner. I'm not sure how old the two fish were, I think about 10 years old.

We picked up Jessie this evening after school, she's going to spend the weekend with us. She enjoyed learning how to fly a plane with her Pa this evening.

Fossil Fish and Catching Up the Blog

John's newest fish, another fossil fish. Funny thing, he almost discarded the metal he used to make the fish's face a couple days ago! Glad he didn't, he looks awesome!

Spent some time today catching up on photos on my blog. Wow, I took a lot while we were gone!

John and I had more dog fights on the wii tonight. He whupped me! And my arm is so sore, I can hardly move it!

Big Difference Between All Dead and Mostly Dead!

I assumed that both my goldfish were dead, frozen in the 20 below. I could only see one of them and it hadn't moved in weeks. I put water in the pond the other day anyway, just in case, and today when I went outside both fish were in sight! I put more water in the pond and noticed a fin slowly moving on one of the fish. Not sure if it was the water turbelence or the fish, I got a pail and removed him from the pond. He was moving! Not much life, he moves one fin and his mouth. I put the bucket in the shop, where it is a bit warmer and will leave him there until tomorrow to see if he's just in winter mode or if he's too far gone to recover. He's laying on his side and that doesn't sound like a very good sign, I can't tell if the fin on that side is going or not. Poor fish, I had to break up ice that was on top of him and I think it may have been around him, too!

John got the new pump installed in the sewage lift station, he's glad to have that out of the way so he can get back to creating. He's been working on a sculpture that's different from any he's done. It's a guy made of computer parts.

Lunch Date and the Annual Saddle Exchange

Mel called and asked us out to lunch with them today, so we went to Bugga Reds. We had a good long visit waiting for our lunch to be served. It took about an hour to get our food!! Then some of it was barely warm! Don't think we'll be going back again soon! I forgot to get a picture of John and Mel and the saddle like I usually do, bummer!

While in Green Valley Garnet and I were looking at John's trophy rock bass on a rock plaque and I got the idea of a fossil fish on a rock and today he brought this one to me. Perfect, just what I was thinking of! I love it!

John and I played wii games this evening. Tried out a new one, table tennis and the upper levels of the archery. And of course John's favorite, Dog Fights.

The clouds moving across the full moon looked so cool this evening at sunset!

Unpacking and a Weird Face

Spent the day unpacking the trailer and washing and trying to find stuff! We were running around outside in our short sleeves, no coats and I was warmer than I'd been all week at Green Valley!

John brought this "face" to my attention today. It's the wood grain on the seat of one of our chairs. We each saw a face, but we saw a different face. The face is in the middle section. Can you see it? The face I see is kind of scary!

This poor fish in my pond is frozen! The water has mostly leaked out and I'm afraid the cold weather has done the fish in.

Home

We headed for home this morning. I was hoping to stay at least a night at the RV park to kind of recover from the hectic show, but John wanted to head for home and not set up the trailer again. Here's Green Valley at dawn as we were hooking up the trailer.

We stopped at the Desert Diamond Casino for breakfast, but found all the restaurants were closed, the only place we could find open was a grill inside the casino and we had a mediocre breakfast there. It was a cool looking place, loved the fountain.

Charles was going to meet us there, but since it was so early when we finished breakfast and it was too smoky inside the casino to look around we called him and arraigned to meet at a shopping center just outside Tucson. Good thing we did, his brakes were having a problem and I wouldn't have wanted him to drive all the way to the casino to meet us! The distance markers on I 19 between Tucson and Green Valley are all metric, it feels like I'm in a foreign country!

We visited a Best Buy just for fun and Nikki had fun playing on an apple computer and creating these:

We had a good visit, too short, but good, then we headed for home and Charles headed to Checker Auto Parts to buy new brake shoes. We stopped for lunch at a DQ in Picacho, a short restroom break and made it home just before dark. Exhausted tonight.

Talked to Charles and Nikki, he got the new brake shoes installed and his pickup is sounding and braking much better now! Yea!

The Last Day!!

The last day of the show! We've had fun visiting with the other artists at the show, catching up with our neighbors, Garnett, Roberto, Alan, Vicki, Glynnis and her hubby, getting better acquainted with Vicki and Nick, and others we've met at shows at the barn.


John hurt his back loading up and has decided to go home tomorrow and not stay for the other show. I was looking forward to a few days of vacation down here, :-((