Wednesday happenings at Sunscape

Don said, "Let's go stroll in the garden."  What?  OK, I'm game.  So we walk across the street and there is the sign:  Cactus Garden. All behind the park models and RV sites on this side of the street is a beautiful cactus garden. Residents have been planting and maintaining this garden for years.  It's completely fenced and they feed the small birds and the quail. The garden is decorated with all sorts of things like this windmill and   this rusty pan and   these skulls and bones that are reminiscent of old west days. A couple of small Christmas trees have recently been transplanted.  I sure hope they make it. Don is watching the several different coveys of quails.  We just could not believe how many there are here, but they are well fed and protected by the fence. When I was a kid, we had a hand-push tiller like this for our vegetable garden. This Ocotillo looks dead now, but in the spring, it will, hopefully, be covered in beautiful fire red blooms.  This is one of my favorite desert plants.

This bird looks artificial, but it is REAL.  I watched it land on this rock, jump around on the rock and then fly away. Finally, to get a good picture of a quail, I just stood perfectly still and waited until one walked out in an open space where I could get a great picture.  I am so excited to get these pictures.  Aren't they beautiful! Uh-oh, he saw me and changed directions. You can just imagine how many pictures I took in this garden and will go back and take more, especially when the blooms begin to pop out.  The gate is directly across the street from our site!! By this time Don had walked on ahead of me and had met a couple out on their patio:  Slim and Pat from Minnesota. Pat made a fresh pot of coffee and invited us to sit and visit. (Here, twist our arms... ok, that's enough) Absolutely delightful. Slim is a hoot and Pat is a doll.  Pat was talking, so this isn't the best shot of her.  I promise I will get a better picture of the two of them. Pat's bougainvillea on their patio (they have a park model). After a hour enjoying the hospitality of Pat & Slim, we walked back down the street to our 5'er.  This realistic-looking statue is about 3.5 feet tall. Well, here's the real thing:  Hannah and her driver, Winnie.  Hannah is about nine years old. So, I forgot to mention that Slim asked Don if we had a golf cart to "toodle" around the park in and, of course, we don't. Slim said, "Well, YOU, need one and ours stays parked because we ride our bicycles around so I'll bring our golf cart down and park it at your place so you'll have it when you need it."  Can you believe that??? So here's "our" golf cart for when Don gets tired walking.  Praise the Lord and thanks to Slim and Pat! Don got a short nap and then Lolita, aka Loli, one of the Park Ambassadors, came over to give us our Welcome Pack.  We visited with Loli for a while.  Have I told you that the people here we have met thus far are just the nicest folks?  (Did I just say "thus far"??)

At 6:30, we walked up to the Community Center for the Jam Session where about 15 locals entertained about 100 other locals. I took pictures of everyone, but will only post a couple.  Here's GH playing his accordion and singing. Donna on the left, has only been playing the guitar for a month and Sherri, about five years. They all have so much fun. And that was our Wednesday.