SEDONA TO LAS VEGAS

CYPRESS GARDENS

Our trip from home to Sedona last Sunday did not start off well, as we got distracted with something and then forgot to take the last items out of the fridge and left all of the oils and vinegars on the sink counter.  So our first day in Sedona was purchasing all new olive oils, balsamic, A-1, cholula, sesame oil, etc at Whole Foods and Bashas..... and calling Carolyn, our next door neighbor to see if she could clean out the perishables in our fridge so we would not have to come home to "the fridge that was eaten by monster bacteria".   [Thank you very much Carolyn].
But we had a good day on Tuesday, show sitting at our annual APAA Spring Pastel Show.  Linda, a pastel nature artist in the show came by early to sit and chat with us, then Peggy and Gary showed up, and then Kendra came early also.  It was fun to have some time to just sit and talk with everyone.  And while we were talking,  a man came in to show his wife a painting that he really liked and wanted to purchase.  She was fine with that... so our final sale made a total of eight paintings sold for the show.   Then on Wednesday, while we were on the road to Las Vegas.... I got an email from Laura (and also a phone call from Peggy) to say that my painting "Cypress Gardens"  (see above) had gotten the Peoples Choice Award.   That almost made me happier than getting the Honorable Mention from the judge for my "Tehachapi Sunrise" painting. 

The Oasis RV Resort in Las Vegas is always our go to place to stay when we are on the road from home to the northwest.  Yes, it is a little more money, but the pool and hot tub can't be beat and there are all sorts of stores, restaurants, and sights within a range of 1/2 hour or less. 

 We had never been down to Fremont Street for the Light Show.  And many people had told us to check it out... so this time we made sure that we got down there... well no wonder everyone said to check it out, it is like a lewd extravaganza of flashing lights, flashing skin, and throbbing sound.  The sights range from the ridiculous to the absurd. 

There were girls showing their attributes and there were men showing their own attributes.  All those displaying attributes wanted money.  Hands out when they noticed you were taking a photo, and who wasn't taking a photo.  There were two Muslim ladies taking photos too, I'll bet they will have some great stories when they get home.  

RED ROCK CANYON 

Today we got up at 5 a.m. to head over to Red Rock Canyon.  In spite of the fact that we have been here in LV almost yearly, we had never taken the time to visit this scenic area.  We got some great photos which I am already anxious to turn into paintings.  The yellow rock formation that you see in the photo is actually a very old hardened sand dune.  It was an interesting area with many blooming desert plants on a one-way driving loop.  We are looking forward to coming here again .... however I can't say the same for Fremont Street.

HEADING NORTH

Tehachapi Sunrise

This year we are heading North and this week is the final countdown before we leave on Sunday for Sedona, our first stop on a five month trip.
We will be in Sedona for 3 days to showsit at our annual Spring Show at the Sedona Art Center.  

This year Allan got 3 paintings in the show and I got all four with one of my paintings  (above) getting an honorable mention.  The painting is Tehachapi Sunrise and it is a place we stay frequently in the rv as we travel from Barstow over the Tehachapi Summit to Bakersfield.  From Sedona we will be in Las Vegas for a few days and then we are spending a week in Bishop where we intend to explore the southeastern side of the sierras.  Then on to Brookings, Oregon for two whole weeks at the beach.

 We will then go up to Portland for a week and then to Gig Harbor for a week while we check out the International Open Juried Show of the Northwest Pastel Society.  This year I have one painting juried into that show and we purchased an airfloat box to ship it up to Tecoma, Washington.  The show will run until June 23rd so we will be there to pick up my painting at the end of the show.  

We will be going back to the gardens at Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island.  Check out Allan's painting of a photo we took on a previous visit......     After that we will be staying in Anacortes for about 10 days before we travel up to Vancouver where we intend to visit some favorite places we have been in past visits and also to check out some new places.  We will come back to the US to head east to Coeur d'Alene and then North to Radium Hot Springs which is located on the western side of the Rockies about an hour from Banff.  This is the furthest north we will go and on our return we will travel down through Glacier NP, a place we have never been.... Yellowstone NP, a favorite place..... Grand Tetons... a new spot for us... and we will finish up at the Plein Air Festival in the Grand Canyon.

 So this week is packing and more packing.... and also finishing up a painting I have been working on for the last week or so.  It is pretty close to done.  The painting is from a photo of Convict Lake, which is extremely picturesque... I just hope I have done it justice.

Buzzing Around

Eel River Farm

We are back on the road again after a very hectic week with an africanized bee swarm that established residency in one of our trees.  The hive that they made was longer than my arm and about as thick as a toaster.  There wasn't much honey which is how the bee men knew they were africanized.  They apparently remove about seven hives a day in the spring and several a day in the fall.  But for us it involved a lot of clean up and pruning as they tried to reform even after the hive was removed and the bee people had to return and give them a second shot.  The worst part was that our dog Elsie got several bee stings and now is afraid to go into the backyard.  No photos, sorry.... we just could not get close enough to take a photo.  

Canadian Goose

While all of this was going on, I was getting some paintings prepared to enter the 6" Squared show in Costa Mesa.  I submitted four and was happy to hear that two of the paintings had been juried into the show.  So I got those ready and sent them off the day before we left for Lake Havasu.  We are headed towards Morro Bay where we will pick up my paintings from the PSWC Show.  

Havasu Falls RV Park

We usually stop off in Needles as our halfway point but it is such a desolate hole with the highest fuel prices in California, so this time we decided to try out a park in Lake Havasu, Arizona.  We stayed at Havasu Falls RV and it was mainly cement pads but it did have pull thrus which are perfect for an overnight stay.  

Mountain Valley RV Park, Tehachapi

Yesterday we drove on to Tehachapi where we will stay for three nights.  The rv park is situated right next to the glider airport and from our back window we can watch them take off and land.  The hills are golden brown now and the trees are turning up here on the mountain where the nights are down in the low 40's already.   Tomorrow we make the long drive to Morro Bay to pick up the paintings.  We are just taking the truck and making it an all day trip.  Then on to Tecopa Hot Springs where we hope to stay about a week soaking and relaxing (and maybe plein air painting).  

SHOW TO SHOW

Dotty Hawthorne Studio

It seems longer than a week ago when we were in San Luis Obispo County sitting by the seashore and breathing in clean ocean air.  But a week ago last Saturday we were traveling through out the SLO county visiting artist's studios for their yearly studio tour.  Whenever we go on some kind of tour like this, we always manage to visit areas that we would never go to ordinarily and it is a special bonus to be able to see another artist's work space, especially when they are pastel artists.   Our favorite painting studio that we visited was the home of pastel artist Dotty Hawthorne, who also had a couple of paintings in the West Coast Pastel Society Show in Morro Bay.  She was superb at capturing the quintessential California landscape with many of her paintings showing golden hills and California Oaks.  www.dottyhawthorne.com   

The Palms

We also stopped by the Morro Bay Art Center and Gallery a couple of times to study the other entries in the show and made some notes on different artists styles and techniques which we followed up back home at the computer by going to each of their websites.  It was a definite thrill to be a part of a national show.  And, as it turned out, we were not able to attend the reception.  Saturday night we went out to eat at what seemed to be a very expensive fish restaurant and I had a prawn cocktail which came back to haunt me in the night and all the next day, which was the day of the reception.

Doug Dawson speaking to the APAA Reception

 On Monday morning we headed off in the rv, arriving in Tehachapi for the evening, then on Tuesday we made it as far as Needles, arriving home on Wednesday afternoon.  We spent the rest of that day and some of Thursday unpacking the rv and returning it to storage.  Then I framed five paintings for Drop Off  at the Scottsdale Artists School to be in our Arizona Pastel Artists Assn Fall Show on Friday.  We also stayed on Friday to help hang the show and then went shopping for wine and water for the reception.  Saturday was the reception which was fabulous.

Lembert Dome Honorable Mention

 What a turnout and Doug Dawson spoke at length about what makes a good painting, how paintings are juried, and then he elaborated on each painting that won an award.  I was completely surprised to find out that one of my paintings had won an Honorable Mention as there were so many really outstanding paintings in the show.  Dawson said that what he really liked about my painting was my handling of the edges, especially around the clouds, the pine tree needles on the left of the painting, and the grasses in the foreground.    But as Carsten so eloquently said "just keep painting".  So back to work, except it can't be work when it is so enjoyable.  

FROM GRAND CANYON TO LONG BEACH

We arrived in Long Beach on Thursday late afternoon after a long haul across the desert from Needles, California.  We had been expecting to stay in the Grand Canyon area for another day and night but the trailer park in Tusayan where we were camping, left us a note that we would have to move the rig to a different site because they had assigned our spot to someone coming in on Wednesday.  This was interesting only because the campground has about 100 sites, of which only 20 were filled.  So rather than argue the point, we decided to leave a day earlier.  
We had enjoyed our stay very much and on the last couple of days had taken the shuttle out to either end of the paved roads and had gotten another 500 photos of the canyon in the morning, evening, and in various weathers.  On our last night we had dinner at El Tovar during a tremendous thunder and lightning storm with copious amounts of drenching cold rain.  While we were there, we saw a lightning bolt strike the lightning rod of the hotel.  That is the closest we have ever been to lightning and I can say that if I never see it again, it will be OK.  Everyone who had been sitting out on the deck, immediately scrambled to get inside.  However, by the time we left, most of the weather had ambled away and I was able to get a photo of this elk fawn on our way out of the park.
We left early on Wednesday morning for Desert View RV Resort in Needles, CA and arrived around noon.  It was a beautiful park with lots of trees, plenty of room in the sites which were hedged on either side with Ficus trees.  We just kicked back and had a barbeque for dinner and then walked a few feet to the pool which we had all to ourselves for the evening.  

In the morning we were ready to leave early but the front legs of the 5th wheel would not raise due to a burned out fuse, so Allan headed off to town to get a replacement.  We were on our way finally about 8:45 a.m. and stopped in Barstow for refreshments and to walk the dogs.  We hit the traffic of Los Angeles about 2:00 p.m. and were in stop and go traffic for the remainder of the trip.  My phone gps map said that we had 26 miles to go and the time estimate was an hour and a half.  But we got to The Golden Shore RV Resort without incident and were able to back into our space easily enough  (see above).

 Although the front view is pretty plain, behind our rig is a green space which gives lots of room between our rig and those behind us.  Last night we took a walk outside our park and just behind us, outside the fence is a wetlands that the city of Long Beach established in 1997.   The land that you see in the distance is San Pedro and if you look closely, you can see someone's rv behind the rv park fence.  We are literally backed up to the harbor.  The people that you see in the wetlands are using nets to pick up floating plants and debris.  The restoration is on going.

 The wetlands were on our right as we walked out of the park and to our left was a park along the harbor which included a bike path that went under the San Pedro bridge, so we were able to walk all the way over to an area called Shoreline Village which is where all the shops and restaurants are located along the boat harbor.  We actually walked behind the Aquarium of the Pacific and to our right was the Queen Mary (photo at the top of the page.)  Today (Friday) we are doing some housekeeping, laundry, and a trip to TJ's/Sprouts.  After being in the National Park for a week, some of which was without electricity we needed to get the inside of the rv cleaned up.  We also tried to do without extra provisions while in the nat'l park because the prices were so high.  So today will be a catch up day.  Tomorrow the sightseeing can begin!

JUST ANOTHER HICCUP

It is Sunday morning and [take note] I am writing from the RV Park in Tusayan, just outside the entrance to the Grand Canyon Park.  

Yesterday we had a good day of taking photos around the area of Mather Point, although we were surrounded by tourists from home and abroad.  Everyone who passed us by seemed to be speaking French, Italian, German, Japanese, and even English with various kinds of accents.  As we offered to take photos for some folks who wanted both parties in the picture, we usually had to resort to hand signals to speak.  We hadn't experienced this degree of diversity since we camped in Yosemite years ago.   The photo is of Mather Point and as you can see it is very crowded near the edge where everyone is trying to achieve some sort of photographic immortality by capturing each other on film.  While Allan and I were there at the railing, I was shoved to the side by a foreign "gentleman" who needed to have his picture taken.  If there hadn't been a railing, I would now be scrambled on the canyon below.  

These young Japanese girls were going through numerous contortions in order to get all four of them in the same shot, until I came to their rescue and then had to take shots of them from each of four smartphones.   Although the scenery was breathtaking, sometimes it was the tourist antics which captured the spirit of the place.  They were all so thrilled to be there.  
After a short snack and nap back at the campsite, we decided to head back over to the rim near El Tovar in order to get some sunset photos.  

We got there and set up some chairs along the rim wall and took leisurely photos as the sun dropped behind the clouds and rain fell among the lightning strikes on the North Rim across the canyon.  We were sitting just adjacent to Hopi House and we took photos accompanied by live flute music provided by the volunteers at Hopi House.   The music was extremely beautiful and mirrored the natural surroundings with songs sounding like little birds and other songs that seemed to be synchronized with the movement of the clouds across the canyon sky.  
However, when we got back to the rv in the campground, our refrigerator warning light had come on and would not be cajoled into behaving.  Allan finally had to start the generator at 9:00 pm (which probably made all our neighbors hate us) in order to have the fridge operate again, but on A/C.  After a half hour, we decided to turn off the generator to spare our fellow campers and the fridge seemed to settle down, but we were awakened at 3 in the morning by a warning beep and flashing light coming from the fridge.  We had no choice but to turn it off and hope for the best come morning.  

By 5 in the morning Allan had decided to move to an rv park with hookups in order not to lose all of the food in the fridge.  So we hooked up the rv to the truck and were in the new campground by 6 this morning where I happily plugged in all of the chargers, turned on the fridge to a/c, and set the coffee perking.   As Allan took the registration card over to the office he got a photo of an elk in the rv park, I guess they prefer hookups too.

ROUGHING IT AT THE GRAND CANYON

 After 30 years, we thought we might make a return to the Grand Canyon.  We arrived on Thursday, as planned, but it was touch and go there for a little while.  On Tuesday evening, while we were still in Flagstaff, we got a phone call from our neighbor.  Our irrigation line was blowing off an elbow joint and although he had done a temporary replacement for it, we had already lost one home to an outside irrigation leak and we decided to be prudent and drive back to Apache Junction and take a look at the system for ourselves.  We finally arrived about 10:30 at night and sat outside for a bit, while the A/C was bringing down the inside heat of the house.  We got up at 5 a.m. and Allan decided to replace the system with our old manual system until we returned in August.  We both felt a little better when we hit the road back up to Flagstaff.  It turned out to be just a little hitch in our giddy-up and we were ready to drive to the Grand Canyon on Thursday.
We are staying in a national forest campground WITHOUT HOOKUPS OR SERVICES,   to see if we could dry camp.  Well.... saving water is no problem, and letting the yellow mellow is no problem, and using the 12 volt to read by is also no problem.  The problem is that all of our cameras, jetpack, computer, smart phone and ipad stuff needs to be recharged, every day.  I ended up recharging the smart phone in the truck while we were driving.  The rest is getting recharged via a Honda Generator which Allan has hooked up to our electric line to the rv.  Also, we are camped in a spot with partial shade.  Of course during the hottest part of the afternoon is when the shade is impartial and we get not one speck of it.  But we are managing.  Today we stopped by the Trailer RV Park in the national park itself and they gave me all the info for making reservations for the future.  We will definitely be doing that for the next trip.  We have found that we CAN manage, But Why Do We Want To.  Is it because we want to be in a rustic site where we can sit outside early in the morning and watch our drowsy camper across the way stagger over to a bush and water it (when there is a very clean restroom with pit toilets just 50 feet from where he is standing.  Or perhaps we want to be where we can hear the boom boom boom of the boom box somewhere at a campsite nearby.  Or maybe it is because we can sit outside and watch the blue jays and the nuthatches, although I suspect they also have those over at the Trailer RV Park in the national park.

 While we were walking the trail along the edge of the canyon over to El Tovar for breakfast, we stopped many times to take photos or just to contemplate the distance down or across the canyon.  At one point we realized we were not the only sightseers when we spotted this little feller, sitting calmly on the very edge, looking down for several minutes.  Just think, he gets to see this view every day of the year, what a lucky guy.
After his moments of contemplation, he turned around and scurried off, to take care of gathering nuts and all those other mundane duties of his daily life.

We continued our walk over to the El Tovar Lodge where we had a lovely breakfast, Allan had Prime Rib Hash, that was a first for him.   The photo does not even look like hash because the hash was not shredded like normal hash.  It was just hunks of prime rib and red skinned potatoes with grilled peppers and onions, and on top was an ancho chile cheese sauce.
Then we walked the rest of the trail out to Kolb Studio where we had a wonderful chat with the Studio Manager about the annual Plein Air event in September where Michael Chesley Johnson will again be included.  
When we returned to our rv around lunch time, the thunderheads were already building up and we made it just in time before the big fat drops started pelting down.  

LUNCH IN SEDONA

Although yesterday was our first day in Flagstaff, we had already made arrangements to meet Rita and her husband Steve in Sedona for lunch.  We headed down early so that we could check out the wonderful consignment shops in the morning.  As usual, here in Sedona, we hit pay dirt.  Allan found 5 Ralph Lauren shirts in barely worn condition for $6 each and a couple of tshirts.  I found a Ralph Lauren dressy top and black dress pants (perfect for the Masters Pageant later in LA), plus a pair of Banana Republic dress slacks.  When we got to the cash register, it turned out that all clothing was 1/2 off, so our final tab was $31.  We got some really fine clothes and the PAWS pet shelter got a little more money.  Good news for everyone.  We then headed off to the Oaxaca to meet Rita and Steve for lunch.  We had a great conversation about food, art, and travel.  We were also able to give Rita a return gift of two of our paintings for the painting she gave to us of our two dogs, which was in the Spring Sedona Show.

Elsie and Murray are now famous and we enjoy her painting so much as it is a reminder of when they were just year old pups.
They are such great travelers too.  They have really taken to the rv life and have already settled into their traveling routines.  Allan takes them for long walks every day and they are especially lucky in this rv park to have an off leash area to run around.  The people in this park have little signs all over the park to remind you of the rules and they even have a sign in the dog park.  
Today is a Flagstaff day... we will just check out the town a little and then stock up on some groceries for our week in the Grand Canyon.   We will probably have to have a nap this afternoon as the rig next to us is full of young men from Britain who talked under our bedroom window last night until after 2 a.m.   We are hoping they move on down the road today and are replaced by a quiet senior couple.  

FINALLY! ON THE ROAD AGAIN.

We are getting a late start this year and were elated to finally start the engine and drive away from Apache Junction with it's rising temperatures.  Yesterday we were reduced to loading the RV at 5:30 in the morning and quitting around 7 a.m. due to the heat.  Then we resumed the final loading last night around 9:30 p.m.  Not much fun getting ready to go, when the temperatures are climbing to 108 degrees.   Usually we leave in May, but this year we had a special trip planned to visit Laguna Beach and attend the Masters Pageant which we had never seen, despite having lived in Southern California for many years.  While we are there, we will also see the Laguna Arts Festival and visit the Irvine Museum which houses the largest collection of California Impressionist paintings in the world.  And we have some other places on our list of where we want to go while we are in the area.  

So.... here we are in Flagstaff at 7000 feet.  Much cooler here in the lower 90's and the temps should be dropping to the high 80's in the coming week.  We will be here at the J & H RV Park for 4 nights before we move over to Grand Canyon for a week.   Above is our new (used) Cardinal in its parking spot here in Flagstaff.  We have a pull thru space with a tree and a patio table.... and Murray and Elsie have a off leash dog park right on the premises.  So all is well.  

On The Road.... 2013

We are back on the road again.... with a new rig.  The Montana was just too big for us, now that we were not living in it.  We wanted to be in something that would be more versatile and we could use to stay in State or National Parks without trying to squeeze into tiny spaces with something 37 feet long and 4 slides wide.  So, we traded in the Montana Monster for a lovely Forest River Cardinal, which is just a few years older than the Montana, but wonder of all wonders, still has its decals in good condition.  We have just as much cabinet space inside, maybe more... and I now have a window on my side of the bed so we both can get fresh air at night.  Part of the trade in deal was that they would install a washer dryer unit for me and it works great, we have already tested it out.   We had a shake down cruise to Tucson to make sure all systems were fine and aside from a few little things that they fixed on warranty when we returned to Phoenix, the only thing that we had to deal with was a blowout of one tire on our way home.  We think the rig was probably sitting for a long time before it was sold, as it is in such good condition, it seems barely used. 

So all new tires.... and on to Cottonwood for the annual Sedona Pastel Show.  Lots of good entries this year and to the right is Karen and Laura taking a break from all the hammering.  After the show was hung, Karen, Gary, Allan and I went to the Barking Frog where we had a relaxing lunch.  No photos of our lunch at the Barking Frog, but earlier in the week Allan and I went to the Red Rock BarBQue

for some really great ribs and probably the best sides we have had at a barbeque place.  The baked beans were fresh, not the gloppy stuff that is usually served at rib joints.  The potato salad was also fresh and tasted wonderful.   We shared one order and it was more than enough for both of us. 
The day after the hanging of the show, we had a visitor from home.  Dorothy drove up to stay with us for two nights and we prowled around Old Town Cottonwood Friday evening, ending up at Concho's Mexican Restaurant.  Very relaxing and Dorothy and I helped Allan polish off his "Chunk of Flan" before heading back to the rv.   Saturday we headed up to Jerome in the morning to check out the galleries and the consignment stores and I am happy to say that Dorothy and I helped out the economy by making more than a few purchases including a couple of paintings by Cody DeLong, a local artist in this area. 

Later in the afternoon we went by the Reception at the Sedona Art Center to see who got all the awards for best pastel paintings and were very glad to see that Jean Hildebrandt got Best of Show.  (Left)  As usual, some of the judges picks would not have been our choices, but it was great to see so many people we knew at the reception and get to chat with many of them for a while.

 After the reception, we had reservations at the Golden Goose, ranked 6th in Sedona.... and it was good, but not great.  Dorothy picked all the best selections as it turned out with an excellent house salad dressing, an unusual presentation of salmon wrapped in hash browns with sautéed spinach on the side, and

even got the best dessert of key lime pie.  My linguini with shrimp was unremarkable and Allan said he should have gotten a steak instead of the beef tips in Hennessey sauce. 
Dorothy headed out on Sunday morning for home and we headed back over to Sedona to run some errands and get ready for our workshop with Christine Debrosky  on Wednesday.  A final note.....Allan has been taking the dogs to the dog park every day and here is a photo of a happy camper named Elsie who is chasing the ball. 

 

Sedona 2012

Camelot RV Park, Old Cottonwood

It's that time of the year again for the pastel show held at the Sedona Arts Center. Allan and I arrived on Wednesday in Cottonwood, where we will be staying for the two week duration of the show.   This is the first rv trip for Elsie and Murray and there were mixed reactions to traveling in the truck.  Elsie sat on the raised platform that we had made and looked out of the window for the next two hours.  Murray felt more secure down in his bed, but snuck a peek every once in a while. 

Elsie and Murray, First Truck Ride

Thursday was a big day for everyone as we had to take all of the paintings we had collected over to the Sedona Art Center to be hung.  But in the morning we took a walk from the rv park around the corner to the community dog park and Elsie and Murray had their first dog park experience.  The dog park was divided into three sections; small dogs, large dogs, and training dogs.  We headed into the small dog area where our puppies got to meet a younger, but larger boxer puppy named Zeus.  It took them about ten minutes to get the idea, but then everyone was rocketing around the yard playing chase.  When we took them on the following day, they couldn't wait to get in the gate and meet even more dogs.  Later on Thursday we headed over to the Art Center to be there when people dropped off their paintings and later hanging the paintings with Laura Black and Karen Budan.  It was a smaller show than usual but it was a nice selection of paintings and the show looked good when we left.  Today after coming back from the dog park we headed up to Jerome for lunch.  We ate at Quince's, which was recommended to us, but we both thought it was too pretentious to be classified as good mexican food.  However when we got back home I got a call from Laura at the art gallery to say that a painting had sold, and it was my "Apache Trail".    What great news. 

Rocket Dogs



Winter 2012

The Sedona Show is coming up soon and Allan got one painting in the show (Blue Boat) and I got two this time (Aloe Bloom) and (Apache Trail, see previous post). We are planning to drive up to Sedona soon to be there for two weeks during the show and take some time off from all of the remodeling that has been going on around our house for the last six weeks. We have been putting an Arizona Room addition on to the North side of our home to increase our studio space and have a small sitting area where the morning light comes in the windows. Both of us have been fighting a terrible cold virus for the last month so it was like March just flew by without anything of note happening other than the sawing and hammering coming from the construction. The best two things of the whole winter are Elsie and Murray. Along with all of the house training, they have also had a visit to the vet for neutering/spaying and a second vet visit to have puppy teeth removed. They are a handful and keep us busy all of the time but they are the bright lights in our lives. They both love to walk with Allan to get the mail and Elsie is turning out to be the great hunter, scaring up the rabbits and chasing off the birds. Murray is more person oriented and comes to his name and sleeps on the chaise lounge with me in the afternoon when I read and nap. Both of them run for the tossed toy and they have to bring it back together, two sets of teeth firmly clamped on the poor stuffed toy. They are going to be taking their first rv trip in a couple of weeks when we head to Sedona and it will be a good introduction to our longer trip this summer to the northwest.

Spring Show

This last week we headed back up to Sedona for our annual pastel show. Every time we come into the Sedona area we are struck by the beauty of the landscape which is turned into paintings by so many artists. Our first evening we just drove around looking at the sunlight fading to shadows around each monolith. On Thursday we headed over to the Art Center to drop off all of the paintings that we had ferried up to Sedona and also to help hang the show. It was fun to decide which painting looked good next to another in order to show off everyone's work. Then Allan got busy pounding nails into the wall while other helpers hung the paintings or attached the name cards. After all the paintings were hung, Karen tidied up and Liz straightened all the paintings on the wall. We were ready to start the show and have the reception on Saturday. On Saturday we had over 100 visitors and two paintings were sold. Ellen Harper brought food and wine for everyone and awards were given out by Karen to those artists who were in attendance. Cheri Saffro is in the photo to the left with her painting "Lexis". On Sunday, Allan and I spent a quiet day babysitting the gallery and chatting with all the visitors who came by to see the show. We met Paul and Karen who are friends of our friends Mike and Rose. We also met a pastel artist from California called Colleen Howe. She talked about possibly doing a workshop with our group someday. Check out her website http://www.colleenhowe.com/ . Tomorrow will be our last day up here and we are going to go over to Prescott to see the galleries and have some lunch before we wrap up our visit and head for home on Tuesday.