Arizona

somewhere between Las Vegas and Scottsdale

We spent the last couple of days in Scottsdale; the Phoenix area feels very comfortable as we have been here quite often. We made the obligatory shopping excursion to Arizona Mills in Tempe, and also stopped at the outlet mall in Anthem on the way north. It’s tough to turn away from the deals when good brand golf shirts, jeans, sweaters, whatever, are running at 70% off and the dollar is at par. That budget that I’ve mentioned at least twice has taken another beating.

As part of our welcome package we were given passes to the Celebration of Fine Art so with no particular plans for the day, we went. It’s held every year in a couple of massive tents at the corner of Mayo Blvd, and Scottsdale Road. There are 100 artists, not represented but actually there working, 7 days a week for 75 days. And the quality of work is outstanding. We worth blown away. I expected to cruise through in about an hour but stayed for four, Jim not so long because he just isn’t as interested. I had really nice conversations with several of the artists including Debbie Edgers Sturges who travels the world for wildlife images to paint. I fell seriously in love with a painting of a lioness that she had photographed in the Masai Mara. I also enjoyed Bruce Marion who does wonderful abstracts and is a lovely guy. Talking to him I realized that this was the first show Ive been to since I haven’t been painting and that I felt sad about it. The artists all seemed happy to be there and to be together. Bruce said they mentor each other and become good friends through the show.

Peggy & Malcolm

We were also able to spend a couple of hours with our friends Malcolm and Peggy Hilcove, always a treat.  Our conversations with them cover a wide range of topics and they are such positive and interesting people, we feel fortunate to call them friends.

Now it’s Saturday afternoon and we are in Sedona. I am looking out the window at a snow shower which is a bit disappointing after all the great weather we’ve had. Oh well; we’ve been expecting it for several days and AZ does need the moisture. 

before the snow, our view

Jim hoping something is going to manifest in the kitchen

snow day

no excuse but to study - Spanish is hard

The closest city to us is Flagstaff and they will get a huge dump of snow from this storm because they are 2000 feet higher than we are even though only about 50 miles away. “Flag” gets real winter every year.  So today and tomorrow we are somewhat restricted by the weather and thanking our stars that we are in a spacious apartment rather than a hotel room. Jim is napping on the couch listening to his IPod tunes and I am avoiding studying Spanish. We got groceries last night and still have some Napa wine so we are settled in for whatever the duration is and looking forward to some spectacular hiking by Monday. The only wrinkle is that, probably because it is Sedona and there are weird air patterns here, our wireless connection is very unstable. Sedona is as famous for ‘vortexes’ as for the red rock scenery and last year 60% of tourists said they were here for some sort of meditative or transformative experience. More about Sedona later...