Happy New Year!

A swim, a bit of a sauna, then watching the snow....

I'm glad I watched it because it seems to be turning to rain now.  It did start to lay on the ground a bit.
Probably other areas of the city have more.  We seem to be in the "tropics" at English Bay....

Now to read and browse the  lovely book Elaine gave me,  "The Little Pleasures of Paris".   I guess it's been three years since we have spent winter locally so had to locate scarves,  gloves, etc.  I forgot I had this scarf ....perfect.

It would be fun to see some snow today but....

I think everyone else has had enough and I hope the weather stays good for people getting around tonight.  It does look like snow might come,  though.

This photo from Eric Norland today.

Last Palm Springs sunrise of 2016. 12.31.16

The sun peaks out....

And I do see some snow on some of the mountains but won't show up with the clouds.  Lots of shopping and organizing but pretty much settled in now.  I had a great swim this morning and the flamingo mosaic is always nice to look at.

Usually there are one or two seagulls on this roof.  A whole flock seem to be around now.

We're seeing a lot of Lost Lagoon now with all the leaves down.  Just used my iPhone so not showing up too well in this photo.

 I'm always amazed at how resilient cacti are.  This one drowned in rain,  snow,  and freezing temps still going strong.  We had this experience with cacti in Victoria too.

This little palm tree is doing well too.  A nice reminder of the desert.

Taken around 4:30 with my camera from the balcony....you can see some of the snow...

We haven't seen the mountains yet...

I forgot I wouldn't be waking up to brilliant sunshine but glad to see it's fairly mild,  raining,  and hopefully the snow will wash away soon.  Rather surprised to see so much still on the ground.

We took a later plane yesterday.  Usually we leave around noon but there was a 4:15 option so that give us time to have our usual swim and not be so rushed.  We also missed rush hour in Vancouver coming in from the airport.  All went very smoothly other than a 45 min.  delay but PS airport is such a delight because you can sit outside in the sunshine in the departure area and enjoy the view of the wonderful San Jacinto Mountains.  

So,  our pool and view of the mountains in PS and hopefully soon I'll have a photo of our local mountains bathed in sunshine.

Back home safe and sound....

Everything looked great on our arrival and just finished unpacking everything and getting  computers,  etc. up and running.   Jim hooked up the battery terminal and the car started with no problem.

Ah...time for bed.  Looking forward to snow on our mountains tomorrow.   And if the newspaper arrives as it should,  all will be right with the world.

Au Revoir, Palm Springs, mon amour

We'll be sorry to leave...it's been a wonderful break and we hope to get back down again this season.

Well,  PS didn't really need to shake the earth on our departure but anyway.  At 9:57 am,  a 4.0 earthquake with the epicentre 8 km from Big Bear (a famous ski area).  I seem to recall a few years ago,  there was an earthquake just as we were leaving...probably in my blog somewhere.

So enjoying our "snowmen"...thank you, Elaine!

We didn't realize these turned all sorts of cool colours!

A few things I noticed in Von's today...

Gift hampers with chocolate bars....great idea.

Another good idea....the usual size is quite large.

Christmas mailbox...almost bought one since they were half price.

A wonderful Christmas dinner at Erna and Marvin's...

Thank you so much for your hospitality,  dear friends and neighbours!

Erna cutting the rack of lamb.

Itt's too bad the light isn't so great but this is a painting Erna did...now,  talk about channelling Georgia O'Keefe!

Artistic talent runs in the family.  This is an oil painting Erna's brother did.  It is the view of their front patio and the mountains.   Erna and Marvin have a wonderful view of the mountains from their place.  I can understand why her brother wanted to paint it.

Marvin was very well known as a cyclist in Baltimore.  This is a photo that appeared in a local newspaper article.  That's a lot of cycling!

Retiree shifts gears, over and over again Cycling: Marvin Yaker, a retired city housing employee, is the No. 1 devotee of the North Central Railroad Trail, making 40-mile round trips five times a week.

Marvin and Jim

Erna,  me,  Marvin

The lamb was absolutely fabulous!

Elaine's gifts....

It is always great fun to open Elaine's wonderful and thoughtful gifts and this year even more so since we didn't really do gifts this year for ourselves.   It's getting harder for Jim to find books for me but he did find one "The Levant Trilogy" by Olivia Manning.  There is a PBS series that is available in the Vancouver Public Library so we have a hold on that...sounds quite interesting.

Our treasure trove from Elaine....thank you so much,  dear friend!


The wall plaque of the Eiffel tower is now in a special place where I can see it from the living room.  We have already eaten two of the chocolates from Rogers.   The little snow globes are a super addition for our Christmas decorations here and they light up!  Beside them is a "multitool" that was for Jim but I put it on a chain and have it in my purse....lots of little tools that could come in handy.  The little fridge magnets from France are on my fridge with the others from Elaine.

We're getting a good laugh out of "The Best of BRAINDROPPINGS"  by George Carlin.  Below is a chapter called "People Who Should Be Phased Out".  Note especially "Men who wear loafers without socks..."  Jim can't wait until the weather is warm enough to do this and it almost alway is in PS!

These are the first five that came up from the Quiz Deck of Literary Characters.  Jim got 4 out of 5.  Any challengers?

And I just absolutely love this book "The Little Pleasures of Paris"....wonderful paintings and word sketches.

Our White Christmas...just back from taking this photo.

We haven't seen snow like this on the mountains we view while swimming for a long time!  Wonderful news for the drought and we'll savour this view even more knowing that it is bringing some relief.  A wonderful present for Christmas Day....Merry Christmas everyone!

A very West Coast type of day...

We just came back from a turkey dinner at Elmer’s.  We were going to go to Las Casualas  and hear the music for the last time this year but the sun had disappeared and it didn’t seem like the right kind of day for sitting outside.

We're looking forward to being cosy by our fire tonight.  We did get our swim this morning and sunny and cool predicted for tomorrow.  

Merry Christmas to everyone!

A wonderful sight in the desert!

Hal Castle took this photo this morning...what everyone wants to see is snow on the mountains.  All that rain did make a difference!

'Snow Caps'. 12-24-16; 8:10 AM

And this from Eric Norland.

Two of my favorite things in Palm Springs on Christmas Eve day. Snow and palm trees! A nice mix from my garden. 8:30AM. 12.24.16

Sunny days are here again...

We can only be thankful for the rain but it was nice to see sunny skies this morning and I'm looking forward to a swim in the sunshine.  We didn't get a swim yesterday...just a bit too cool and cloudy.   That might be a first for me...not swimming.

We returned library books yesterday and dropped by a thrift store we hadn't been to.   They had lots of Christmas decorations and I found these "village people" for 50 cents each so I just to buy them to complete my "dollar store" village I bought last year.

Quite the change in the weather....

We had a lovely sunset Tuesday night and the prediction for Wednesday was "brilliant sunshine" and a "passing shower" in the evening.

No brilliant sunshine and I was just about to go out for my swim yesterday when it started to rain.  We did get a swim after lunch.   Brian and Susan had arrived in PS from Vancouver Sunday and we were glad they got a couple of nice days before this weather.   They have been coming to PS for years so they know it can be like this especially in December.   They invited us over yesterday and it was great to see them and we also met their son and his wife.  The grandkids were playing video games in another unit.  They are on the golf course so just 5 minutes away from our place.

Last night around 8pm it really started teeming rain and quite heavy rain on and off during the night and I see it's started to rain again.  This area really needs the rain so I hope it is enough to make a difference.   We,  well I,   haven't missed a day swimming yet but it's not quite so pleasant in the rain.

I don't think these bathing suits will be getting dry today.

This is a photograph someone took in La Quinta last night.