My computer is fixed...hopefully

So, get ready for lots of photos. I'll begin with the Salton Sea photos. Now I get it
with my cousin, John, taking all these ugly photos of wires, clear cuts, translink line being built to the airport etc. Some things cry out to be documented the way they are even if they are ugly. I've already blogged about this strange piece of America so will let the photos tell the tale for the most part.


Salton City



Chamber of Commerce in Salton City



Lots of cheap land in the heart of the city.

These next ones are all of the $149,000 house (4 beds, 2 baths, double garage) with zero down. Note the large yard, grass, and sprinkler systems all ready to go.

A letter from Charlie

We heard the sad news yesterday that Susan and Alan's beloved cat, Charlie, had died. When they were visiting us last year in Palm Springs, the neighbour who was looking after Charlie sent regular emails "from Charlie" recounting his antics when they were away. We all enjoyed these letters very much.

Dear Susan and Alan,

It must have been quite a shock to find me in that field but I want you to know that I didn't suffer.

I'm in a very nice place now and have a large fluffy cloud to sleep on with a sunbeam always shining on me. You know how much I loved lying on your laps in the sunshine after our work in the garden...me looking for birds and you looking for weeds. I must admit I never could quite understand your fascination with weeds when birds are so much more interesting!

By the way, some of the birds I caught live in my neighbourhood here and we've become good friends. They aren't as bird brained as people think and we have some very interesting chats! Susan, you would enjoy Tweety as he is very well read in the classics and often went to Haworth to visit the Bronte Parsonage. And Alan, he even knows quite a bit about science. He was explaining the physics of flight to me the other day and it was quite fascinating but I did nod off...as you know I was wont to do.

I do miss you both very much and all the fun we had together. What luck to have had such special owners who appreciated my sense of humour! Please try not to be too sad and remember all our good times.

Love,

Charlie

Rain all night in Lotus Land

It rained quite hard all last night so I think we got more than our 1/10 - 1/4 inch of rain predicted. Just about the first morning we didn't wake up to sunshine and couldn't see the mountains for clouds. Seems to be clearing up now and hopefully we'll get our golf game this afternoon.

I've been noticing here when the temp is predicted to be say 65 F, the "feels like" temp is always about 5 degrees more. Except today with all this moisture around the temp is 59 F and the "feels like" is 49 F! No wonder we always feel cold on the wet coast.

A different world down here...

In the paper today they had a comparison of the views of presidential candidates on things. On gun control, Clinton came in rather vague with "Law abiding citizens should be able to have guns but more (the "more" isn't specified) should be done to keep them out of the hands of criminals:". Obama weighs in with the most extreme gun control measures...limiting the purchase of one hand gun a month. Status quo for all the Republicans.

The other day in the paper there was a big whine about the cooler and wetter weather than normal at the moment. They are horrified at having .68 inches of rain so far this month and another 1/10 to 1/4 of rain predicted for this weekend. We haven't seen any rain yet although the mountains seem to have received quite a bit as there are green things sprouting where there is usually just rock or snow. I'll have to take a photo today...may not last long.

A Day at the Seaside

We went to the Salton Sea area the other day. It's about an hour from here. It was created by an ecological disaster in 1906 when the region flooded. This was partly caused by the diversion of the Colorado River. Jim's doing research on this as Huxley wrote a novel called "After Many a Summer" which deals with this era. It will be the focus of his paper he's presenting at the Huxley conference this summer in Passedena.

From the beginning large concentrations of waterfowl, pelicans, and other birds were sighted in the area. It is now home to millions of fish mainly tilapia and croakers.

The increasing salinity and problems with algae have caused various bird and fish die offs. In August 1998 7.6 million tilapia and croakers die from oxygen being depleted due to algae. Last year when we were here a million or so tilapia died off and of course created quite a stench in the area for months (not the PS area but the Salton Sea area) Yet scientific studies show the Sea may have the most productive fishery in the world.

There is currently a 7.1 billion dollar plan to restore the sea over the next 50 years; however, current budget problems have put this on hold. It appears if something isn't done to stop the salinity there will be continued die offs and the sea will eventually dry up and cause massive dust problems.

It was really like being at the seaside with a soft salt breeze blowing and no noxious smells the day we were there. Property is very cheap and they are selling new homes (4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, granite countertops, all appliances included, double garage) with sea and mountain views for $149,000 (0% down). We went through one and I don't see how they can build them for this amount of money.

As you can imagine the community of Salton Sea and another adjacent community called Desert Shores attracts a real mix of people. I have lots of photos and will post them if I ever get my computer fixed.

One of the first people we met was a volunteer at a makeshift Chamber of Commerce in Salton City. She was a New Yorker and worked with the firefighters at Ground Zero for 38 days and then decided to pack up her kids and move to the middle of nowhere and where there were no tall buildings. This is where she ended up.

We saw loads of beautiful white pelicans and other sea birds...quite amazing really. The water was cold but it warms up later in the year and it is safe for swimming and water skiing etc. You need to shower off afterward because of the smell. A rather fascinating place. Apparently the mazazine called "American Road" which specializes in searching out unusual places for people to visit in the US is featuring the Salton Sea area in its Feb. edition.

Bob Hope Classic Golf Tournament

This was fun today as we had never been to a golf tournament. We saw the leaders tee off and also followed Mike Weir for a few holes. There was quite a Canadian contingent following him even though he wasn't doing that well...in fact, he double bogeyed one hole we watched. He went into the water, then missed a 6 ft putt.

We got a few freebies. Jim won a water bottle for sinking a putt on a carpet and I got lipsyl and breath mints for missing! There was this fabulous photo in the Desert Sun today of about a dozen longhorn sheep that came down to graze on the golf course yesterday

Of course, no photos because cell phones and cameras are not allowed. There won't be any photos for a while as I've taken my MacBook into a dealer here and they have since shipped it to Apple Depot so will be out of commission for a week. Let's hope they can fix it this time. At least at Apple Depot they have all the parts available so I don't have to do this dance in Canada of waiting for parts. Frustrating to have problems with a new computer (they already replaced the motherboard in Canada) but c'est la vie, I guess. It also puts my iPod out of commission as I forgot my other charger (just too much of a rush getting ready, Xmas, and a renter coming in...it's a wonder we remembered as much as we did...) I can charge it with my computer but not Jim's of course.

Bristol Farms Food Store

We just discovered this the other day. I had read about it but we have been very happy with Trader Joe's for great selection of reasonable gourmet food. Trader Joe's searches the world for good deals and buys in bulk and puts their name on it. Tremendous value.

Bristol Farms also searches the world for amazing stuff but it's more the money is no object game. We'd be broke if we shopped here too often...good thing it's in Palm Desert and not 5 minutes away like Trader Joe's! Susan and Chris...you are going to love this store!

Just to give an example, they have 350 cheeses mostly artisian cheeses from smaller markets from all over the world. They were tasting something from France called "Delice de Bourgogne" which could be called "Died and Gone to Heaven". Of course we bought some of that. Then a fabulous New York Artisian cheddar...Extra Sharp Washed Aged Curd Cheese from a company called Yancey's Fancy. Unreal...it crumbles when you cut it and is like something I've never tasted in the cheddar realm before.

The booze is something else...specialty everything and loads of very special scotch, tequila, vodka. Same for the wine. And then the bakery, the fish, the meat, the deli and on it goes.

Worth a visit on my own without Jim along to cramp my style...

Up early to catch the sunrise...

Last year people kept saying how great the mountains looked with the reflected sunrise but somehow I never really felt like venturing from my warm bed. Took these from our condo complex this (early!!!) morning.

Lazy days...pricing gin is the most energetic thing we've done

This one is for Fern...

Now, Fern, where are you and your slingshot? Fern is a crack shot and make Canada Geese very unwelcome in her home on the Gorge. They actually closed the driving range while these Canada Geese took their rest. They had flown off by the time we finished our golf game...must have left quite a mess.








And I beat Jim by 7 strokes today on a 9 hole par 3! This is where he spent most of his time!





We finally managed to get into a local Mexican restaurant called El Gallito...always big lineups but we headed out early last night so didn't have to wait more than 5 minutes and there's always interesting people to talk to. Great and cheap homemade Mexican food...yum.

More mountains...what else?

Orange and Mimosa trees

I picked the oranges from this tree in our complex.






This Mimosa tree (on the right) is just starting to yellow up...should be beautiful before we leave.

A few photos for friends...

This one is for Monique and Ti-Loup...and also, Elizabeth and Noel and Josie.




Mary, I thought you'd like Bob Hope's "Turtle House"...we see it from our condo.




This is for Don...note the well licked spoon!




This one is for Linda...I know your parents' Valiant wasn't a convertible but was a cool car all the same.

P.S. Youtube video working now

Just to let you know I have the little video I took of Patch welcoming us back working now.

Fruit and Vegetables

A great thing about our condo complex is that you can pick oranges and grapefruit off the trees. The other two photos are of Mexican products in a Food For Less store by our $1.50 a shot movie theatre where we saw American Gangster...excellent film.

Mountains, mountains, mountains...

Well...you know how much I love these mountains so expect lots of shots. I might even be successful painting them this year or capture something of their essence....tricky stuff for me.














Somehow a big old caddy just seems to fit this area!

Rare rainclouds in PS

It did only actually rain at night the first week we were here but during the day we did get some interesting vistas of the mountains we don't ususally see.

The Girl By the Lake

We saw this Italian film which was very good and rose above the detective suspense genre after having dinner with Claire and Tom in a cool restaurant called "Blame It On Midnight". It was a beautiful soft night and great sunset. The venue for the film was the Palm Springs High School...amazing place. Like a mini university and the theatre was huge. It is the only high school and has around 3000 students.

Last film of the festival

We just saw the last film of the festival that we had booked to see. It was an Irish film called "How About You" and we lucked into a bonus again with the director, Anthony Bryne (very young...just his second film) being there from Ireland to talk about it. It was based on a Maeve Binchy story (didn't know this) so could have descended into something very sentimental but managed to be a feel good film without being too sappy. Really quite enjoyable and they had quite a cast including Vanessa Redgrave who did a substantial role and not just a cameo like she seems to be doing these days.

This was its North American premier and I can see it doing well with a wider distribution. As usual, it was quite fascinating listening to the director and I can see why Richard and lots of people are fascinated by the film industry. You can catch the bug going to these film festivals.

Our internet is hooked up now but for some strange reason my computer doesn't recognize the wire so I will probably continue to mainly do my posting of photos in the library. It's easy to pick up email on Jim's.

So...expect big bunches of photos once or twice a week!

Finally...a review in Canada!

Jim was really pleased to hear that there was a review of the Huxley letters in the Globe and Mail today. He's had reviews in the NY Times, Boston Globe, and Herald Tribune but nothing in Canada before this. They even mention Camosun College! Thanks to Elizabeth, John, and Mary for alerting us. John, a newspaper man, says authors would probably kill for the coverage...4 out of 5 columns and a photo. Last year down here Jim was slogging away on it...nice not to have a pressing project this year.

globeandmail.com: Huxley, with extra love interest

First Golf Game Today

It was a beautiful day for golf and good old Patch welcomed us back!



We saw an incredibly powerful film yesterday at the festival. It was called The Counterfeiters (made in Austria) and was based on a true story about a Nazi concentration camp getting special inmates with the skills to counterfeit money to help the German war effort and also to try to sink the economies of Britain and the US by flooding the market with this money.

Great film today at the festival

We saw the John Sayles (did Lone Star and Passion Fish among other things) new film called "Honeydripper" today. Super film...we really enjoyed it and a great bonus was Sayles and the producer came on stage afterward to answer questions and talk about the film. It takes place in Alabama 1950 and is about a musician trying to revive his ailing jukebox joint by hiring Guitar Sam for a make-or-break show. Two small problems...he has no money and no clue how to locate Sam.

They made it for 5 million and quite the bang for that buck in the movie business. It was pretty interesting the ways they put it together and saved money. I managed to take a still photo and was going to take a movie of the interview but figured I better not push my luck. I think I read somewhere that photos were not allowed (or perhaps that was at the Bob Hope Golf Classic coming up that we have tickets for...hoping to see Mike Weir do well!).

They had problems getting money the first year so missed the cotton harvest which was essential for the film. They had a lot of problems with the cotton as a number of times they were ready to do the scenes, then there was some pressing need for the field to be harvested so with combines to do the work these days they harvest a field in an hour. So had to find other fields.

They figured they would have problems finding some young fellow to do the electric 50's guitar type stuff but someone mentioned a young musician who was currently doing a gig in Austin so they flew down to see him. It happened to be his 21st birthday so the first time he could play without having his mother along! His response to the offer was "cool". He was excellent...could do some acting and could really do the guitar thing too.



John Sayles at the mike.




Over 200 films at the festival and they seem to be getting big crowds.

Persepolis...the movie.

We saw our first film at the festival today and I really loved it...Persepolis. I had read the graphic novel and had really enjoyed it. Jim was dubious about a "cartoon" but he liked it too. We're back at the library to check out some of the films in the festival to see what we can find out about some of them. So many to choose from!

Our Internet gets connected Thursday pm but I'm sure we'll be back to the library before that to get our net fix...

Palm Springs International Film Festival

Palm Springs International Film Festival

Hola from Palm Springs!

This is the first time I've been able to get on my computer since we can't poach on another connection with any reliability this year. Jim's managed to sneak in a few emails but I haven't. We've ordered Roadrunner and with luck it will be installed next week. Whew..it's tough not having constant access.

It was wonderful flying and getting here so soon without all that driving. Jim is now convinced. We almost didn't make our Van - LA flight, however. On the tarmac in Victoria someone had a medical emergency (I think it was a panic attack) and we were held up for half an hour while paramedics came, they deplaned, and their luggage taken off. We had a tight connection in Vancouver but they held the plane for us which was great. Our luggage didn't make it however and we were awakened at past midnight with the bags arriving. We were pleased to get everything even though I had been up since 3am!

We're having a lot of fun in our condo this year and feeling like we've stepped back into a 60's retro cocktail lounge. It's quite an amazing effect with all this glass and even on the ceiling of the dining room. At night we feel like we're living in a penthouse in Manhatten. And during the day we get a view of my wonderful San Jacinto mountains. I also have a great spot for painting this year.

They did go just a little overboard with the glass and even have the hallway covered in glass which gives the effect of going down the rabbit hole as you wind through the hall!

We arrived in LA with sunny skies and 74 degrees. It's been more in the 60's these last two days but it feels very warm somehow. A big storm coming in tonight with a half inch rain expected and up to 40 MPH winds. Sounds like everyone is heading for the hills...getting their shopping done and hunkering down for the weekend. Sort of like us in Victoria when a dusting of snow is predicted. Could be a bit of a problem for all the gala stuff they were planning outdoors this weekend for the Palm Springs Film Festival but I they have some big tents for a back up plan. Stars from Hairspray are arriving and they're having a bit outdoor sing-a-long viewing. Looks like some pretty interesting films over the next 10 days and we'll certainly be taking in some. I'll post the website and perhaps some of my blog readers will have some suggestions.

Posting from the beautiful Rancho Mirage Library and hope soon to be posting from home.

Happy New Year everyone!