Great fun at Woody's tonight…Rose Mallett and trio

It's such a fun atmosphere and we really enjoyed this group and Rose in particular.  Pretty good deal for no cover charge and cheap food and drinks.  I see she plays the Purple Room and Fantasy Springs Resort but there's nothing quite like Woody's…Elaine,  and Susan and Chris…we all must get there when you visit in Feb!

Artist Trading Cards

When we were at La Quinta Library I picked up a book on Matisse at their library sale of books and that inspired me to fiddle around with shape and colour…it was fun!

Painting

Well,  I did the mountains last year and I rather liked them for once so was really hesitating to mess them up with the palm trees.  Actually,  the real palm trees look like they have bad haircuts too!

12 x 24 acrylic on canvas

"Palm trees and San Jacinto Mountains"

Painted in Palm Springs  Jan/2015

Susan never lets me down….

Susan just about never misses a day without doing some artwork and I so look forward to it!  Love this…and yes,  dance, dance, dance everyone.

Susan's blog:
http://passionforpaper-passionforpaper.blogspot.ca

I actually did some painting myself today.  I put palm trees in front of my San Jacinto mountains.  Thinking I might do some cactus or let well enough alone.   Well,  will look at the palm trees tomorrow and see if they actually have some resemblance to palm trees or more resemblance to bad haircuts.  I'm blaming the cheap fan brush I bought down here…only paid a couple of bucks for it.  I have a good one at home.  Ah yes…a bad workman blames his tools.

Out to La Quinta today...

Today we went for lunch with Linda and Cec and they took us to Burgers and Brew….excellent burgers and beer…thanks so much!

They have rented a house in La Quinta from their son-in-law's father and it was really neat to see it and his "roadster" that he and Dave (the son-in-law) will be driving on the El Paseo Cruise Night on Friday…something we've been meaning to do so just might go this Friday.  It's every first and third Friday.

Cool car and cool people of course!

Great views of the Santa Rosa Mountains from the house.

Elaine sent this today….loved it!

Lots of very interesting articles and views on the Paris attacks situation but I do try to keep my blog relatively free from rants and politics.

It's complicated….

One student's epic tweets call out the biggest hypocrites marching for free speech in Paris

http://mic.com/articles/108166/one-student-s-epic-tweets-call-out-the-biggest-hypocrites-marching-for-free-speech-in-paris

And in The Telegraph today:  What if the terrorists were Christian

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11340029/What-if-the-terrorists-were-Christian.html

Our wonderful son...

Richard took care of everything for us in regards to Ian's passing.  There was a lot to do and it wasn't easy for many reasons.  Thank you,  thank you, thank you, Richard…we are so fortunate to have you as a son and we love you so much.

 Ian was in contact with a lot of people on the Internet and Richard wrote a lovely automatic response message:

Dear friend,

Ian passed away on December 17th, 2014. I'm sorry if you had to find out this way. I'm sure you'll find some comfort in knowing that although he was very sick with cancer, he had recently rallied and was living at home with his beloved cat, Binky. He did not suffer when the end came.

Ian was a humble man and did not want a memorial service. He did request that those who knew him raise a glass to him and keep him in their thoughts from time to time. Also, I would add that he would probably encourage you to take a minute and hug a cat.

Sincerely,

Richard (Ian's nephew)

Wish I had taken a photo...

We were very impressed today with the Palm Springs Hazardous Waster Disposal.  It is only 4 minutes from where we live which was also a bonus.  Over the years,  owners had left over 200 paint, cleaning product,  etc.  items so we finally did a big clean out.  I have no idea how old these items were so didn't want to use them.  I really should have taken photos as there was an incredible variety of products for every use possible.

We were wondering if they would take them all but no problem.  Jim drove up and two men came and unloaded the items from the car and also recycled the cardboard boxes we had put them in.  No charge.

Out to Escena Grill today

Always great food,  ambience, and fabulous views of the mountains and golf course.    Jim had the steak sandwich and I had the special of the day…mahi mahi fish and chips.

 They always start you off with these great potato chips and dip.

Wonderful views...

 Steak sandwich…

Fish and chips

A dark day indeed...

The Eiffel Tower goes completely dark to honour the victims.  I've been so saddened by these events...

But this cartoon made me smile…yes,  free speech and humour live on.

Translation:  Oh, no….not them...

Yes,  I can imagine God not being thrilled to have these S…disturbers around.

La Tropicale….very Palm Springs

We went for Happy Hour at La Tropicale last night with Erna and Marvin for drinks and applies for dinner.  Jim and I had calamari (excellent,  Elaine,  you will love it!),  chicken satay and ribs.  We were very impressed with the food and atmosphere and it was great to sit outside.

A fun evening!

Photos very bad so picked a couple from the Internet.

Being greeted by cats every morning….

We are so enjoying Elaine's gifts of the coffee mugs and the daily cat calendar….almost like having Oscar greet us every morning!  Thanks again so much,  dear friend.

Back to the warmth….

No robe needed today to sit out in the sunshine after our morning swim.   Some folks from Saskatoon were at the pool….very cold back there!

If it's the weekend, we must be at Las Casuelas eating Mexican food and listening to our rockers….

We are such creatures of habit…

Europe BMW ad features Palm Springs

This was mentioned in The Desert Sun today…kind of cool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cY6YlLhcjI

Linda and Cec arrive in the desert and come for lunch yesterday

Linda and Cec are down here for January and have rented what sounds like a fabulous house in La Quinta.   A bit of a chilly welcome but the weather is warming up.  Of course I forgot to take photos….too much talking and laughing.  I think I must set the alarm on my phone in future to remind me…if I can remember to do that!  Ah well…

They brought wine and beautiful

flowers from Trader Joe's…where else would you shop?  Just about everything I buy is from there.

Lunch at The Supreme Dragon, then Total Wine...

Total Wine….amazing wine and spirits superstore….Elaine,  you're going to love it!

Still cool at night but back to shirtsleeves and lying out in the sun after a swim….

Thought I better take a few photos of the snow on the mountains before the snow melts completely…

All photos taken from Canyon Sands:

Cactus Film Fest Update:  We watched "Remembrance" last night….excellent!

Happy New Year everyone!

I wish my blog readers all the very best for 2015.

Cactus Film Fest Update:

We watched "Two Lives" last night….excellent!  L'Auberge Espanol seemed rather dopey so turned it off.  John suggests "Tim's Vermeer" which we have seen and like it a lot.  Patty and Terry have been watching the British series "Silk".  US Netflix doesn't seem to have that….too bad!

A new Henri video…

Henri 10 - "Reigning Cat, and Dog"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOga8x6aLk&feature=em-subs_digest