Palm Springs Art Museum

We always enjoy going to the P.S. Art Museum...a wonderful building,  location,  and great displays.  They have made various changes in terms of opening up the entrance level so now you can see the wonderful Chihuly glass sculpture from the first floor and love the "sitting stools"...almost like an artwork in themselves.

The exhibit with 90 works of art from the Buffalo Bill Art Museum was spectacular  and of course I love my Henry Moore's and  the Alexander Calder.   They also had some cool mid-century modern furniture displayed with George Montgomery's (one time husband of Dinah Shore) chairs...windsor type, etc.  There was this room full of amazing hand woven Indian baskets  too.  I actually set off the alarm buy getting too close taking a photo.  It stopped before anyone came...just a bit of a warning.  Mary,  you would have loved looking at these.

 They are all a bit of a jumble the way they uploaded so,  dear readers,  you will have to figure them out yourselves.  Just waiting for the sunscreen to soak in....the sunshine and pool await.

There were quite a few "impressionist" type paintings of the "wild west".

On the second Sunday,  admission is free and they have an art teacher doing an art activity.  I loved her colourful outfit.

My Henry Moore's

This exhibit was "Montgomery Meets Modernism"...so some of his "traditional furniture he made and then modern objects he owned.

I found these amusing.

Just love the way they've done this new entrance area.  One of the docents told us a little boy started to rearrange them into a "different" work of art.  They decided to let him have fun.

The wonderful Chihuly!

Me and "Alexander"

I'm pretty fussy about paella since I make a good one but....

We had this for lunch today.  It was really quite good with lots of mussels, shrimp,  and squid.  Cook from frozen in about 6 minutes...you gotta love that!  Good on Trader Joe's.

The package.

The product

Lots of snow on Vancouver mountains...

It will be fun to see the snow on the mountains we see from our apartment.  I hope the snow is just on the mountains where we arrive home!

Sunsets in Maui

Dick and Susan have taken their winter break in Maui this year and gone back to a favourite haunt.  Susan has been sketching up a storm and doing sunsets recently as well as taking photos.  The sunsets from where they are seem to go all around.  When we were in Maui,  many many years ago,  we also loved the sunsets....spectacular.   We were lucky to have been given Jim's cousin's condo right on beach in Kihei to use for a couple of weeks at Christmas break.

This from the front.

This from the back

This almost looks like a painting.

Love this sketch....maybe I'll channel Susan next...

Saturday....

We were out and about and walked around the place selling Christmas trees.  Live trees must be quite the thing here as many places are selling them.  We hadn't bought a live tree for quite a while so we were rather amazed at some of the prices.  It was great smelling the trees and they certainly had a variety of types to choose from.

Look at the price....the tree is in the next photo....the bushy one.

I don't use make up and hadn't heard of these treatments....quite a price.  What on earth is "Microblading eyebrows"?

This was called a "fractured watercolour"

We always enjoy going into "The Best of St. Tropez".

We have two of these mugs already but thought we should buy another one in case one breaks.  They have become our favourite mugs for tea.

Snow in Vancouver

Very glad to hear that by mid January the unusual cold and snow should be over and Vancouver will be back  to normal.  It will certainly make all the medical appointments easier.

I got a laugh out of John's photo today with the guy in sandals.   At least this fellow has a real snow shovel.  When Victoria got caught out in the Blizzard of '96, our block had to share three snow shovels.  Like most people we just had a garden shovel...not great with heavy snow.   Previous to that we just needed a broom to sweep off any dusting of snow.   Everyone had a snow shovel after that...some had two!

- John Denniston photo

What we are seeing today...

This morning's newspaper.

Looking out the back.

Looking out the front.

My view sitting reading the newspaper with coffee and enjoying more lovely roses.  I especially like these because they are not fully open...love seeing them open up.

Walked over to The Estate Sale Company showrooms....

We really have nothing to buy but it's a nice walk and there is always something interesting to look at.  I guess we usually drove as the pedestrian light gives you about 4 seconds to cross the very busy Hwy 111.   I am surprised because it really isn't particularly safe for pedestrians.  We hot footed it back after we realized this but you really have to move and cars are driving very fast.

Erna supplied me with a wreath as per tradition.  I copied her idea and put some bougainvillea in it.  They won't last too long but one thing we're not short of around here is bougainvillea.

Interesting to look at...some prices seem very reasonable and others not so much.

This is a print and very George O'Keefe like but it didn't seem to be by her.

Not a bad price considering.

I was surprised to see such a selection of real fur coats.  This is Red Fox and felt wonderful but poor red fox....

Now,  Elaine,  you will recognize what this is.   It's "bumper" pool and poker table.   Don and Elaine had one in their house and the "boys" had a lot of fun with it.

I thought this was a pretty good price considering you get the chairs as well.

Cat Calendar today

Elaine has been giving me a daily little calendar with photos of cats and sometimes there is some text.  I got a real laugh out of today.  Elaine,  I think you have the same calendar.

"If a dog jumps into your lap it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing it is because your lap is warmer."
A.N. Whitehead.

And here I thought Oscar jumped up on our laps because he loved us and also lay on my computer because he was jealous of me "petting" it....ah well.

Therapy pig greets travellers at San Francisco Airport

The pig is the latest addition to the Wag Brigade started in 2013...what a great idea!

http://www.whio.com/news/national/therapy-pig-roams-san-francisco-airport-greets-travelers/NNin2rb2S0EAE2mRKJWYSK/

Manhattan in the Desert

This place is very close to us (about a 5 min. drive) and we've been meaning to try it.  We're always passing it but thought it was mainly a bakery and deli.    Last year I was asking at the pool where to get good fish and chips and  Ken mentioned this place.  It was at the end of our stay so we didn't get to it.  Last night we did and we lucked into their "Early Bird Specials"  which  have about 7 choices,  one being fish and chips.  The price is $11.95 and includes the soup of the day.  It was cream of mushroom today and it was absolutely amazing with loads of great mushrooms as were the fish (wonderful very lightly battered cod) and chips and the brisket with au jus that Jim had.   The portions are too large for me especially with the soup and they don't allow splits with the "Early Bird".  Jim took up the slack so not much was left.  This is a real winner and we'll be back for the turkey dinner,  pasta dishes,  etc.

The decor is very cool too and our server was great as was everyone working there.   Good thing we're not really into sweets and dessert....bakery prices out of sight.