Had a delicious dinner of turkey and all the traditional trimmings tonight, out on the patio behind our place, started eating around 4:30 or so, by 6 PM we put down the sunscreen/windscreen, and turned on the patio propane heater, but it was great. Got very toasty, Lary and I were both wearing shorts and short sleeved shirts. Wendy and Dave joined us, Wendy brought mashed potatoes ready to eat, which made a huge difference, and also she brought homemade cookies and homemade candy.
For Christmas dinner dessert we ate key lime pie, a nice light choice after turkey.
My birthday night we enjoyed dinner at Trilussa, it was lovely food and wine, great service, and we think great value for money on special occasions. They are over on Hwy 111 in Cathedral City very close to the IMAX and Mary Pickford Theatre Complex. Wendy and Dave joined us there, too.
Over the weekend we decided to go over to Mary Pickford Theatres, and see Saving Mr. Banks, with Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson. She was the author of Mary Poppins the book, and he wanted to make it into a movie. She was British, actually Australian by birth, and was very awkward, in fact it took him 20 years to talk her into letting him make the movie with Dick Van Dyke in it, and we enjoyed the movie a lot. The author had a lot of personal demons from her childhood and upbringing that coloured her view of life, and as Walt Disney Hanks had to work around them, which was not an easy job.
Another thing we did was search out a newish antique mall in Palm Springs, called Sunny Dunes Antique Mall, at 507 East Sunny Dunes Road, in the Warm Sands area of P.S. We had a blast, I just couldn't resist a heavy cotton red green and white tablecloth, very Christmassy, and a few other nice finds also managed to come home with me. Lary bought some things too, then we ate at a small Greek hole in the wall called Pita and Pizza, in a strip mall right over in that area too, we had a Greek appetizer platter for 2, with Tzatziki, hummus, pita, dolmades, spanakopita, cheese in phyllo, etc., it was just yummy, so glad we picked that choice.
Our back patio looks kind of nice, we have lots of small Christmas tins out there, some green garland, some candles, and lots of small metal sculptures of quail and an owl, one of my finds at the antique place was the word NOEL spelled out in brass letters that are meant to hold Christmas stockings. Very cute. And I got a clump of red Christmas bells that should sound festive hanging on a door handle.
Had a quick Christmas drink with Jo Ann and Bob here in the park today, it was a lovely warm day, well above their average temps for this time of year. Hooray that.
I called my niece Gill in Vancouver tonight and spoke with her, Tristan, Sue, Heather. It was great to chat a bit with each of them.
Thanks for visiting.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Coffee and donuts tomorrow
Had a nice dinner at Wendy and Dave's Sunday evening. Wendy fed us a yummy chicken casserole, their house looks so pretty decorated for Christmas, although they didn't have their tree up yet.
Monday I helped cut up vegetables for Soup on Tuesday, I had to be there in the clubhouse at 8 AM, ouch. But it went smoothly and quickly, as everyone knew what they had to do. At 9:30 there was a Board Meeting for owners here in our park, Lary was introduced because he has decided to stand for the board, it will be a 2 year appointment for him. My term on the Entertainment Committee is up at the same time as he starts, so that's good. As I am fighting a cold, the rest of the day passed in a blur.
Tuesday I had to be back at the clubhouse at 10:30 AM to prepare for the soup luncheon that we were serving at noon, we set up the tables, cut up the fresh Costco bread, the soups were all on the boil, turkey, chicken and a seafood chowder. We also set out dishes of butter, but the crew knows what to do, so we were through by 11ish, and I returned to the house. I begged off serving the soups to our members starting at 11:45 so we could go to Chip's for a visit and lunch there.
Lary had a present he had made for Chip, a wood burning plaque of a road runner, as there is one that visits Chip fairly regularly. It even comes into his house at times, weird. Chip has picked it up in a towel to take it outside, which is amazing, they have razor sharp beaks and can kill rattlers, they are so strong. Chip has never been hurt by the big birds yet.
Our friend Chip had invited us over to his house for soup, so I had begged off serving soup at our clubhouse, and we raced off to Chip's place. Apparently we were waaaaaay too early, but I had forgotten that he'd changed his mind a couple times about the exact time, and we arrived there much to his horror- very early.
He was polite, we stayed and had a bit of a visit before Annie arrived. We had yummy Mexican albondigas (meatball) soup with chips and cheddar cheese on it, plus heated tortillas with avocado salsa. Then Chip announced that as it was my birthday soon, he'd made me something special, he arrived with a plate with a candle in a holder the middle of it, surrounded by Rocky Road and nut brittle candy. Nice surprise for me, Chip makes tons of candy for presents for his friends, and it's so good.
Today Wednesday a friend of ours here in the park is building us some hand railings on our porch, so he did that this morning, and this afternoon we went over to a neighboring park to the cast party after the Renaissance play that we had performed 10 days or so ago. We returned our costumes to the lady and said that we'd enjoyed ourselves, but didn't want to do a repeat performance next year, she seemed disappointed, but we have our own commitments, and the play rehearsals take up quite a bit of precious time. We each took a silly present, and had an exchange, and then we could steal each other's presents, which was kind of fun. We all took some kind of appie, and she gave us hot apple cider.
She wants to have a core of dedicated folks down here who want to do the play each year, and call themselves the Desert Edge players, but although we had fun, that's enough for us just this one year.
Tomorrow is coffee and donuts here in the morning, and in the evening we have asked Wendy and Dave to meet us and go out for dinner at a nice restaurant over on Hwy 111 by the Mary Pickford Theatre complex. The restaurant is called Trilusa. Looking forward to that; it was cloudy today and overcast a bit, with temps in the mid 70s, but we think it is cooling off, with cooler temps and wind in the immediate forecast, drat it. Oh well, it's winter even in the desert.
Monday I helped cut up vegetables for Soup on Tuesday, I had to be there in the clubhouse at 8 AM, ouch. But it went smoothly and quickly, as everyone knew what they had to do. At 9:30 there was a Board Meeting for owners here in our park, Lary was introduced because he has decided to stand for the board, it will be a 2 year appointment for him. My term on the Entertainment Committee is up at the same time as he starts, so that's good. As I am fighting a cold, the rest of the day passed in a blur.
Tuesday I had to be back at the clubhouse at 10:30 AM to prepare for the soup luncheon that we were serving at noon, we set up the tables, cut up the fresh Costco bread, the soups were all on the boil, turkey, chicken and a seafood chowder. We also set out dishes of butter, but the crew knows what to do, so we were through by 11ish, and I returned to the house. I begged off serving the soups to our members starting at 11:45 so we could go to Chip's for a visit and lunch there.
Lary had a present he had made for Chip, a wood burning plaque of a road runner, as there is one that visits Chip fairly regularly. It even comes into his house at times, weird. Chip has picked it up in a towel to take it outside, which is amazing, they have razor sharp beaks and can kill rattlers, they are so strong. Chip has never been hurt by the big birds yet.
Our friend Chip had invited us over to his house for soup, so I had begged off serving soup at our clubhouse, and we raced off to Chip's place. Apparently we were waaaaaay too early, but I had forgotten that he'd changed his mind a couple times about the exact time, and we arrived there much to his horror- very early.
He was polite, we stayed and had a bit of a visit before Annie arrived. We had yummy Mexican albondigas (meatball) soup with chips and cheddar cheese on it, plus heated tortillas with avocado salsa. Then Chip announced that as it was my birthday soon, he'd made me something special, he arrived with a plate with a candle in a holder the middle of it, surrounded by Rocky Road and nut brittle candy. Nice surprise for me, Chip makes tons of candy for presents for his friends, and it's so good.
Today Wednesday a friend of ours here in the park is building us some hand railings on our porch, so he did that this morning, and this afternoon we went over to a neighboring park to the cast party after the Renaissance play that we had performed 10 days or so ago. We returned our costumes to the lady and said that we'd enjoyed ourselves, but didn't want to do a repeat performance next year, she seemed disappointed, but we have our own commitments, and the play rehearsals take up quite a bit of precious time. We each took a silly present, and had an exchange, and then we could steal each other's presents, which was kind of fun. We all took some kind of appie, and she gave us hot apple cider.
She wants to have a core of dedicated folks down here who want to do the play each year, and call themselves the Desert Edge players, but although we had fun, that's enough for us just this one year.
Tomorrow is coffee and donuts here in the morning, and in the evening we have asked Wendy and Dave to meet us and go out for dinner at a nice restaurant over on Hwy 111 by the Mary Pickford Theatre complex. The restaurant is called Trilusa. Looking forward to that; it was cloudy today and overcast a bit, with temps in the mid 70s, but we think it is cooling off, with cooler temps and wind in the immediate forecast, drat it. Oh well, it's winter even in the desert.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
It has turned warm again, yippee
Can't believe that it's Saturday evening, and I haven't posted til now. Today was the day of the Desert Hot Springs parade, Lary woke up feeling dreadful, and didn't get out of bed. So off I headed to put the finishing touches on the float and ride in to DHS. We arrived about 10 or so, with only one oopsie when the driver of the truck and flatbed passed under a tree too closely for the flags that were flying from the truck. Drat, a flagpole got bent. Pretty easily remedied, thankfully.
We were only 5 on the float, a bit lame I felt, but oh well, we were enthusiastic at least. Queen and King made their appearance, Ronita the organizer, Liz who we had pressed into service at the last moment due to sickness etc., and me the jester. So 2 courtly ladies, the King and Queen and the jester. We were #53 in the parade so we waited in the warm sun, thankfully for our turn. The staging happened on roads at a right angle to the parade, so you just joined in when your space came available. There were tons of old cars, princesses and a queen, vaqueros the Mexican style cowboys on their spirited horses, marching bands of military and school children, in short a nice parade for DHS.
During the parade the wind picked up til I thought once again that my jester hat would blow off, and 2 of my jingle bells fell off, but we made it, Bob from Healing Waters was a great driver, smooth as anything, as we were seated in chairs on the flatbed, no railings. All well, and we finished without incident, and all of us got right into the Christmas spirit, waving and saying Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad. Some of the viewers on the street looked frozen solid due to the wind having picked up. At Ronita's home once again we deconstructed the float, didn't take nearly as long as decorating it.
Ronita, the organizer of our Renaissance play gave us a small tub of leftover stew, so I came home and heated it up for lunch for both of us. We seem to be developing colds again, very frustrating as we had them when we were cruising too, in late October. Bummer, I think we have kind of been rushing around quite a lot. The Renaissance play was a bit more of a time consumer than we originally realized.
Friends of ours Bernice and Gordon were over in Catalina Spa from Keremeos, so we visited with them quite a bit this past week, as they were just passing through on their way to Bashford's RV park out in Niland by the Fountain of Youth RV Park. They were having to replace their hot water tank in their RV as it was leaking, so that was snagging up their plans of freedom.
We had the most wonderful flute lesson with Annie on Tuesday, she showed us how to play our flutes with a guitarist who was playing 3 basic chords, and we blended our flutes with Annie's guitar playing, giving us an idea of how to join together with a guitar player. Super exciting for us, as there is a man here in our park who we are dying to play music with.
I got a short hair do, a bit too short, but I am spiking it for the moment, til it grows a bit. New hairdresser, so a break-in period. She is Lindsey at Desert Strands on Palm Drive in DHS, a really nice young woman, and I will enjoy going there instead of crossing town as I did the past years for a haircut.
Wednesday we roared down to Borrego Springs, south of here, a journey of just over an hour, to pick up some manzanita burls as mounts for Lary and Dave's bird carvings of the belted kingfisher that they are doing this year. We shopped a bit, and enjoyed the day together, the 4 of us. Then we had dinner out before returning home, we were both dragging a bit by then.
Thursday morning was coffee and the usual business meeting in the clubhouse, then right after that we decorated the clubhouse, it looks very nice, but was a large task with just a few volunteers, a bit of a disappointment. Lary carved both Thursday and Friday afternoon, but I Di helped to decorate the float for the Saturday parade in Desert Hot Springs. Minimalist décor, but still time consuming.
Tomorrow Sunday we are invited over to Dave and Wendy's for dinner which should be grand. They are coming to us for Christmas, and I am already selling tickets for the New Year's dinner and dance here at our park. Prime rib dinner I believe, and a band to dance to.
We were only 5 on the float, a bit lame I felt, but oh well, we were enthusiastic at least. Queen and King made their appearance, Ronita the organizer, Liz who we had pressed into service at the last moment due to sickness etc., and me the jester. So 2 courtly ladies, the King and Queen and the jester. We were #53 in the parade so we waited in the warm sun, thankfully for our turn. The staging happened on roads at a right angle to the parade, so you just joined in when your space came available. There were tons of old cars, princesses and a queen, vaqueros the Mexican style cowboys on their spirited horses, marching bands of military and school children, in short a nice parade for DHS.
During the parade the wind picked up til I thought once again that my jester hat would blow off, and 2 of my jingle bells fell off, but we made it, Bob from Healing Waters was a great driver, smooth as anything, as we were seated in chairs on the flatbed, no railings. All well, and we finished without incident, and all of us got right into the Christmas spirit, waving and saying Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad. Some of the viewers on the street looked frozen solid due to the wind having picked up. At Ronita's home once again we deconstructed the float, didn't take nearly as long as decorating it.
Ronita, the organizer of our Renaissance play gave us a small tub of leftover stew, so I came home and heated it up for lunch for both of us. We seem to be developing colds again, very frustrating as we had them when we were cruising too, in late October. Bummer, I think we have kind of been rushing around quite a lot. The Renaissance play was a bit more of a time consumer than we originally realized.
Friends of ours Bernice and Gordon were over in Catalina Spa from Keremeos, so we visited with them quite a bit this past week, as they were just passing through on their way to Bashford's RV park out in Niland by the Fountain of Youth RV Park. They were having to replace their hot water tank in their RV as it was leaking, so that was snagging up their plans of freedom.
We had the most wonderful flute lesson with Annie on Tuesday, she showed us how to play our flutes with a guitarist who was playing 3 basic chords, and we blended our flutes with Annie's guitar playing, giving us an idea of how to join together with a guitar player. Super exciting for us, as there is a man here in our park who we are dying to play music with.
I got a short hair do, a bit too short, but I am spiking it for the moment, til it grows a bit. New hairdresser, so a break-in period. She is Lindsey at Desert Strands on Palm Drive in DHS, a really nice young woman, and I will enjoy going there instead of crossing town as I did the past years for a haircut.
Wednesday we roared down to Borrego Springs, south of here, a journey of just over an hour, to pick up some manzanita burls as mounts for Lary and Dave's bird carvings of the belted kingfisher that they are doing this year. We shopped a bit, and enjoyed the day together, the 4 of us. Then we had dinner out before returning home, we were both dragging a bit by then.
Thursday morning was coffee and the usual business meeting in the clubhouse, then right after that we decorated the clubhouse, it looks very nice, but was a large task with just a few volunteers, a bit of a disappointment. Lary carved both Thursday and Friday afternoon, but I Di helped to decorate the float for the Saturday parade in Desert Hot Springs. Minimalist décor, but still time consuming.
Tomorrow Sunday we are invited over to Dave and Wendy's for dinner which should be grand. They are coming to us for Christmas, and I am already selling tickets for the New Year's dinner and dance here at our park. Prime rib dinner I believe, and a band to dance to.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Still chilly today Tuesday - off to play flutes at Annie's
Sunday we went over to the College of the Desert and poked around their stands, I was looking for bifocal sunglasses, that is, clear at the top, and prescription for reading at the bottom. Perfect, I bought 2 pairs for $12, why can't we find them in Canada? The man who carries them says he orders them right from China, and we could also get them in Canada.......
Then I got a massage over at Westfield Shopping Centre, from the Chinese folks there, and man oh man, I have never had such a painful experience in my life. I am still aching all over my back, neck and shoulders. Ouch and more ouch, and I had to pay for the experience......Feel as if I am bruised under my skin. Oh me oh my.
Monday we had a meeting here in the park in the morning, to set the agenda for next week's board meeting, then in the evening folks from home in Nanaimo who snowbird here like us asked us for dinner.
Their house is so lovely, it is in Mission Hills Country Club high up in Desert Hot Springs at the western side, the house is huge, almost too big, but wonderful, so well laid out, the guests are separate from the main bedroom, so an easy house to entertain in. We had a lovely dinner with them, Sophie and Larry, and got to know them a bit more, as they have just moved in to our complex at home in Nanaimo. Sophie is from Poland, and Larry worked in Atmospheric Environment Svces, on the research side, he is an engineer oriented toward space.
This afternoon I got my hair cut at a new place, my hairdresser passed away from jaw cancer, so I went to Lindsey at Desert Strands, she is great, and not far away, just up the street on the main drag of Desert Hot Springs.
Also this afternoon we got a book in the mail all about artistic relief carving patterns, Lary didn't order it, so we are a bit mystified about that. It is lovely.
Our tenants over in #56 mentioned that there was a propane leak there, so we needed a new regulator, Reg our tenant and Lary got one at Blair's Station RV parts, and put it in themselves. The regulator we had was actually for a 2 bottle propane setup, so the new one is just for one bottle, better for us and more appropriate.
Tomorrow evening we have an Emergency Preparedness meeting. This morning we went over to visit our friends from Keremeos, Bernice and Gordie. They are having to replace their RV hot water tank, so their basement area is soaking wet at the moment. And on the way down they had to replace another part in their rig too. Challenging.
Our weather seems to have stopped blowing, but there was not only a wind warning but a frost warning for us here. Seems that our temps are going to return to the 70s by the weekend, I say bring them on. The sky is bright blue again, no wind howling in our ears or sand swirling, so all is getting back to right down here in the sunbelt.
This has been a lovely bougainvillea year it seems, those bright pink blooms are as lovely as I have ever seen them. We took off the sun screen from one window so we can get the winter sunshine inside the trailer, when the screens are on we have more privacy, but the temps stay lower of course too, and for the winter it's nice to have the warmth of the sun in the house, at times. The sunscreens also give us much more privacy, as you can't see in through them, but they also impede your vision looking out. When it is hot they are a welcome relief, but not that necessary at this time of year.
Thanks for visiting our site.
Then I got a massage over at Westfield Shopping Centre, from the Chinese folks there, and man oh man, I have never had such a painful experience in my life. I am still aching all over my back, neck and shoulders. Ouch and more ouch, and I had to pay for the experience......Feel as if I am bruised under my skin. Oh me oh my.
Monday we had a meeting here in the park in the morning, to set the agenda for next week's board meeting, then in the evening folks from home in Nanaimo who snowbird here like us asked us for dinner.
Their house is so lovely, it is in Mission Hills Country Club high up in Desert Hot Springs at the western side, the house is huge, almost too big, but wonderful, so well laid out, the guests are separate from the main bedroom, so an easy house to entertain in. We had a lovely dinner with them, Sophie and Larry, and got to know them a bit more, as they have just moved in to our complex at home in Nanaimo. Sophie is from Poland, and Larry worked in Atmospheric Environment Svces, on the research side, he is an engineer oriented toward space.
This afternoon I got my hair cut at a new place, my hairdresser passed away from jaw cancer, so I went to Lindsey at Desert Strands, she is great, and not far away, just up the street on the main drag of Desert Hot Springs.
Also this afternoon we got a book in the mail all about artistic relief carving patterns, Lary didn't order it, so we are a bit mystified about that. It is lovely.
Our tenants over in #56 mentioned that there was a propane leak there, so we needed a new regulator, Reg our tenant and Lary got one at Blair's Station RV parts, and put it in themselves. The regulator we had was actually for a 2 bottle propane setup, so the new one is just for one bottle, better for us and more appropriate.
Tomorrow evening we have an Emergency Preparedness meeting. This morning we went over to visit our friends from Keremeos, Bernice and Gordie. They are having to replace their RV hot water tank, so their basement area is soaking wet at the moment. And on the way down they had to replace another part in their rig too. Challenging.
Our weather seems to have stopped blowing, but there was not only a wind warning but a frost warning for us here. Seems that our temps are going to return to the 70s by the weekend, I say bring them on. The sky is bright blue again, no wind howling in our ears or sand swirling, so all is getting back to right down here in the sunbelt.
This has been a lovely bougainvillea year it seems, those bright pink blooms are as lovely as I have ever seen them. We took off the sun screen from one window so we can get the winter sunshine inside the trailer, when the screens are on we have more privacy, but the temps stay lower of course too, and for the winter it's nice to have the warmth of the sun in the house, at times. The sunscreens also give us much more privacy, as you can't see in through them, but they also impede your vision looking out. When it is hot they are a welcome relief, but not that necessary at this time of year.
Thanks for visiting our site.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Our acting debut at the Renaissance lunch and play
Well our big day arrived, and we survived. It was a ton of fun, in fact!!! We went over there to Healing Waters park by noon, nothing much started for a short while. Then all of a sudden actors started arriving, all dressed in their Renaissance finery, and it was nearly time for our performance.
The wind was pretty well gusting strongly, but Lary and I went outside and played our flutes to welcome the audience as they came in the driveway. We were most delighted and thrilled to see lots of familiar faces from our park, Almar Acres, all there because we had worn our costumes over to coffee on Thursday here, and announced the play. We were so happy about that, and then Annie, our flute teacher arrived with our friend Chip, then Wendy and Dave and our friends from home Sophie and Larry. When the wind gusted so hard that our hats nearly blew off we returned to the hall. It was almost full, it was set up for 60 folks, for lunch, and I think we had at least 50 or so.
We performed our introductory greeting, getting folks settled in, and chatting together. A few folks were declared out of line for some infractions real or perceived, and taken out to be put in the stocks, which was fun and got things off to a rolling and rollicking start. The royal court entered singing Deck the Halls, then they had a prayer in Latin, and wassail was served. In fact it was way too hot and nearly scalded the Lady Rosalynde, but that was mopped up, and they sang the Wassail Song.
Wassail was hot apple juice. We had wenches serving and they did a great job, too. Rita from our park was the Royal Wench, did I say Lary and I were a minstrel and the court jester? Phil from our park was a knight in the royal court.
Sorry, you have to turn sideways to view us, as I am not the most technically gifted of folks! ;-)
Then the main course was served, we had already set the date at 1555, and invited people to get into the spirit of things. There were a couple kinds of soup available and stew also, the audience paraded up to get what they wanted, and they had only a spoon to eat with on the table. It took a bit for them to be fed, and we got food as well. Buns, mixed nuts and grapes were on the tables so folks could help themselves.
The light entertainment consisted of a very amusing knight, The Knight before Christmas, dragging a Christmas tree behind him, saying December 24th, followed by Lary as a page who played some hoof beat sounds for his horse. They then went back again through the hall with a quiet sign, yes you are right, he was the Silent Knight. After that there was a scream offstage, and he was declared to be the Holey Knight, having been stabbed offstage. Lots of laughs over that play on words.
There was a very flirty elderly gypsy lady who danced next, with her husband drumming and a CD playing gypsy music for her. Then Lary and I held a Minstrel fluting Contest, he was Scottish and I was English, he was very determined, but I won the contest for holding a note and blowing it far longer than he could. He was definitely louder, and had more flute tricks that he did, but my wile won over his brawn.
Dessert was plates of cookies put on the tables, and then the Royal Court entertained us, singing Good King Wenceslas, a lady and man played another carol on a flute and a recorder, Lo How a Rose, then Lary and I divided the room and we all sang a round, Hey Ho Nobody Home, I had a big cue card that I held up. Lady Rosalynde sang Gesu Bambino, and James accompanied her on a flute. We all sang Pat A Pan. The whole cast including serving wenches was around 29 people, quite a lot of folks from all around our neighbouring parks got involved.
Then we had a fare thee well, all the Royal Court of 8 plus Lary and I paraded off the stage, through the tables, and stood at the back of the hall wishing everybody Merry Christmas and thanking them for coming. We had a basket for suggested donations, and there were quite a few dollars in it.
It was over pretty quickly, in a couple of hours, but in retrospect was a lot of fun, once I got over my stage fright, and worry about memorizing lines. We mostly read our lines. The other cast members were a hoot, some of course more than others, the king was a bit of a lush, and made some bawdy comments which I found very funny. Who knows if the audience could hear what was said, though Lary and I being in front of the royal court and below them on the floor could more easily be heard by the audience anyway. Both of us can project pretty well when we need to, luckily.
We tried to thank all our friends who had attended the show.
We helped clean up the food tables, strip the tablecloths off, clear away the food and linen, and then we came home to fall into a chair and put our feet up for a while.
There was a dinner and dance here at our park at 5 PM, we sat with Terry and Tom, Raymond, then Bill and Linda joined us. It was smoked salmon linguini, and then a dance with the Van Horns playing CDs and singing to them, we lasted til about 9:30 or so, then came home and collapsed.
The wind was pretty well gusting strongly, but Lary and I went outside and played our flutes to welcome the audience as they came in the driveway. We were most delighted and thrilled to see lots of familiar faces from our park, Almar Acres, all there because we had worn our costumes over to coffee on Thursday here, and announced the play. We were so happy about that, and then Annie, our flute teacher arrived with our friend Chip, then Wendy and Dave and our friends from home Sophie and Larry. When the wind gusted so hard that our hats nearly blew off we returned to the hall. It was almost full, it was set up for 60 folks, for lunch, and I think we had at least 50 or so.
We performed our introductory greeting, getting folks settled in, and chatting together. A few folks were declared out of line for some infractions real or perceived, and taken out to be put in the stocks, which was fun and got things off to a rolling and rollicking start. The royal court entered singing Deck the Halls, then they had a prayer in Latin, and wassail was served. In fact it was way too hot and nearly scalded the Lady Rosalynde, but that was mopped up, and they sang the Wassail Song.
Wassail was hot apple juice. We had wenches serving and they did a great job, too. Rita from our park was the Royal Wench, did I say Lary and I were a minstrel and the court jester? Phil from our park was a knight in the royal court.
Then the main course was served, we had already set the date at 1555, and invited people to get into the spirit of things. There were a couple kinds of soup available and stew also, the audience paraded up to get what they wanted, and they had only a spoon to eat with on the table. It took a bit for them to be fed, and we got food as well. Buns, mixed nuts and grapes were on the tables so folks could help themselves.
The light entertainment consisted of a very amusing knight, The Knight before Christmas, dragging a Christmas tree behind him, saying December 24th, followed by Lary as a page who played some hoof beat sounds for his horse. They then went back again through the hall with a quiet sign, yes you are right, he was the Silent Knight. After that there was a scream offstage, and he was declared to be the Holey Knight, having been stabbed offstage. Lots of laughs over that play on words.
There was a very flirty elderly gypsy lady who danced next, with her husband drumming and a CD playing gypsy music for her. Then Lary and I held a Minstrel fluting Contest, he was Scottish and I was English, he was very determined, but I won the contest for holding a note and blowing it far longer than he could. He was definitely louder, and had more flute tricks that he did, but my wile won over his brawn.
Dessert was plates of cookies put on the tables, and then the Royal Court entertained us, singing Good King Wenceslas, a lady and man played another carol on a flute and a recorder, Lo How a Rose, then Lary and I divided the room and we all sang a round, Hey Ho Nobody Home, I had a big cue card that I held up. Lady Rosalynde sang Gesu Bambino, and James accompanied her on a flute. We all sang Pat A Pan. The whole cast including serving wenches was around 29 people, quite a lot of folks from all around our neighbouring parks got involved.
Then we had a fare thee well, all the Royal Court of 8 plus Lary and I paraded off the stage, through the tables, and stood at the back of the hall wishing everybody Merry Christmas and thanking them for coming. We had a basket for suggested donations, and there were quite a few dollars in it.
It was over pretty quickly, in a couple of hours, but in retrospect was a lot of fun, once I got over my stage fright, and worry about memorizing lines. We mostly read our lines. The other cast members were a hoot, some of course more than others, the king was a bit of a lush, and made some bawdy comments which I found very funny. Who knows if the audience could hear what was said, though Lary and I being in front of the royal court and below them on the floor could more easily be heard by the audience anyway. Both of us can project pretty well when we need to, luckily.
We tried to thank all our friends who had attended the show.
We helped clean up the food tables, strip the tablecloths off, clear away the food and linen, and then we came home to fall into a chair and put our feet up for a while.
There was a dinner and dance here at our park at 5 PM, we sat with Terry and Tom, Raymond, then Bill and Linda joined us. It was smoked salmon linguini, and then a dance with the Van Horns playing CDs and singing to them, we lasted til about 9:30 or so, then came home and collapsed.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Renaissance luncheon and play today, and brrrrrrrr, it's cold here
Well, I am the one to repeat, where has the time gone. Tuesday we had our first flute lesson with Annie again, and of course had a catch up of the past 6 months or so. Really enjoyed our lesson, just the two of us, and brushing up our skills.
The temperatures have fallen out of the thermometer, even down here, and we are down in the 50s and 40s during the daytime, nearly freezing overnight. It's so amusing, the power company is begging folks on the news to put on sweaters, put more blankets on the bed, and turn down the thermostat 3 to 5 degrees. Interesting as Southern California joins the rest of the States and Canada
in the big chill. Think the power company fears a repeat of the power brown out situation that has occurred here in the past, but more often in high heat, not big chills. Icy winds here.
Tuesday we decorated the Renaissance hall, the clubhouse over at Healing Waters Mobile Home park where we'll put on our play. It went well, they had done it the year before in the same place and the organizer Ronita had a large photo of the setup. We also set up the tables and chairs for the audience, though reservations were slow to come in. Clubhouse looks very pretty, and gets us into the spirit of the Renaissance era. Play takes place in 1555 which I have to announce.
Wednesday we had another 10 AM rehearsal, this time a walk through which went well, and helped in visualizing the whole thing. I was very concerned that we had to learn all our lines, and not use the script, but it seems that is not the expectation. Quite a lot of the players don't have many lines, but the jester has a lot. Hmmmmm, a bit worrisome to me. I had a wonderful pedicure later that day, at the salon right by our park, Blondies, $26 for the works, including polish.
On Thursday our friends here, Bob and Jo Anne from Washington invited us over for Happy Hour, which was very enjoyable, around 4 PM. It's dark by 5 or earlier. Bob does both leather work and wood working, so he is very interesting. We all love wine, so you can imagine how that went. They are lovely generous people.
We went to coffee here at our own park at 9 AM and introduced our sub leasers to the folks here, and 3 of us from the Renaissance play dressed in costume and told our park members about the event, so they might attend. We got a bit of attention, but again not many tickets were spoken for. We even found our event is advertised this week in the Desert Entertainer magazine that circulates through the valley.
We were all supposed to decorate the clubhouse and grounds here for Christmas, but the clubhouse floor has to be refinished, and hasn't yet been, so like Scrooge, we haven't decorated a thing as yet, floor will be done next week, (which has been going on for the past 2 weeks too, frustrating for all.)
Lary carved on his new project, a belted kingfisher, over at Catalina Spa that afternoon, but couldn't carve on Friday, as we had a full dress rehearsal that day.
Friday was a busy day, we had a rehearsal in costume, which went pretty well, we hadn't met some of the cast members til that day, and everyone looked pretty neat in their garments. We are singing Christmas carols during the play, and Lary and I will have our flute duel which we have been practicing for all week. Found out that folks will be reading their lines, a big relief for me. Some folks have trouble projecting their voices, and the hall isn't ideal to sit up on the stage and project the voice, as there is a drop down part of the ceiling which blocks the sound a bit from the back of the hall. Fun to see everybody in full regalia, we are really getting into the idea of it now.
Friday evening was our first flute circle over at Annie's, it is lovely as more instruments are welcome now, so it's a world music event, and more inclusive. It's attracting a somewhat different crowd of folks, and Annie had a number of things there to sell, Lary bought a new wooden flute, and I bought a ceramic one. Both are made by Nash, and we love the sound of them both. Lovely mellow evening together, and a nice start to the Christmas season for us all. Gary brought some delicious brownies.
Lovely music was played and enjoyed by all, very uplifting and peaceful at the same time.
Bye for now, later I will report on our play that takes place later today. Gulp.
The temperatures have fallen out of the thermometer, even down here, and we are down in the 50s and 40s during the daytime, nearly freezing overnight. It's so amusing, the power company is begging folks on the news to put on sweaters, put more blankets on the bed, and turn down the thermostat 3 to 5 degrees. Interesting as Southern California joins the rest of the States and Canada
in the big chill. Think the power company fears a repeat of the power brown out situation that has occurred here in the past, but more often in high heat, not big chills. Icy winds here.
Tuesday we decorated the Renaissance hall, the clubhouse over at Healing Waters Mobile Home park where we'll put on our play. It went well, they had done it the year before in the same place and the organizer Ronita had a large photo of the setup. We also set up the tables and chairs for the audience, though reservations were slow to come in. Clubhouse looks very pretty, and gets us into the spirit of the Renaissance era. Play takes place in 1555 which I have to announce.
Wednesday we had another 10 AM rehearsal, this time a walk through which went well, and helped in visualizing the whole thing. I was very concerned that we had to learn all our lines, and not use the script, but it seems that is not the expectation. Quite a lot of the players don't have many lines, but the jester has a lot. Hmmmmm, a bit worrisome to me. I had a wonderful pedicure later that day, at the salon right by our park, Blondies, $26 for the works, including polish.
On Thursday our friends here, Bob and Jo Anne from Washington invited us over for Happy Hour, which was very enjoyable, around 4 PM. It's dark by 5 or earlier. Bob does both leather work and wood working, so he is very interesting. We all love wine, so you can imagine how that went. They are lovely generous people.
We went to coffee here at our own park at 9 AM and introduced our sub leasers to the folks here, and 3 of us from the Renaissance play dressed in costume and told our park members about the event, so they might attend. We got a bit of attention, but again not many tickets were spoken for. We even found our event is advertised this week in the Desert Entertainer magazine that circulates through the valley.
We were all supposed to decorate the clubhouse and grounds here for Christmas, but the clubhouse floor has to be refinished, and hasn't yet been, so like Scrooge, we haven't decorated a thing as yet, floor will be done next week, (which has been going on for the past 2 weeks too, frustrating for all.)
Lary carved on his new project, a belted kingfisher, over at Catalina Spa that afternoon, but couldn't carve on Friday, as we had a full dress rehearsal that day.
Friday was a busy day, we had a rehearsal in costume, which went pretty well, we hadn't met some of the cast members til that day, and everyone looked pretty neat in their garments. We are singing Christmas carols during the play, and Lary and I will have our flute duel which we have been practicing for all week. Found out that folks will be reading their lines, a big relief for me. Some folks have trouble projecting their voices, and the hall isn't ideal to sit up on the stage and project the voice, as there is a drop down part of the ceiling which blocks the sound a bit from the back of the hall. Fun to see everybody in full regalia, we are really getting into the idea of it now.
Friday evening was our first flute circle over at Annie's, it is lovely as more instruments are welcome now, so it's a world music event, and more inclusive. It's attracting a somewhat different crowd of folks, and Annie had a number of things there to sell, Lary bought a new wooden flute, and I bought a ceramic one. Both are made by Nash, and we love the sound of them both. Lovely mellow evening together, and a nice start to the Christmas season for us all. Gary brought some delicious brownies.
Lovely music was played and enjoyed by all, very uplifting and peaceful at the same time.
Bye for now, later I will report on our play that takes place later today. Gulp.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Wow, where did the time go?
We had the most lovely day at Aunt Penny's house in Dana Point, she is Dad's cousin, their mums were sisters. Most of her family was there, minus one of her daughters who is fighting a recent recurrence of breast cancer. So sad. Lots of generations pitching in to cook the turkey, and hold another wonderful festive get together. Special thanks to Penny for hosting, and to Jennifer, Mary and David for their huge and wonderful kitchen duties!
We spent the night in nearby San Juan Capistrano with an idea of sightseeing on Friday, but it was quite wet, and raining, so we headed inland to return to the desert via a different route. We had lunch at Thai Palms in Desert Hot Springs (DHS) when we got home. Yum yum.
Saturday we were relaxing in the morning having coffee when we were summoned for a rehearsal of our Renaissance era luncheon production. We had been given the wrong time originally. Not that many in attendance, but we all did our best for the first run through of our play, really a skit, played around a luncheon event. It was taken very seriously by the director, so we did our best. Lary and I will hold a flute duel, he supporting Scotland, whereas I am an English jester, so I uphold England's honour! Of course I win, even though his Scottish brogue is flying furiously.
Today Sunday we waited for our new tenants to arrive, and then took them over to the unit, later hastily arranged for the rental of a golf cart for them, as she has bad trouble with her spine and our place isn't near the pool or clubhouse. We then left the park and headed out to buy a new barrel chair for our house, so now we have seating for 3, and we will use a dining room chair for the fourth person. The new chair will be delivered tomorrow, what great service.
Spur of the moment after shopping for new walking shoes for Lary, and a new lamp for our rental, we called Wendy and Dave, and visited them for Happy Hour. Fun. We are planning to go to a special restaurant for my birthday, us 4, and we'll also host Wendy and Dave for Christmas, as we've spent the last two at their house.
That's it for our latest.
We spent the night in nearby San Juan Capistrano with an idea of sightseeing on Friday, but it was quite wet, and raining, so we headed inland to return to the desert via a different route. We had lunch at Thai Palms in Desert Hot Springs (DHS) when we got home. Yum yum.
Saturday we were relaxing in the morning having coffee when we were summoned for a rehearsal of our Renaissance era luncheon production. We had been given the wrong time originally. Not that many in attendance, but we all did our best for the first run through of our play, really a skit, played around a luncheon event. It was taken very seriously by the director, so we did our best. Lary and I will hold a flute duel, he supporting Scotland, whereas I am an English jester, so I uphold England's honour! Of course I win, even though his Scottish brogue is flying furiously.
Today Sunday we waited for our new tenants to arrive, and then took them over to the unit, later hastily arranged for the rental of a golf cart for them, as she has bad trouble with her spine and our place isn't near the pool or clubhouse. We then left the park and headed out to buy a new barrel chair for our house, so now we have seating for 3, and we will use a dining room chair for the fourth person. The new chair will be delivered tomorrow, what great service.
Spur of the moment after shopping for new walking shoes for Lary, and a new lamp for our rental, we called Wendy and Dave, and visited them for Happy Hour. Fun. We are planning to go to a special restaurant for my birthday, us 4, and we'll also host Wendy and Dave for Christmas, as we've spent the last two at their house.
That's it for our latest.
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