So back by popular demand from two of our readers, we are keeping the blog going. It probably won’t be as frequent as before but hopefully it won’t be boring. I have been asked to work part time at a small electrical firm at the BP refinery north of here and will be out there 2 days a week. Just enough to be interesting and not enough to be tedious. I’ll be working with some other former Anvil employees so it’s like old home week.
I had to hesitate calling this post “Pot Gardening” due to the abundance of obtrusive comments that I get
under ordinary circumstances from total strangers in obscure places around the globe. Imagine the response from strangers - say nothing of the law enforcement community - to “Pot Gardening” ! So “Container” it is. We had been to a wonderful garden tour with our garden club this month where the huge deck overlooking the lake was covered with an incredible array of containers of perennials, shrubs and annuals. I was inspired. Although there is no lake at which to gaze from our deck, there is an overgrown green belt behind the condo where the birds attach the bird feeders with the frenzy of a ravenous African carnivore.
In addition to my own containers, the owners of our condo graciously left behind a number of odd pots which I promptly filled with potting soil and began the search for red flowers of any kind. I had fallen in love with my sisters red begonia in South Carolina so when I saw this one it was a no-brainer. It is still blooming the way it looks in this picture.
To satisfy my fetish for color on walls, I successfully convinced my dear friend, Robin, to let me help her paint the entire downstairs of her condo a shade of sage-y green similar to the living room on Johnnys River Road. She is so exuberantly happy with the results that my guilt over the aggressive manner with which I convinced her has been completely assuaged.
The furniture arrived and everything is unpacked. We are about as “settled” as can be for the next 2 years. The garage is full of seasonal stuff and things that don’t fit in the house. This is the “before” we are unpacked picture. It was a bit touch and go but we managed to get all the furniture into a spot somewhere in the place.
Some of you have asked about pictures of the condo so I am also including an “after” picture. This shot was taken from the living room. Looks pretty crowded, huh? I prefer the term cozy.
Here’s another shot of the living room. It was taken from the landing of the stairs. The chandelier got in the way. That’s our new sofa. 
Although we have actually found a place to live for the next year, we won’t move in until July 30th so we are still staying with friends, Irene and Gary, in Everson. We did spend a couple days at the Damon’s estate in Sudden Valley where I snapped this picture off the back deck. We are headed back next week for a few days, too.
I forgot to say that while we were in New Mexico we experienced some terrific thunder and lightening storms but after a particularly heavy one, the sun reappeared and produced a magnificent double rainbow just beside Kathy and Butch’s house.