3/9/2011 Quail Run’s First Art Show

I am in awe. I am in awe of the talent in this park. Whether it be music, painting, singing, jewelry making, quilt making or any other avenue of expressing oneself,,,,I am in awe. Quail Run has one heckuvalotta talented people!

Today was the first, of what will probably be many, art shows.

So welcome, follow along as I take you to this, the first……

The show started at 2:30 but I got there at two so I could take pictures before the masses descended. There was some concern that not many would come because yesterday 50 golfers took out of here for a road trip to play in Parker, AZ. That worry was needless.

The Art Show was held on the side of Keith and Lorraine Paddick’s place as Lorraine held “Painting with Lorraine” classes this year. Not all of these artists studied under her, many of them are artists in their own right and all artists were welcome to show their work.

Here are some of the paintings from our very own Quail Run artists. They are simply amazing and if I haven’t said it before,,,,I am just in awe.

Arches. This painting brought back pleasant memories of our trip to Arches National Park.

Our neighbor Karen painted this one and this is one of many she had at the show.

Cactus Carl painted this one, I’ve seen it many times on the wall in his and Sandy’s place.

Betty Vermeer, one of the lady’s in the Activities Department painted all of these and sold quite a few of hers.

One of Lorraine’s many paintings.

Karen always has a painting, or two, going. Karen also sold many of her works.

In our travels we see lots of painted satellite dishes.

Ok, be honest now,,,,raise your hand if you said yourself, “That looks like a Kincaid” when you saw the painting above.

Karen’s going to paint me a set of these next fall for our park model when I decide what colors we’re going to paint.

This is one of many that our friend Mike painted. This is my most favorite one and I’m hoping to having this on my wall in the 5th wheel someday. We are very fortunate to have one of his paintings already. I told him I love sunsets and he painted one for us and brought it over a week or so ago. When I get it on the wall I’ll take a picture of it and show you. In the meantime,,,,I want this one!

More from Mike…..

Everyone wanted this one! My friend Kathy was the first to show interest so she got it. Mike will busy painting more.

I understand Karen did this one from a photograph.

Even the quails were interested in what was going on.

Two thirty finally came around and soon I didn’t have the art show area to myself anymore.

Frank MaGuire started tickling the ivories with some soft background music, the wine bottles had their corks popped and plates and plates of cheese, crackers and other goodies were laid out for the guests. (no, it was not cold here, Frank is just most comfortable in a sweatshirt, it reached the high 80’s today)

Diane takes in all the beautiful paintings that are displayed.

Sunshine, wine and friends….what could be better?

I think that Nancy is thinking…….”Hmmm, I have the perfect spot for that one!”

Carol taking in the “Kincaid like” painting.

Karen not only paints, she does gourds too!

Dale, explaining the technique of “negative painting”.

I had taken a picture of Dale’s “negative paintings” but the sun and the glare off the glass….well, it just didn’t work for a good photo. To explain this type of painting in very primitive layman’s terms, from someone who can’t draw a straight line without a ruler…..I’ll try to tell you what this means. She paints over the entire canvas the lightest shade of the main color she is going to use. Dale then draws a picture with pencil, I guess, on the canvas. The idea is to paint around the subject of your painting. Let’s say its flowers, she’ll put layer upon layer of paint, some areas darker than others around the outline of her subject. In the end the subject (flowers in my example) will be the lightest shade of the main color she uses and with the shading she does with the different layers…well, its just beautiful! She isn’t home as I type this or I would run over and get a photo of one of her negative paintings. I will get one before she leaves.

Pat and Carol deep in conversation.

Busy hands while everyone mingles and enjoys the afternoon.

Our painting artists…….

The group wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t add in the musical talent. I think Frank was a little shy,,,he was trying to hide behind that post!

What an afternoon this was! Great weather, good food/wine, fantastic music and a chance to enjoy the wonderful talents of some pretty wonderful people friends. I’m looking forward to next year’s already.

3/8/2011 End of Season Line Dancing Luncheon

We started our day out with an early morning winter resident meeting ass chewing. Sorry, that’s what it was. There was nothing positive in the meeting that had nearly every resident in attendance. We had hoped that rumors that run rampant in a small community like this were going to be put to rest but in fact we left the meeting with even more fuel added to the fire. Instead it was just a list of all the things we do wrong. What a way to start the day.

Chairs were quickly put away and line dancing started. It was a good thing as we all had “negative energy” we needed to work off.

Today was the end of season Line Dancing Salad Luncheon. An hour and a half later we were back in the Carnaval Room and tables were set up and dish upon dish was lined up for the taking.

Carl and Sandy also conduct line dancing classes at another nearby park. The dancers in that class were invited to the luncheon and it was very nice to have them. I had helped out with this class in the very beginning and I recognized a few of our visitors.

A few announcements were made and we were then lining up to eat these delicious salads that everyone brought. I have to admit, I had forgotten to sign up for the luncheon so I felt kind of funny taking part but my good friend Marlene asked me to read a poem about line dancing that one of our winter residents had written a few years ago. Keith Paddick wasn’t in attendance today so I had the honor of reading it. Rather than re-type it, you can read it HERE.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we have such good cooks in this park!

I’m tellin’ ya, we could feed a third world country with our luncheons.

After lunch there were a few presentations of gifts to our line dance leaders and music providers.

The intermediate line dance leader, Elaine, made this for Sandy.

Joe read some jokes out of a “seniors” joke book and we all shared a few good laughs.

Gifts given, thank you’s said, it was time to,,,,,,,,

L I N E D A N C E ! ! !

First up was the Intermediate class with a dance they learned.

The ladies from Los Colinas were up next and I took two pictures of them and neither one of them turned out good enough to put on here. I do try very hard not to put bad pictures of people on my blog. Unless of course someone sticks there tongue out at me and then they are fair game. So I don’t have pics of our guests since I don’t want to embarrass anyone. You’ll just have to trust me that they did this really good dance that WE all want to learn!

Then it was time for the masses to dance. It is our tradition to end every dance session with Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman. it’s a great song to line dance to and we happen to do Sandy’s favorite dance to it. Thanks to Carl for taking these pictures!

Sandy says we’ll have one more week of class but I think we can talk her into a few more.

In the afternoon about 15 of us met to discuss the morning event. We’re not happy campers. We’ve put some plans in place to get our concerns heard by the owners of the park. Some changes and improvements need to be made if they want RV’ers to continue to come here.

Evening time brought pool for Bob and Mexican Train for me.

A busy day, but a fun one and a productive one.

3/3–3/7/2011 During this time….

…..we didn’t do anything worth writing about. We slept, we got up, we did our computer thing, we did our normal daytime activities. we ate, we read, we watched TV….nothing special. We didn’t go anywhere, just nothing to write about.

Oh wait, there was one thing. Monday night Bob went to play cards and I played pool. Barb Trube didn’t show up to play me in pool! I guess our extremely long game from last week scared her off and she’s afraid of what I’ll do next. Come on back Barb, I’ll be good,,,,,,maybe.

3/2/2011 Birds of a Feather…

When I got up this morning I was sitting here at the computer and happened to look up just in time to see this bird sitting on our ladder on the back of the rig. I had the camera sitting on the table next to me so I reached for it in hopes it would stay until I could snap a picture.

A short while later Bob comes in and says, “A baby owl is out, where’s the camera?” I handed it over and he came back with these.

I’ve heard a lot of talk about the owl so I’m thinking everyone in the park has been there to take pictures of it.

I went out to lunch today to with my friend Helen MaGuire. When she picked me up Bob was visiting with a new RV’er to the park this year. It sounded like they there trying to fix all the problems of the world. I left it to them. I was going out to get me some “girlfriend time”.

This is my friend Helen. She’s going to be surprised to see this picture of her here since I captured it from her Facebook Page.

I like this lady. I thoroughly enjoyed our time at lunch talking about anything and everything. We went to Mimi’s Café and had the most wonderful lunch. I ordered my Mimi staple. A turkey, pistachio, cranberry salad on a croissant with lettuce and tomato with a side of fries and let’s not forget that pickle spear! This meal is to die for! I raved about it so much that Helen ordered the same thing and I think she now a new favorite at Mimi’s. We took our time, didn’t rush at all and just talked about all that we wanted to. We both shared a lot during our noontime meal and it cemented our friendship even further. Oh yes, I like this lady! We are birds of a feather in so many ways.

We agreed that we would have lunch one more time this season for sure and next season….lunch once a month!

We made a stop at the grocery store on the way home so I could pick up some salad fixin’s and when I walked in our house I found that our new friend wants to rent the park model for four months next year.

Bob and I want to do some mid season traveling next year that we didn’t get to do this year due to my bout with depression. It is so much work taking all you need out of the rig and putting it into the park model and then to repack the rig for several weeks, possibly a month, on the road, well, its just too much to deal with. As long as all the expenses associated with the park model are covered by rent we are just as happy to live in our new 5th wheel.

This was one really good day!

2/28/2011 Quail Run Gives….

Yesterday when Bob was out riding his bike he was stopped by our Pastor’s wife and was asked to ask me to please come to the Carnaval Room this morning at ten with camera in hand. I didn’t really know what was going on but I went.

I got there a few minutes beforehand and found Pastor Dale, his wife Carol,,,,,

Hostesses for the Cancer Survivor Party Lin Hackney and Darlene Wilson,,,,,,

Helping Hands leaders Margaret Geary and Shirley Witcher,,,,,,

and several other from the park.

There was one couple I didn’t know and soon found out it was Pastor Gary Biancini and his wife (sorry, I just can’t remember her name) of Living Hope Community Church located here in Arizona City. This is the church that runs the Food Bank here in this town and the one that half of the money collected at the Cancer Survivor Party was going to.

The Pastor and his wife were asked to come to Quail Run but weren’t told why.

He was just presented the envelope and he’s still kind of stunned, grateful but stunned.

He went on to tell us the programs the church and town are working on and we had no idea! He further explained that it was difficult to get programs off the ground because their church is small and they just don’t have all the help they need. We said, “Why didn’t you ask us?” We told this lovely couple that we have plenty of time on our hands and we all have the need to “give back”. We found out today that great things are going to happen in this community next fall when we all return. We are needed. We have a multitude of talents in this park and I’m sure many of us will find a niche in the community where our talents and interests will be put to good use.

We each took a turn talking with Pastor Gary, asking questions, giving ideas as they came to us, letting him know what we wanted to do next fall when we return.

At the end of our visit with him and his wife, they were excited, we were excited and we’re looking forward to next fall already!

Pastor Gary will put our generous donation to good use stocking the shelves for the Food Bank with much needed items.

It’s already been decided that there will be one more BIG food drive here in the park as people leave for the season and can’t leave all the canned goods in their park models.

In the afternoon we were invited to Paul and Dianne’s place to help Bonnie celebrate her birthday and to welcome her sister and brother-in-law who are visiting.

It was time for Bonnie’s birthday cake.

There is no mistaking that Bonnie’s sister is carrying the cake. They really look like sisters!

Turns out it wasn’t only Bonnie’s birthday and for the life of me I cannot think of this woman’s name.

This evening brought cards for Bob and the pool room for me.