Another week gone, and we're already halfway through January!
Boy oh boy, where do the days go?
I could write about all the terrible stuff that has been happening this week, the attack on the Capitol and, as of yesterday, the impeachment of the POTUS, but frankly I don't have the energy, nor the interest for it today.
Part of it has to do with the fact that Doug and Brenda were just here and it took all of my energy to not pick a fight or come to blows with them about the whole sour mess, since they're both firmly in the 'other camp' ... I find it unbelievable that anybody in their right mind can still defend any of what has happened, let alone still believe the elections were 'stolen'!

                                                   

OK, 'nough said, we'll just have to see how it all ends, hope they convict the bastard, cross our fingers that nothing really bad will happen on inauguration day, and in the meantime lets just talk about something nice, like this flock of noisy Lesser Goldfinches.
They are very common around here. They're social and active and voice-tress, and have an interesting song that can include imitations of dozens of other birds, from kestrels to robins. Pretty amazing for such tiny birds!

           

I also came across this large shrub with really pretty pink flowers and I have no idea what it is. Time for some googling!

So, while the master bathroom wasn't finished yet before Doug and Brenda got here, and didn't while they were here, it wasn't a big deal since there's a second shower in 'our' room, aka the guest-bathroom, so we just took turns.

 

As of today, the grouting is almost done, with only the floor left to do. It's looking really good!
I already have nightmares though, about the glass panel that has to be lifted onto the small wall in front of the shower! It's very heavy, and very expensive and if it breaks there will be $700 down the drain! We're going to hire two (strong) guys from the glass-company to help us tough, so hopefully all will go well ..

I've not been baking or cooking much this week since Doug and Brenda are on a diet, and/although we went out for dinner to the Italian restaurant here in town one evening (Yes, you can still do that here in Arizona and no, I didn't take a picture. Again!) and went for take-out Chinese on another night.

I did roast half a (rosemary-lemon) chicken for dinner last night though:

                                                

                                         A little over-roasted on the lemons but .. Yum!

And this morning, some quick cinnamon rolls (from a can) for coffee ..

                

Other than that I really don't have much to show for this week.
Maybe just a funny shot of Merl' asleep on 'his' bed, in 'his' room (you can barely see him there on that white sheet):

Which he sometimes shares for a nap with James .. aren't they cute?

                             

                                            OK. That really was all. Over and out.

Blue Agave (Parryi)

It's been a busy week here at 'Casa Hess'.
The boys have been tirelessly working on the master-bathroom, and since they're all back in school, they have committed to working a couple of hours in the afternoon and evening, just for this week, to get it all done.

  

 It's starting to look real good ..

To make sure everything will continue to go smoothly, we made sure to eat our 'traditional' black-eyed pea soup on the first of January, for good luck:

 

 

For wealth in the New Year, it contains peas for coins and greens for paper money, ham for even more prosperity, since pigs 'root' forward instead of backward, as well as tomatoes for health and cornbread for gold.

 

                                          

Besides considered lucky, it's a really good soup/stew!

I usually bake Butter-horn cookies for Christmas, but since this year I tried my hand at several other cookies, I skipped them.
Well, guess what, I missed having them, so .. I made them after all!

   

Obviously they don't know they're Christmas cookies, and we definitely don't care so ..

They were good as always. Good idea I had there!

Of course I love my morning walks, and especially right now, mainly because the temperatures are around 40F, and the air is just wonderfully crisp and clean. Just perfect.
(For me, I should add, because most people around here like it warmer, a lot warmer .. hah, not me, no siree!)

            

Here's some shots of the prickly vegetation I come across. You want to watch where you going down here, for sure ..

        

 

Also, a few bird-shots, because, well, you know ..

White-crowned Sparrows

  

And at the pond on the 17th whole, right behind our yard, a Kingfisher!

                       

I'm sneaking in another shot of a Vermillion Flycatcher too. He's just too pretty!

By the way, when I'm not walking, I'm riding my spiffy, little BMW sports car these days:

It's a convertible! Quite a step up from my 'usual' ride, isn't it?

Let's see, what else, the pickings are a little thin this week or, as we say in Holland, it's 'pruimentijd' (plum-time .. no clue why we say that?)

Come to think of that, here in Arizona it's actually 'grapefruit-time'. They're pretty much ripe right now, and I've started to pick some from the one tree in our own back-yard.

 

How cool is that? It so happens that Doug doesn't like them, so we're free to pick as many as we want! They remind me of James Dad, he loved them ..

        

Here's a little desert creature that lives in that same back-yard, a Western Fence or Blue-belly lizard .. I think ..
It seems that he just shed his skin, there's a little piece still stuck there on his neck!

                                                      

He's so cute, and at the moment he 'lives' behind a stack of cobblestones, but when the pool goes in in a couple of weeks those will disappear, so I'm afraid he will be in for a rude surprise ..

Oh, I almost forgot, James has taken his second assistent-appraiser exam, and he passed! Yeah! I'm so proud of him!
Besides all the beautiful work he's doing, he's spending hours studying too. Chapeau, honey!

 

Oh, eh .. that comment doesn't make any sense at all come to think of it, since I haven't said anything about why he's doing this.
OK, take a seat, here's the story:

James is going to switch carriers. Again. Yeah. Well, ... you're never to old I guess!
I'm very happy about it though, I thought already for a while that it would be nice that he wouldn't have to climb roofs and carry all that heavy equipment and materials around anymore. I mean, he's 61 .. time to slow down a little and take it a little easier.
So, here's the plan, he's becoming a real estate appraiser! It's a 2 year hands-on study and guess where he's going to do his apprenticeship?
Right! His brother Doug is taking him on!
We'll be moving to Newberg after the job here is done, about half of April, and it looks like Doug's landlord will be fine with us parking the RV behind Doug's house and live there for the time being.
How's that for an interesting twist in our future plans?!

We're excited though, and I can't wait to go to Oregon! North! Where I belong!
(OK, yes, it rains a lot .. minor detail .. we'll make it work, it's a beautiful state and it's only for 2 years. 

Yes, .. those famous last words!

   

 As the sun was setting on 2020 in our backyard, all I could think was 'good riddance, and hopefully the door will hit you in the but when leaving!'

 

Like everybody else we're hoping for a better 2021 but I'm afraid it will get a lot worse before that. Yes, we got rid of Trump, but he now seems to call for trouble on January 6th, urging “patriots” to defend America on his twitter account. What the %$#@!

As for the virus, yes, we have a vaccine, but so far the numbers are still rising everywhere (275.000 yesterday, the highest so far!), many countries are in lock-down, and vaccinations are going slower than hoped ..

 

      

Oh well, we still raised a glass to the New Year, hope springs eternal!

We enjoyed a quiet Christmas, listening to peaceful Christmas music all day long and watching 'It's a wonderful life' in the evening. As usual , there was a lot of nice food involved, although we have it down to a science by now and don't over-eat as much anymore as we used too ..

There was Panettone for breakfast, with which we made the best ever French toast the next morning, and scallops in a creamy sauce over linguini for dinner. Apple cranberry pie for dinner the first night, and chocolate mousse the next. Yum!

As I mentioned in the previous post, we drove through the neighborhood to see the Christmas lights. Here's a few more pics, they were quite nice! And prolific!

Old Year's involved more good food ..

It has become our tradition to have lobster!

We didn't stay up until midnight, but I did wake up at 10 minutes past, due to some fireworks nearby. OK, I thought, we made it .. 2020 is over with! I listened for a little while, but not much more was coming, so I went back to sleep .. how exciting ..

The next morning, while James was installing a few floorboards in the den, I worked on the oliebollen:

  

They came out pretty nice, a little denser than I would like, but still good enough!

Because we stuffed ourselves with the balls, we opted for a light lunch. We did have Champagne though. I'd been pleasantly surprised to find our favorite one (Martini Asti) at Walmart, of all places!

   

But we didn't only eat this week, a lot of work was done too! The guys were out of school again, and worked several days in a row, just like the week before.

The den was given a new, somewhat rustic look, by installing (fake) wood panels against the walls. They're actually floor-boards, but they look great on the wall too!

Talking about floorboards, when taking down the cabinets on the right side of the den, it turned out that they didn't install any boards underneath them, so now we were left with two holes in the floor.
Fortunately though, the area in the dining room where the wine-cellar is going to be and where the same floor-boards were installed, is going to be tiled, so previously James and Jaden had pried them up ... easier said than done by the way, since they were a bear to get out!

 

 

So, like I said, on New Year's day, whit nothing much else to than studying (and who wants to do that?), James filled in the holes:

The rest of the week was dedicated to the master-bathroom ..                                    

The drywall was painted red with a waterproof paint (which goes on pepto-bismo pink by the way), the floor got a water-proof membrane and a little bench was build, after which they finally started to set the tile!

The floor is going to get the same small mosaic tiles as that decorative band on the wall. Still a lot to do! They only got one more week to finish, since Doug and Brenda are coming back on the 8th.
No pressure there!

In between all the cooking and baking and cleaning up after the guys, I did some 'real' work too!
I first helped installing different hardware on all the inside doors (they went from silver to bronze), next I touched up all 374(!) holes in the walls after they were patched, and than I painted all the areas that were still grey in the house brown.

                 

Which included the half-bath in the hallway ..

   

Out with the grey .. in with the brown!

And with all the 'porking out' we did,  I tried to stay on top of my walks.
Here's a pic of one of the walking-paths that cuts through the neighborhood. This one follows a 'wash', apparently a vital necessity here in the desert, for when they have one of their 'flash-flood' rains happening.

You'd think Fall has only just started with the trees finally turning colors down here, but that's Arizona for you, the seasons here are not like they are anywhere else!

 

I even managed to snap a few bird-pics. That's a Gila Woodpecker on the left, which are everywhere down here, and on the right a beautiful little hawk, which I'm not sure of what it is .. yet .. just give me some time, I'll figure it out.

          

In the midst of all this activity, I make time every day to work a little on my various 'Christmassy' puzzles I seem to have.

                    

I'm actually amazed I have so many of them, and what's even more amazing is the fact that I only make them once a year, around this time, and that that seems to have been only yesterday!

Really! Where does the time go?

So, despite everything, we had a nice time this last week of the year, and actually 2020 was a very good year for us!
By now we've recovered completely from our truck-disaster (including our bank-account), Trump is gone, there is a vaccine and soon we are going to start a new chapter in our lives, but more about that next time.

This about sums it up. Bring it on, 2021!