Oh my goodness, what's that?

Built from scrap reinforcement bars, wire, and metal, the sculptures by artist Ricardo Breceda fill the Anza Borrego desert.  The artwork was commissioned by Dennis Avery, a multimillionaire and heir to Avery Dennison, one of the world's largest labeling companies.

Ultimately, Avery said the goal is to build a "creature desert" on 3 contiguous square miles of land he owns around Borrego Springs. He said he bought the land in the mid-1990s in the wake of the savings and loan crash.  Though he did not particularly desire a "bunch of desert," Avery said he got an offer too cheap to refuse.

"I didn't put up 'No Trespassing' signs. There are flowers out there," Avery said of an area that draws scores of tourists every spring for its wildflower blooms.

The sculptures represent the prehistoric (and modern-day) animals that once called this desert home.





Run little horsie!!





Oh No! (I can't look, tell me when it's over....)



He uses various sized hammers, from screwdrivers to sledgehammers, to pound texture into the patches of metal he welds into animals.





This mama eagle, nest and baby stand over 20 feet tall and 30 feet wide!

Made of waffle-sized pieces of shaped steel, the sculptures weigh between 800 and 1,000 pounds each and should be able to withstand the harsh winds that sweep through the valley.

“It's just basic rusting steel that gives it a very nice patina (resembling) hide,” Avery said. “It looks like hide. In a year it will be even more so because it will rust over.”

Avery figures by the end of the year he will have commissioned more than $100,000 worth of the sculptures that will be anchored in concrete all over his property, which he calls Galleta Meadows.

“I'm just going to spray them around town,” he said. “I want it to be a surprise every time. I'd like people to drive by and say:
 'Oh my goodness, what's that?' ”

The groupings will be free-standing art, without interpretive signs.

“If I make an exhibit with stalls and explanations, then you become like a museum and you get subject to regulations and all of a sudden you have committees telling you what to do,” Avery said.

"The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life."  ~William Faulkner

The Desert UP CLOSE

If you tuned in yesterday, you know we are on a ROAD TRIP to the Anza Borrego Desert (about a 2 hour drive from San Diego.)

When you are visiting the desert wildflowers you need to be extra observant and watch where you step - because miracles are all around you!

(There are flowers smaller than the point of a pencil!  Compare this tiny little flower with the quarter!)




How about some fine sand stuck to the petals of this beautiful blossom?



Some desert caterpillars.... (and look at the texture on the plant stems -- desert plants are well adapted to catch every drop of morning dew!)




This next guy (gal?) is going to grow up to be a Desert Spinx Moth:



Somehow, I think this next photo of the hind end of that caterpillar is cute.  How 'bout you?  Does it look like a puppy dog tail to anyone else?



And this bristly little flower is teeny-tiny too!



Just how teeny?

Well.....



Everywhere you look is something interesting - so take some time an wander around!





"A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Life is but an endless series of little details." Siviananda

Desert Wildflowers

Would you drive 2 hours to see wildflowers?


I would!  And so would my friends-- so we arranged a ROAD TRIP!





Deserts are usually dry and desolate, right?  Well after the winter rains a magical thing happens....


The wildflowers emerge!





You must act quickly if you want to see them because they are only around for a few weeks.








We spent the day hiking around admiring the flowers, checking our little guidebook to identify each blossom and just plain ole ENJOYING the day.  (And the 85 degree day made that easy!)





Remember when I taught you how to take a photo with a black background even in the bright daylight?  HERE





If you live around a desert, take some time to head out and investigate!

"If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom."  ~Terri Guillemets

The Help

Book club time!


This month's book was The Help, by Kathyn Stockett.


First let me introduce you to the main characters: three ordinary women in  Mississippi in 1962: 


Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.


Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.


Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.


Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. 


And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.


In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. 


A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.


Well - doesn't that sound like a great book?  


IT WAS!


We had a marvelous discussion and then it was time for lunch!






Our lovely hostess, Lisa created a FANTASTIC southern luncheon for us!  (Remember we make our food try to fit the book?)


I was SO HAPPY she served grits!  I have always wanted to taste them! They were really good!


BUT


I have to say her second dish, "Cheesy Grits with Shrimp" was even better than plain ole grits!





She also made a super tasty chicken salad (a little bit of curry really made it unique!)





And it was my first time trying okra too.  Simply DELISH!





Then came the three layer caramel cake.

OH

My

GOSH

It was to die for~! 

 (I almost had to go knock on Lisa's door at 8:00 that same night because I really NEEDED one more piece of that cake before I went to bed!)

Interested in hearing a wonderful interview with the author?  Or reading an excerpt from the book?


Click HERE


"The Help is a magical novel. Heartbreaking and oh so true, the voices of these characters, their lives and struggles will stay with you long after you reluctantly come to the end. "  Robert Hicks

April Fools Day--Gettin' ready!

You KNOW I like to take care of you, right? 


RIGHT!


I want to take care of you so much that I'm posting my April Fools' Day blog early this year, so you have time to prepare for your own foolery!  


Did you know April Fools' Day began when the Christian world adopted the new Gregorian calendar, which shifted the start of the New Year from spring to January 1?  Well, unfortunately, not everyone got the memo. Many folks, particularly those who lived out in the country, were left unaware of the change. They kept right on ringing in the New Year on April 1st.


These uninformed April celebrators were taunted as "fools" who would believe anything. And April Fools' Day--a day devoted to tricking people into believing that something false is true--was born!

First a few of my favorites that I've done so many times, no one in my family falls for it anymore:

Make your own spilled fake coffee with a cup, glue and some paint!  (Hot chocolate looks great too!) Set your fake spill on your teenager's homework or computer key board and get ready to laugh.   muhahahaha.....


I'll warn you now though it takes DAYS for the glue to dry - so if you want to make one, better do it today!
 Directions:  HERE





Don't these look like a yummy dessert?


Well, April Fools - they are Meatloaf with mashed potato frosting cupcakes HERE
(Perfect dinner, huh?)   TONs more faux food ideas HERE





And how about the ole "Drinking glass and straw with jello instead of a drink"  (Yep, bet that takes A LOT of suction....hee hee)





Found a couple new ones that I plan to try on Matt this year:


First I'm going to do "Who Goes There" details HERE.  What a funny way to start the day!





How about a Balloon Surprise as someone opens a door?  HERE




Of course everyone's favorite - rubberband the sink nozzle so it's ready to squirt an unsuspecting hand washer: HERE




And lastly, how about a "Mouse Trap"    Put a post-it note over the eye (or ball) of the victim's computer mouse.  When your victim tries to use the computer the cursor won't move.  Be sure to write "April Fools!" on the note!





Please make sure you tell me what you tried and how your April Fools pranks worked out...I'm dying to hear!


I will leave you with what is considered to be the best April Fools day prank of all time (from way back in 1957!)

The Great Spaghetti Tree Hoax

On April 1, 1957 the British news program Panorama concluded its nightly program by showing a film report on the abundant spaghetti harvest that had recently taken place in Switzerland. Lasting less than three minutes, the account was narrated by Richard Dimbleby, Britain’s most respected journalist and Panorama’s lead “news presenter.”

While the camera moved among a Swiss family apparently picking strands of spaghetti from a tree and placing them in baskets to dry in the sun, Dimbleby narrated that the bountiful harvest was due to an unusually mild winter and to the "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil." He also detailed how the pasta’s uniform length and rich flavor was the result of decades of experimentation by spaghetti farmers and researchers.

The clip ended with a group of area residents enjoying the alleged fruit of the harvest and Dimbleby commenting, "For those who love this dish, there's nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti." Returning to live broadcast, he ended the day's program by saying, "Now we say goodnight, on this first day of April," with noticeable emphasis on the final phrase.

For more details on that hoax, look HERE

MC Color Guard

Finally it was time for the MC color guard to take center stage.

They brought in their own floor and those coordinated panels along the back edge. (Those panels were really effective in screening some members during parts of the show - really added to the mystery!)





Beautiful gowns - all swirly and flowing!

Check out the height of that rifle toss!  And he caught it perfectly and in step!










How about some sabre work?
Amazing skill (I'm pretty sure I would have sliced off my arm or something if I had tried it!)



And the music (and the show) ends with them back in the corner they started from.  Such a beautiful show!

Great job MC Winter Guard!

Did you know...

• Winter Guard and Indoor Percussion are the fastest growing area of the marching arts.
• Winter Guard now exists in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Holland, Germany, England, Ireland, Korea, Japan, and Africa.
• WGI has awarded over $375,000 in academic scholarships to students from competing units.
• More than 150,000 spectators enjoy the activities at WGI Regionals and World Championships annually.
• More than 600 local competitions are sponsored, yielding an additional 100,000 spectators.
• Hundreds of high school marching bands benefit from the skills developed by winter programs.