TALLY HO! : April showers...

bring May flowers!
(and critters!!)
It hasn't rained here for months tho. this is the desert. It surely blooms it's ass off come Springtime! and new creatures are emerging: lizards, skinks, BIG spiders (i had an up-close encounter with what we concluded is a "crab spider"), beetles, new birds, more hummingbirds at our feeder, and snakes. our first encounter with a snake was right in our friend's driveway. we almost stepped on it! after Joel heard me gasp and then spotted it himself, we took a few steps back and just watched. i was fascinated. Joel says it was a Gopher snake, and that they eat rattlesnakes! (the ones we're most cautious about.)
Just a couple days later we hiked the West Fork trail. we were down by the creek, meandering through some old building remains, and i noticed a rather tiny, light-colored one, curled up between two stacked cobblestones, its head sitting on the middle of its body. Joel was standing with his back close to it. i suggested that he step my way then i pointed it out. even though it was a baby, it wasn't shaking a rattle. 😄 not sure what kind it was. I've spotted snakes 6 different times now.

The skink sure was weird! At first i thought it was a snake but the tail looked odd. then it moved, and it ran, fast! then sat for a long time, and i could see itty-bitty arms and hands. i'd never seen anything like it before and neither had joel.

It's actually May as i type this, and the tall-reaching Ocotillo plants are in bloom, along with baby peaches emerging in our friend's front yard.

skink

Life's a peach!

bottom of an (enormous!) Amethyst geode with white quartz

We've slowed down quite a bit... on the hiking. the weather has gotten warmer, and we've already hit a hot streak- a whole week of nearly 100F. On those days i work on my tan by the pool, or we head down to the creek with our hammocks. it's just too hot to hike, unless we venture to higher altitudes, which is on our radar, but for after we return from some summertime fun in MN 😀 We've also got the jobs now, so we've been spending more time with Mike and his inventory of rocks and gems. i should probably do a post just about that sometime. i'm learning a lot about minerals, chemical reactions, the geology of the planet, and beholding some absolutely memorizing, dazzling specimens and pieces of stuff from beneath the Earth's crust.

We took a trip back to Tucson at a few weeks ago for a full week out on the same boondock spot from our last visit. I gotta say, it is SO FUN to plan a trip away somewhere and not have to decide what to bring and pack a suitcase. it's so much less to think about! We get to bring EVERYTHING 😄 How fulfilling to just pull the whole house, with all our stuff in it, down the road to wherever we go. Wheeeeeeeee!!

We returned to Tucson for work reasons, altho we did squeeze in a little bit of hiking in the actual Tucson mountains, PLUS the end of our work week rang in the city's most-beloved annual event: the Tucson Folk Music Festival. they had 5 different stages spaced out around downtown, so we got to play in the actual city a little bit, and enjoy some great live performances with our new buddies, Rob and his wife, Jonie. Throughout the week they were showing us how exactly they run their gem-selling business. And even though they knew we had our own home to return to for the nite, they graciously opened theirs to us; their shower, and kitchen... Jonie even made lunch for us all a couple days, and the others they treated us out on the town. we all get along great, and feel like family 💚 Rob is such a character! and worked with us the most. we laughed a lot, farted around, crammed loads of info into our brains, and got really clear about some details we need in order to move forward with our process. It is going very well, and we look forward to moving the shop up to Sedona at the beginning of August.

the Tucson mtns

Tucson mtns

hooded oriole. sometimes feeds off our hummer feeder!

prickly pear in bloom

new growth!

So I guess the gem business kinda works in waves: busy for a few months, then off for a couple, and busy for a couple more, then off for a few. It turns out that Mike and his family have plans to take off a few times this summer around the same times as Joel and I do. how perfect! We have begun planning our trip back to MN/WI for a several week stay, and then we'll really dive into a more 'normal' work schedule when we return to Sedona August. I'm looking forward to it- ALL! -getting back up north and catch up with ya'll and play in the lakes, and then return to Sedona, to play more with all these amazing crystals and further nurture the expansion of this business we have become part of with Mike.

Until then, we continue to do some work for Mike, and we're still just honeymooning away. I cannot express how fantastic it is to own our home, have minimal bills, roll out of bed whenever we want to every day, and just PLAY PLAY PLAY play mini golf, ping pong, our didgeridoos, singing bowls, and try new recipes with our sourdough mother. I've been getting through some more of my book collection, doing research, learning new things, quenching my brian's thirst for new knowledge. Lately i'm designing and making a couple of costumes. I get outside every day for some hula hooping, and I fire hoop once in a while, but they have county-wide fire-bans going on a lot, so more of that will probably happen come July and August, with the monsoon season. some nites we enjoy soaking in the hot tub at The Pines, we go swimming in the pool, in the creek, and are now hanging our hammocks over the water, and hiking shorter trails later in the day a couple times a week. We're keeping cool. Being outside so much is the BEST. I can feel it's balancing effects on both my mind and body. I especially love when we boondock in Sedona. i find myself naturally going outside first thing in the morning, and we are relatively alone (no neighbors), in the quiet, the sunshine, fresh air, and... i just feel so ALIVE!

Life knew we wanted this, and we continue allowing ourselves to receive it. ("Ask, and it is given." 'tis TRUE!!!) I feel like more of the 'me' that i am really meant to be. and sure! I could grow into this on my own... but it is so much stinkin' fun doing it with a partner- with my Joel. my heart is so full. I continue falling even more in love with him, and the process of life evolving- all of our dreams will keep coming true, as we stay focused in the energies of joy, trust, and appreciation for all that we are and all we are yet to become. Life is truly a process of creation. we are co-creators with All That Is. and it is all GOOOOOOOD 👍
(imho 😉)