February 2007                                            go to our "Home Page" 

go to "What we've  been doing...."

Gourds for sale!   Check the bins and take your pick of any size or shape you'd like.  Cash out at the gate.	After you have your gourd, you'll need a variety of tools to create your art in a variety of  vases, bowls, pots....carved, painted, etc.	Several sizes and shapes of gourds became our granddaughter's favorite animal - a turtle.

This gourd became a wall hanging of an Indian mask.	These gourds became oriental dolls.

With all our various activities, its hard to schedule a get-together with traveling friends and friends from other parks.  But, we made it a point to save a day for a gathering of our "Bounder Buddies."  The Reynolds' and Lichtenbergs had "overlapping stays" here at Palm Creek and Judy Metzler and Jeff Rubic are staying at the Viewpoint Resort in Mesa (where we had visited in December.)  They are all great friends we met when we had our first RV, a Bounder.  We have enjoyed keeping in touch with them over the years, and this visit was no exception.  We started out at noon with a great lunch at Lichtenberg's site, gave Jeff and Judy the "two-bit" tour of Palm Creek, had some lively conversation, enjoyed a happy "Happy Hour'" and the next thing we knew, it was dark.  A fantastic visit!

The annual Palm Creek Quilt Show showed off the ever amazing talent of the dedicated quilters, sewers and other needlework enthusiasts here in the park.  The beautiful sewing room at the activity center is busy almost 24/7 and is the scene of only some of the work that goes on.  Several of our friends even have sewing centers set up in their "sheds."  Some of the work displayed at the show is kept by the sewers.  Other work is sold and yet more is given to charity projects.
 
 

Our "Bounder Buddies"..Jeff Rubic and Judy Metzler, Judy and Ed Lichtenberg, and Marilynn and Bob Reynolds...all members of the "Tri-State Bounders"	Just one of the many beautiful quilts made by a Palm Creek resident.	These two quilts were made in just one evening at a "Quilting Bee" here at Palm Creek and will be given to charity.

The odds worked against him as Tom went to Murray, Kentucky for a week on February 10.  Tom had hoped that the worst of the winter weather would have passed by then, but he found it quite cold during his week there as part of a team reviewing the Head Start program.          Meanwhile, "back at the ranch," the tennis club had Valentine's Day week planned with lots of activity.  It started out with a brunch for all members on Sunday.    Then starting on Monday, a Pentathlon had been organized as a fun activity for all the tennis players to compete with each other in tennis as well as some of the other sports here at Palm Creek.  There were mens' and womens' teams (16 2-person teams), with Mary included, that competed in tennis, horseshoes, pickleball, lawn bowling and shuffleboard.  Most participants were really 'out of their element' with everything but tennis.  Prior to the competition there had been some instructions, lessons and practice sessions.  During the week of competition one event was scheduled each day with a potluck and awards ceremony after the final event on Friday.  We used some muscles we don't ordinarily use, but there was great fun and lots of laughter.  Mary didn't win any medals, but came away with an appreciation of the other events and actually enjoyed each of them.  There just aren't enough hours in a day and days in the week to do everything we could here at Palm Creek.
 
 

It was a chilly damp day when we went out to pitch horseshoes.  Those things are heavy!  And it's a long way across there!	Lawn bowling is just plain awkward until you get the hang of it.  They are not "balls."  They are "bowls" - and they are not round!  The bowls are weighted and marked so you can aim them.	The bowls closest to the "jack" get the points and sometimes you have to measure to see who is the closest.
Okay...who's in the lead?  We checked the scoreboard after each event.  You'll notice that for the lawn bowling event we respected the lawn bowling club's rule of wearing all white for competition play.	Pickleball looks like tennis...well, sort of.  The paddle is a lot shorter than a tennis racquet and the ball doesn't bounce as well.  At least the court is only one-fourth the size.	It sure doesn't take much to slide the pucks across the shuffleboard court.  Silicone is used to make the courts slippery.
Okay....the competition is over,  let's eat!  We're pretty good at "pot-lucking."  This was the second time in a week. We had all the instructors and scorekeepers from the other sports as our guests.	The scores were tallied and the winners are....Connie and Darleen, Marg and Penny and Earline and Charlotte in the women's competition.	The men's winners were Ken and Skip, Jack and Gar, and Bob and Dick.  Congratulations, all!

Events elsewhere in the park continued as well.  Mary attended the annual "Ladies Luncheon" where the Central Arizona Community College Jazz Choir entertained.  Although Tom and Mary did not participate, our neighborhood was well represented and brought home some money as  participants in the two-day Palm Creek Golf Championship.  The annual Pottery Show was held on the last Sunday of the month, and as always, there was a wealth of beautiful work done by our resident artists put on display and some offered for sale.  The viewing crowd was so large it was impossible to take photos.  To close out the month we gathered with our neighborhood group for a "Cowboy Dinner."  We'd had such a good time last month with our Italian Night we chose a different theme and did it again.  Several were assigned to cook B-B-Q ribs and chicken and we all brought side dishes of beans, potatoes, slaw and cornbread to share.  Once again, a fun evening.
 
 

Our party host, Mary Duncan, organized some entertainment while we waited for the meat to cook.  Liar's Dice involved trying to decide of our friends and neighbors were lying to us.		After dinner we gathered around the campfire (not exactly old cowboy style) and sang old camp songs - or hummed along when we couldn't remember the words.
	Tom tried his hand at marshmallow golf.

We had several consecutive nights of a "hard and damp freeze" during February.  Much of the park's beautiful landscaping has turned brown and/or lost leaves.  We're looking forward to some warmer and sunnier days ahead, and hoping that the plants and trees will recover.  Spring is not too far away, and some of the park residents have begun to head for home.  However, we plan to stick around for "fun in the sun" for a while longer.