The last garden here and more bluebonnets

Just had to get a few pictures of Guillermo in his garden since it's his last garden ever at this place.  I'll be documenting this garden as it grows.

As the months go on, it's amazing how many "lasts" we are coming across. But there was a "second" today - the second mowing of this season.  We don't like mowing much at all, but we sure love how the yard looks afterwards.  After we mowed, I just had to get more pictures of the bluebonnets out in our field.

Of course, it's also the "last" spring we will experience here.  We just went through the last winter here at this house, and it was a different winter, as it seemed to be cold all the time, hardly ever warming up.  We didn't know it during the fall, SUSPECTED it, but didn't really know that we were going through our last fall at that time.  Spring and Fall, always the most beautiful times here.

Today, our house (along with about 12 others on this block) went before the Bexar County Commissioners Court for approval of the buy-out offer.  We are assuming it was approved, as all of them have been.

Some plants going to a new home for a while

Yesterday, Mom, Kathy, Linda, Jacob and Skye came over - we met at Bill Miller's for lunch and then came to our house.

We looked around at our plants and decided on several for them to take to their houses and care for when our house is not around anymore.

It's so heavy and so hard to pull. 

After putting the plants in their cars, we came inside and had a nice "video chat" with Andrew and Martina!!  It was so much fun being able to see them, and for them to be able to see all of us while we talked.

And a picture of our Lady Banks Rose.  My goodness, it has gotten big.  Such a shame that it will be going down.

                       

And a few pictures of some flowers out in our field - bluebonnets and what we've always called cow flowers.

Our daffodils

This is what we had been wanting - the daffodils to be doing so well that they would start filling in this area in the front yard.  Well, now that they are JUST about to be doing what we had planned, I guess this area is going to be torn up for the buy-out.  It sure would be nice if they could allow all these daffodils (and any of our other perennials) to stay.

And these two grackles were having it out by our driveway the other day.  They were so funny!!!

It's a yard work day

Yesterday, we just had to tackle the yard because it had gotten a little out of control - so it was the first "mowing day" of the year.  The first couple of times are always good - maybe even a little fun.  But after a few times of mowing that whole yard, it becomes a true chore and far from being anything close to fun.

Ahh, it's a little blurry, but the best I could seem to get with the light at that time of day.  The front yard is looking nice. 

Our white daffodils are blooming now.

And here's a picture of our Redbuds blooming.  They always have added a nice touch to the yard.

Actually, the weeds and grass all around the city are a little out of control at this point.  It seems all this new green growth just snuck up on everyone and came out of nowhere.  But at least our yard looks very nice again.

And here's a view of our "new living room".......

Totally new look to your room, right Rebeca?

And today, I had lunch again with my Elrod friends.  Always enjoyable.

                  Sharon, Linda, Cheri, Betty, Becky, and me!

Visiting Rebeca

Some pictures of the grounds that Rebeca designed at the new Fire Station in downtown Tucson.  The first picture shows her proudly showing the human and the dog water fountains.

Here Rebeca is standing in a citrus grove, reminiscent of the citrus groves that used to be in this area.

Just relaxing among her handiwork.

Some pictures taken at Rebeca's house. 

Rebeca and Guillermo when Jack was behaving.

And when Jack WASN'T behaving....

We had a great time with her - had a delicious dinner at "My Big Fat Greek" restaurant, enjoyed fixing spaghetti and meatballs at her house and having the leftovers for dinner another night, and then despite it being so rushed, had a nice time having lunch with her where she works.

On the day we had lunch with her, we visited with Guillermo's sister Irene that morning, and when it was time to go meet Rebeca, we invited Irene to come along with us. We had promised Rebeca we would bring her food from Subway, so as we drove to her workplace, we kept our eyes open for a Subway. We had such good luck, because there was a Subway right there on the street where she works - not CLOSE to where she works, but at least on the same street. It was frenzied inside that Subway - since it was lunch hour the people there were trying to get those sandwiches out as quickly as possible. That turned out to be a good thing, because by the time we got our sandwiches and drove on the rest of the way, it was the EXACT hour we said we'd be there with the sandwiches. We met Rebeca in her office, talked for just a few minutes with some of her co-workers and then went over to the conference room to eat. We only had 30 minutes with her, and even in that 30 minutes, co-workers would pop in and talk with Rebeca. So, it was a little rushed, but we enjoyed being able to be with her at her work, and Rebeca was happy Irene could join us. Rebeca was so rushed because right after lunch she had to go out to some resort with a co-worker to "look at their pool", and then have a meeting with some people afterwards about the project to be designed.

Celebrating Mom's Birthday

We took Mom to the Riverwalk today for her birthday - and what a beautiful day it was.  We parked at the Pearl Brewery Complex, and walked down a short flight of stairs to where the Museum Reach of the Riverwalk begins.  We thought we'd be able to catch a River Taxi real close to there, but one never came, so we started walking towards downtown slowly.  We walked a short distance, when we saw a River Taxi coming in the opposite direction, so we knew it had to turn around at the end and come back by where we were.  So, we waited for it to arrive.  We were only going to do the Museum Reach of the River Walk, but when we got on the boat, the guy convinced us to do the ENTIRE Riverwalk, saying it only took about 40 minutes to get to downtown.

Well, he was more or less correct.  Since the way it works is you have to get off the "red" taxi (which only does the northern part of the Museum Reach), and wait for a "yellow" taxi, which takes you further into the downtown section of the Riverwalk, it ended up taking longer because it took a REALLY long time for the yellow taxi to show up.  We actually started walking (again) up the river because it was taking so long.  When the yellow taxi finally showed up, we got on it at that point, but had to go BACK to where we had been waiting for it to begin with, because it had to finish its route.
So, now we're back to where the red taxi had dropped us off, but we can't continue on with the yellow taxi, because we have to wait for the NEXT red taxi that has passengers who want to catch our yellow taxi.  Very frustrating!!!  Finally, finally, we get on our way, and the rest of the trip towards downtown goes relatively quickly.
It was a beautiful, sunny day and the Riverwalk looked so beautiful.  We got off of the yellow taxi at Casa Rio, and we were going to have lunch there, but the wait was too long and we ended up at another riverside restaurant called "The Republic of Texas".  The food was good, and it was so pleasant sitting outside along the river.  We shared a good chocolate cake for dessert!!

 After lunch, we walked a little along the river to a spot where we thought we could catch a yellow taxi back to the Museum Reach.  We sat there for a little while, and realized we never saw any boats going in the direction we wanted.  They were all going the other way.  We figured this must be a "one way section" of the river, so we walked a little further up the river to where we thought the boats might be going the direction we wanted.  Guillermo went on ahead just in case a yellow taxi would be passing, and he would hold it for us, and sure enough, there was a yellow taxi passing, so we had to rush to catch it!
There was the same slowdown where we had to get off the yellow taxi, to catch a red one.  We waited for the longest time for a red taxi!!!  But eventually one came, and took us back to the Pearl Brewery Complex.  It was interesting going through the locks, and all in all, it was a very nice day!!!

Rebeca in the news again!

Another article written about Rebeca!!  This was on the Building Arizona website.

For Immediate Release: Rebeca Field receives State of Arizona Professional Registration credentials

posted by kimberly mickelson on february 25, 2010
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Rebeca Field, of SAGE Landscape Architecture & Environmental, Inc., has successfully met the Arizona State Board of Technical Registration’s requirements for licensure as a Registered Landscape Architect (RLA).  Rebeca has been promoted to Project Landscape Architect and will continue as a Project Manager and an Environmental Planner. Rebeca, who joined SAGE in 2005, brings 8 years of design experience to the team.  Her experience includes landscape design of community centers, roadways, parks, trails, and commercial centers.  Rebeca’s interests include the creation of environmentally sensitive landscapes and the preservation of existing natural and cultural resources through innovative design.  She received her Masters degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Arizona in 2004 and her B.S. in Environmental Science from Stephen F. Austin State University in 2001.

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SAGE Landscape Architecture & Environmental, Inc. is a Minority Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) firm specializing in landscape architecture, environmental compliance and cultural resources.  Founded in 1997, with offices in Tempe and Tucson, SAGE provides services to private and public entities throughout the Southwest.

If you would like more information regarding this subject, or to schedule an interview, please contact Mary Schwindt, SAGE Landscape Architecture & Environmental, Inc.  Tel: 520-740-0950

And on another note -
Yesterday, I had a "video chat" with  Andrew and Martina!!  That was so fun!!  It took a little tweaking for Andrew and Martina to get their microphone working, so that I could hear them, but eventually they got it.  It was just amazing to be able to talk over the computer with them, all the while being able to SEE them, too!

New living room

So, really, how do you pack up over 30 years of life?????

Fernando's room is totally different.  We have moved our "living room" over into Rebeca's room, so that's where the futon is now, where we now have dinner and watch our "episodes", where we just relax.  It's nice being in Rebeca's room, with a view to the backyard and to the trees on the side of the house.  And in Fernando's room now are 3 separate piles going.  One is for the garage sale, one pile is to eventually add to our practice storage room down in the red room, and the last pile is for family to go through before we put that stuff in the garage sale pile.  We took the door off of the closet in his room, so that we have a little more room to place things.  But as I look around his room at the piles, the garage sale pile is mighty small.  We are going to have to get more serious about getting rid of things!

Today we have been going through our clothes.  It's not that easy deciding which clothes to pack away, and which to give away.  There's always the thought - "Well, I MAY want to wear that again some time".  Actually, that really goes for almost every single item we handle.  "Well, we MAY want to use that again some time."  And how do you pack picture frames?????  We've got TONS of big ones, and just putting two picture frames in one box already makes that box super heavy.  We're thinking they may just have to be stored side-by-side out in the open.

And this new laptop - what a pleasure it is now to do things on the computer.  Granted, the old laptop wasn't THAT bad, when it moved quickly in those rare moments at like 11:30 pm or something.  But the NEW one, wow!  How nice it is to be able to move so quickly through just about ANYthing at any time of the day!!!!!  The two Grrrs about it - it won't recognize our printer, and it won't accept my camera software. Grrrr.

Starting on Fernando's room

Yesterday, March 1, Mom and I had lunch at Cappy's.  Such good food there, and the surroundings are so nice.  This time, we got a seat by the nice sunny window, so we had a very enjoyable meal.  By the time we were finished eating, though, we saw people walking in with umbrellas, so apparently the cold front was slowly filtering in.
So, today it was time to start what will be the rearranging of a few rooms.  Before we started on Fernando's room, though, we had to get in a few shots of the room that we have considered our living room ever since 1998.  This is where Guillermo and I spent a lot of time every evening and on weekends.  Working on the computer, or grading papers, eating dinner, watching a movie or watching 24 or Lost.

We liked working in here and it was nice having a nice big window where we could see out to the backyard.

When we'd watch one of our shows during dinner, we'd use those ottomans as tables.  It was our favorite way to have dinner at home.

And this is where Vicki was found most of the time.

So, after we took those pictures, it was time to start working on the room.  Isn't it amazing what a few pictures of family hanging on the wall can do for a room?

By the end of the day, the desk and shelving was gone, and in its place was the stuff for the garage sale. Tomorrow, we hope to move the futon and TV over to Rebeca's room, which means taking down the bed in there.  Musical rooms is not over yet!