Beautiful Monsoon Season

In 2013 the Arizona Monsoon season was a literal "drop in the bucket".  This season our buckets are running over.  The water from the heavens, and they have been glorious, has been a godsend.

My sister Barbara moved into her darling house on Seneca in Benson and every evening we go over after our walk and sit on her bench, drink a little wine and watch the sun go down.  The particular time we watched the downpour from her garage.

Barbara is doing some beautiful stone work in the front of her house.  Karl, her landscape architect is doing a fantastic job with a variety of rocks.  Even the rain didn't wash his handiwork away.

Here are some of the treasures we have found in our desert.

I'm just so happy that I finally have some grass in my courtyard.   It's such a peaceful place!

Time with Horst and Thea in beautiful Southern Germany

Things have changed a lot since I was last in Germany 9 years ago.  The East is open and all over Germany you see wind and solar farms on the hills.  Driving from Nuremberg to Ulm and then to Aitrach/Mooshausen where Horst now has his business was a real pleasure.  It gets greener the farther South you drive.  The little town where Thea grew up is now their home.  It's the most peaceful community with a beautiful little church right in the center of town.  I could hear the bells ringing at 6AM and walking around the streets on the edge of the Iller River, I thought places like this didn't exist anymore but they do.....

Wild flowers, baby ducks,storks, mountains, snow, wonderful food and of course all kinds of ice cream. That's how we spent our 8 days in the foothills of the Alps.  Horst took us into Austria onto one of the mountain passes where we got to throw snowballs.  We won't be doing that for a while again unless we drive to Flagstaff.

Some of the best pictures of our time with Horst and Thea:

Mommy and baby

The best ice cream

The Spiess walk

Solar farms everywhere

Kisslegg

Wangen

Wangen

Art's favorite restaurant in Wangen

Pig hearder in Wangen

Got a few extra skateboards?

for my friends at CCAD

beautiful!!

Thea's daughters farm house

Kiwi becher

Josefa's got some competition

Little girls on their way to school

Bad Waldsee and cafe

I'm in heaven

Bad Waldsee church

First pole dancer

Dinner on the last day

Bird houses for Thea

Now concentrate on that goodness

Weingarten

Love this fountain in Waldsee

Thea's house

Telling time the old fashioned way

Artur really misses this....