Scavenger Hunt & June Events

Those who know me understand that I am an avid bird watcher.  Imagine my excitement this morning when we watched this beautiful red-tailed hawk land just a block away!  It was awesome!  

LOL..........our scavenger hunt was a hoot!  We were handed a list of 20 clues and had an hour to locate as many as we could.  It was required that our team take a selfie at each location.  HA!!  It was a bright sunshiny day (of course) making it VERY difficult to detect if we had ourselves in the selfie.  We wound up with hilarious photos of squinting poses.  You can't easily smile and squint at the same time. 😄

One clue was by the Cafe window so Chef and Bridgette photo bombed each picture. 😀

We had about 60 people participating so the streets were buzzing with busy golf carts.

On a quieter day, I snapped a couple casual photos.  These begonia plants at the main office have really done well.

Anywhere you drive around town or along the highway, you can't help but notice that the saguaros are in full bloom.  This one is right here at site 1017.

Our June calendar has been published already.  Looks like another month of fun events to keep us occupied.

Evening treat time for Kat and Mouse is an adventure.  Mouse is an instinctive hunter so loves to chase after his treats.  Sometimes he jumps up and catches the treat in mid air.

Lovely Day

 Another of our summer events:  We have a busload of folks heading for the Prescott Bluegrass Festival in June.  If they could assure me the temperature would be below 90, I'd agree to go along.  😕  Sounds like fun.

Our local temps are just perfect in the mornings.

How peaceful to hear the waterfall and watch a couple mama ducks with their little ones.

My neighbor spotted this golden eagle perched on a house at the end of our street!  Awesome!!  I'd love to see him in person.  Feral cats and ducks had better beware!

OMG!  Look at this beautiful cactus plant.  It's sad that they only last one day.

Have a GREAT day!

Ballroom Cafe

 We're so thankful for our new Ballroom Cafe being open this summer!  It makes a great gathering place as you just invite the neighbors or friends and say "Meet you at the Cafe for lunch".

Chef Maywalt, Bridget, and Deb have been busy preparing goodies for us.

Now in addition to our GREAT all you can eat salad bar, Chef has also started his specialty meal of the week.  Don calls it "man food" as he tires easily of a light salad.

Of course there are always delicious pastries for breakfast or to sneak home for a snack.

I missed this opportunity today.  I was done eating already before I spotted Bridget's surprise dessert of the week.  I'll definitely be on the look out for what comes next.  As shown by the display case, her treats are popular.

Our weather is starting to heat up for summer as we had our first triple digit yesterday at 102.  Thankfully, it still cools down at night so our mornings are truly delightful.  I do so enjoy hopping on my bike (Sue's Harley) and taking a nice ride around the park to see what's blooming for the day.  I think I'll post a few beauties or unique items each time I post.

This shrub is a real award winner!

I'll definitely be watching this cactus to see it when it opens.

The cactus don't have to be BIG to be beautiful.  Look at this tiny masterpiece I found in Tom Gottfried's succulent bed.

Some plants really get carried away when they're in full bloom.

I spotted these unique small pepper plants at a site.  Really caught my attention.

I've seen some tall spikes on the agave plants...but look at this strange one.  It's so TALL and thin compared to any others that I've seen around the park.

Our new cat condo is very popular as "the boys" (Kat and Mouse) enjoy their mornings on the patio with us.  To those residents who are still here for the summer....be sure to wave and say good morning as we're outside for our early morning coffee.

Tiny Letter + More

 I'm excited that I was able to find an email service that allows me to send a notice to all registered readers when I post something new.  It was a challenge to say the least.  Then I had to transfer all the Mail Chimp addresses to the new service.  Whew!  The new company is called "Tiny Letter".  I've added a link to the blog....over on the right hand side where newbies can register.  

The WeedCo crew is starting this week to spray the entire park for weeds. They started over on the southeast corner.

All the spraying close to buildings and individual sites is done by hand.

We saw our landscape crew busy aerating the lawn bowl area.

Beautiful cactus flowers!

Springtime in Arizona.

Webinar regarding Nexus Planned Area

 Received this notice regarding the Nexus area just north of Palm Creek....across Cottonwood.  Mark your calendar and tune in for the Webinar.

Mama duck and 9 babies taking a shower in the waterfall.  

Summer Activities

Spring time has been wonderful for us this year!  Winter weather was unusually cold and now our spring is unusually beautiful.  Perfect temps and lots of sunshine.

We had fun at Cinco de Mayo:

Our biggest celebration is that we have "Bistro" available!  It makes sense to move the food activity to the ballroom for the summer and it is working out very well.

Our favorite foods are still on the menu AND the prices were all lowered!!  Now it is up to us summer residents to keep this opportunity alive by visiting regularly.

We've had some other fun events for a Summer Picnic Series.  Steve Jones entertained us through the lunch hour last Monday.

Our summer birthdays are being celebrated again.

Looks like we'll have a monthly ice cream social.

A new Poker & Pizza party starts this coming week.

The beautiful annual plants are now gone but we have fresh planting of all new summer sun-loving flowers.

Our devoted and ever hard working Activities staff set up a small Bingo game with lots of prizes.  We had over 70 people in attendance.  We would probably have more but due to beautiful weather, other folks are outdoors playing free golf, water volleyball, shuffleboard, horseshoes, etc.  

We have a monthly coffee and donuts AND our weekly Tapas Tuesday has started.  We had 63 residents present.  More food opportunities.  Our residents LOVE to cook and eat! 

Photo by Sandi Brown

 Next Monday is a movie matinee where we can see the movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once".

I'm also looking forward to the upcoming Scavenger Hunt where we'll scatter around the resort looking for the listed items and taking a selfie at each place.

So much to do.  Swoop, Dominos, Rock Painting, and Card Bingo also keep us entertained.

You can view the May newsletter in its new format:

May Newsletter

Crews are busy installing the solar panels on top of the administration building.

I still find time to spend with friends that have scattered across the country.  We gather on Facetime, log into Poker Stars and have a weekly tournament.  FUN!

Our neighbors asked us to store their cat condominium for the summer.  Gladly!!  Kat and Mouse really enjoy their new digs.

The other night we enjoyed a beautiful evening when the full moon made it seem like dawn.  It was awesome!  Perfect weather.  

I won't be bragging about the weather for too long as next week's forecast puts us into the 90s where we typically belong at this time.  

Oh well.....we'll just spend more time in one of our four lovely pools.  

Life is treating us well at Palm Creek!