Cafe Specials, tree trimmers, hawk

 Tree trimmers are still working on golf course trees.  

The red tail hawk was back this morning.  It's not a good picture of the bird but you can also see the white palm tree blossoms.

Monday June 26 is the last day to get tickets for the special breakfast on Wednesday!

This week's lunch looks GREAT.  Those sweet potato fries are worth the meal all by themselves.  Also can't wait to try Bridgett's mandarin orange cake!

Urgent Reminders

 I was just up to the Activities office this morning to buy my ticket for the Summer Picnic lunch and found some other events we shouldn't miss.

This summer picnic series will feature a group called Tobey & Novack from 11am. till 1:00 in Ballroom 3.  Special lunch for those with tickets ($15) will include a nice Firehouse Sub sandwich, chips, a cookie and soda.  It will be a fun opportunity to invite the neighbors and have a nice entertaining lunch.

Don't miss the Palm Creek Manager's Breakfast Special on Wednesday, June 28 only in the ballroom cafe from 8:00 to 10:00.  Buy your advance tickets in Activities by Monday, June 26.  This $5 breakfast will include pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs and coffee.

Also on Monday, June 26 at 1:00 is Bingo with Terri.  Free admission and prizes.  No ticket required but please sign up on the Activities bulletin board so they have a somewhat accurate headcount.

I agreed to hold a summer cell phone class on July 18.  I saw a signup sheet already.  We'll find some tips and tricks to help with the cyberspace phones we all carry these days.

Terri and Barb have been busy working with the fire department to come change out some of those high ceiling smoke alarms as discussed at their presentation last week.  Date and time will be determined depending on the department's availability.  Sign up will probably be limited to 10 customers due to time constraints.  

And finally....get up to the Ballroom Cafe for those yummy Monte Carlo Sandwiches this week!!

Wasp Rescue, Palm in Bloom

 I recently posted an old video of a honey bee I scooped out of the pool.  As luck would have it, tonight's adventure was even better when I rescued this beautiful wasp.  Mother Nature is so creative when it comes to color and variety.

You can watch him dry off and fly away.  😀 He has little claws on the end of his legs so he would not let go of the net.  

In response to the bee video, I received this nice note from Ron Brixey:

As a retired beekeeper, I thought you would like to know that the bee in the video

is a female. All worker bees, the ones that go out and forage for pollen and nectar and

pollinate flowers as a result are female. There are only a few male bees, called drones,

in a hive and their only purpose in life is to mate with the queen of the colony.

I truly enjoy your blog, read it all the time and love watching Don's drone videos!!

Ron Brixey

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Don sent the drone up today to view the palm tree now in bloom.  His previous video was when the tree just had the long pods.  This photo was from June 7 just showing the long spikes.

Here's the tree today, June 19, with many of the spikes now in bloom with lots more to come.  All those little white flower petals will fall to the ground....and blow into the swimming pools, cover our patios and cars, etc.  That's the price we pay for living with palm trees.  I hear some residents complain and grumble but I just smile because I love the trees.  They'll all be trimmed and cleaned up by the time fall season rolls around.  

Here's the little video.

I spied this lovely yellow cactus flower at site 1654 this morning.  Look at all the buds on the stalk.  In another day or so it will be awesome!  If you happen to know the owner, forward them this photo as I'm sure they'd be happy.

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This week's Weather Bug forecast.  Early morning temps will still be lovely for that patio coffee time.

Mouse BD, Artisan Show

We received a text from the park this morning announcing that Palm Tree trimming will start on the golf course on Tuesday, June 20 at 6a.m. and will take about two weeks.  The golf course WILL be open during this time.  (Must be some brave tree trimmers!) 😉

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I saved a life:  

 Sometimes a little honey bee will fall into the swimming pool.  I try to rescue them by tossing them up onto the edge of the pool (without getting stung!)  Then because I'm standing in the pool, I'm actually eye level with the bee as it tries to recover.  One day I happened to have my cell phone near enough so did a little video of the bee drying himself off so he could stay alive and fly away.  I thought it was fascinating to watch:

June 16 was Mouse's 6th year adoption day.  Such a cute baby kitten.

Now a 6-year-old spoiled monster.  😸

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What a great idea presented by our Activities Department!  Many of our talented residents love their hobbies but may wind up with a lot of extra inventory items.  Here's an opportunity for all of us.  It's an Artisan Craft Market just in time for Christmas shopping.

Mark your calendar now for Saturday, December 2 when all these lovely hand-crafted items will be displayed for sale.  This advanced notice will give our crafters the opportunity to create some special items for sale.  This should keep our woodshop, pottery, stained glass, and all crafters busy building inventory.

I'm sure Chef Maywalt will have a great lunch for us that day.  Speaking of Chef....here's another reminder to our summer residents to visit the Ballroom Cafe for breakfast or lunch!  This week's special will be those yummy Monte Carlo sandwiches!  That GREAT salad bar will be there too.  

Fire Dept Presentation, traffic, events

 Here's a sample of traffic during the summer time:

Looks like a family of at least 8 younger ducks headed over to the lake for a swim or just to see if Del and Ann Larue were at home.

We don't mind this kind of traffic, especially when our morning weather remains so ideal.  Nice cool morning temps and even a little cloud cover?  It's a gorgeous day!!

The Casa Grande Fire Department held a safety awareness presentation yesterday.  Martha (nickname Tita) is their education coordinator and does a great job of keeping us entertained as she moved from subject to subject.  It was amazing that over 75% of calls received are medically related vs. actual fire calls.

 We learned that the average life expectancy of a home smoke alarm is 10 years.  Uh Oh.....maybe it's time for replacement in some of our homes?  It's hard enough to replace batteries on the high ceilings.  Martha says the fire department will actually replace them for us.  Activities will try to set up a project where they could come to Palm Creek on a scheduled day to assist those of us who can't handle a tall ladder anymore.  Great idea!!

After a morning card game, several of us went to the Ballroom Cafe for lunch.  The special this week was a delicious Reuben sandwich with sweet potato fries.  It was a favorite for many and received rave reviews. 

Photo by Margie Lundy on Nextdoor

I'm really looking forward to next week's special of Monte Cristo sandwiches.....and can't wait to try that soup!

LOL.........after lunch on the way home, we had another traffic delay while another young family crossed the road.  😉

Monday, June 19, is Juneteenth holiday so remember that banks and our mailroom will be closed.

Wednesday is the June birthday breakfast.  Breakfast is free for those with June birthdays.  Others can join in for $7 payable in Activities

Thursday is a blood drive.  Sign up online at www.donors.vitalant.org

Saturday is the bus trip to Prescott for the Bluegrass Festival.

Monday, June 26 is Bingo with Terri.  Sign up in Activities.

Our summer calendar keeps us hopping.  Very nice!!  Thank you to our hard working Activities staff.

Ballroom Cafe & Upcoming Events

Don and I were riding down Oasis yesterday when I yelled STOP STOP.  He obediently did so expecting another boring flower that I was enamored with.  BUT....I spotted mama dove perched up high in this prickly cactus.  I admire her nest construction.  Makes for a cute photo.  (at least in my opinion.) 😃

to ALL summer residents....

Don't put off going to the summer Cafe in the ballroom for a delicious breakfast and/or lunch!  We've been asking to have the Bistro/Cafe open for several years and we love having it now but we must remember to actively participate to keep it alive and busy.

This week's special was a Mushroom Swiss Burger with fries for only $8.00.  They were delicious and big enough to share or take half home to eat later.

This coming week starting June 12 will be Chef's special Grilled Reuben Sandwich with sweet potato fries.  He's also going to serve a Gazpacho soup.  Call a friend, grab a neighbor, or even come alone but do come and support the Cafe.

Do you have ideas for how to attract a bigger crowd?  Send me your feedback and I will pass it along to Chef for review.  They only have a small limited staff so extending hours isn't really an option.  What if at least one day a week they shift away from breakfast and just serve a big evening meal?  What are your thoughts?  

In a nutshell:      PLEASE SUPPORT THE CAFE!!

Chef and Bridget are ready to serve us!

We have a busy week ahead.  Our first Team Trivia event is Monday, coffee & donuts is Tuesday, the ice cream social is Wednesday, and Casa Grande Fire Department has a fall prevention program for us on Thursday.

If you want to receive an email alerting you whenever I post, you can enter it at the top right of the blog page.  If you have trouble with that, just email me.

Here's Mouse keeping me company (helping???) while I write this post.  <sigh> 

Drone of palm trees and empty park

 I finally nagged Don enough to get the drone in the sky so we could see the empty RV spots around the park.  It's also fun to watch the palm trees as they come into bloom.  They have these strange looking spikes protruding from their tops.  Soon they'll burst into the white flowers (which we call Arizona snow because they shed all over when done blooming.)

I clipped a few still shots from the video.

This cottonfield to the north of the park is the "nexus" division that the city is voting to rezone as light industrial.  Progress moves onward but I'll miss watching the cottonfield each season.

Check out all the solar panels being installed on top of the Admin building.

Morning aerobics class in action. 

Southwest corner of the park 6-7-2023

Southwest corner of the park on 3-29-2023

Better picture of the solar panels on top of the admin bldg and across the street over the parking lot.

So many new houses still arriving weekly.

Again I must comment about our fantastic weather this spring.  OMG!  It has been glorious.  Now that June is here, our afternoons are heating up but it still cools down at night making our mornings absolutely perfect in the cool 60s.  We so enjoy our morning coffee out on the patio every day!  Oh yes....don't forget a few lovely sunsets!

It's still not too hot for sport enthusiasts to be practicing their activities.  Batting practice continues.

It's a bit of a struggle for Mouse to crawl into one of his favorite hideouts, but he can still make it.