Friday, April 6, 2012

ONE BEAUTIFUL SCENE AFTER ANOTHER.

Wednesday, April 4  - We just wanted to kick back for most the day, but before we did that, we took a loooooong ride to Payson. Payson is about an hour and half from Apache Junction. It is a very nice town with extremely nice people. The weather was gorgeous and so was the scenery!

At the beginning of the drive.1-far-view

We actually went through four different geological areas. the drive took us through the HUGE Tonto National Forest. It was so fascinating.

The first of four area was the Saguaro Cactus landscape.8-cactus-area

Next came the rocky mountain section.4a-rock-area

That lead us right into the scrubby area.5-scrub-area

And finally, the Ponderosa pine section.7-tree-area

As you can see from this photo, the drive was a curvy one, but so beautiful.6-road-view

We actually wanted to visit the Mogollan Rim, but that was another 40-45 minute drive. Since we were meeting our friends, Sandie and Jim, for dinner, we opted to turn around and drive back.

On Thursday,  little Bella was begging us (She had that sad look in her eyes.)  to take her for a walk. So across the street to the desert we went.

Paul-walking-bella

It was already 80 at 9:00 in the morning. She cracks me up. She was trying to find some shade under this little scrub.
bella-in-shade

We didn't keep her out long. Just long enough for her to walk off some energy.

We then hit the Superstition Ranch Market. What a great place to shop. Lettuce…4/$2, grapes 69¢, zucchini 5/$1, etc.  We loaded up. Marsha had a huge fruit salad and sautéed all the veggies for many salads to come.

Ranch-market

Kelly's asked us to pass along a big "Thank You" to all that wished her a happy birthday. She said she had a great day. One of the gifts we gave her was a candle basket that Marsha made. It isn't the "normal" basket. Kelly loves candles, so Marsha decided to make her something she could place her candles in just to bring a bit more beauty to them. Marsha couldn't find any examples on the Internet, so she just made her own concept of a "candle" basket. Note: Marsha says that what looks like "handles" are really just called "open windows." They are NOT suppose to be symmetric. She has never done this before or the braiding that goes through those open windows. Another "original" pine needle basket.

kelly-bday-basket

kelly-bday-basket-2

Dave took a picture with Kelly's phone. Looks like she really likes it.kelly-bday-basket--3

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

8 comments:

  1. I love candles too! Still have a tray of stones that Janice and Jerry bought me. We add different stones that we collect.

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  2. What a lovely basket; all the more because it's Marsha's personal design. I bet Kelly was thrilled to receive it.

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  3. Great basket. You are getting GOOD at that.

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  4. What a beautiful drive...and loved your pictures of the four geographical areas! So much for kicking back for the day, but hey...you'll have plenty of time to do that another day. BEAUTIFUL describes your basket creation for Kelly. Wishing you a joyous Easter!

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  5. The basket is gorgeous. We've never made the trip to Payson. The photos are great and make me think we need to visit there.

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  6. Marsha has a real talent.

    I too found it fascinating how the terrain changes in to AZ desert.

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  7. We've never done that drive to Payson but will put it on our list. Looks beautiful.
    Great looking basket!

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  8. We did not have time to visit Payson. We will certainly plan on visiting when we are out west again.

    The candle basket is lovely and unique.

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