HUMMINGBIRD BABY, A FASHION SHOW AND A CANADIAN DINNER

So the second hummingbird egg hasn't hatched but the first little one is doing well and getting larger every day.  The mother is spending more time away from the nest gathering food for the baby and he is starting to fill up the nest.

Quite a few people around the neighbourhood have heard about the nest and stop by to have a look and take pictures.  We joked about setting up a sign and charging admission just like some of the attractions we saw in Orlando.

On Tuesday afternoon, I attended a fashion show here at Happy Trails (HT) with a group of ladies from the neighbourhood.  The local Stitchery club hosted the event and the members modeled a wide variety of clothing that they had sewn over the past year.  The event was attending by 270 women and the 15 models did their runway walks for about 2 hours.  The creativity of the seamstresses was amazing—some of them design the clothing themselves, some re-work existing clothing into new designs and some even create fancy fabric using a muslin base.  I couldn't get many good pictures due to the lighting but have a few to share.

Every winter season at HT, each US state hosts a dinner for its residents who stay in the park and then for us, there is a Canadian dinner.  This year they had a dinner and dance and it was attended by 190 people.  The ballroom was decorated with Canadian flags and many people wore red and white to add to the colour theme.  We sang the Canadian national anthem after the US one which is part of the protocol in a foreign country and then had a meal served by volunteers in the Chuckwagon kitchen on site.  We had chicken cordon bleu served with green beans, coleslaw, mashed potatoes and gravy and a roll.  The dessert was a Klondike ice cream bar which was easy to serve and tasted very good.

After the meal, a DJ played music and lots of people headed out to the dance floor to have a good time.  We honoured the passing of Stompin’ Tom Connors by playing one of his songs and everyone stood up to clap, stomp and sing along.  Very Canadian.  Here at HT, the evening activities all end a 9 p.m. so everyone can get home and to bed at a decent hour.  It is jokingly called “Arizona midnight.”