SUMMER GROWTH

All the vegetation around here thrived over the summer despite the heat and now it’s time for fall pruning.  Yesterday, the tree maintenance company came down our street and they trimmed the palm fronds that hang down and scrape the roofs.  Here is the guy trimming our tree and then the guy shredding the fronds.

 In our neighbour’s back yard, there is a huge shoot (mini-tree) that came up out of one of the plants over the summer.  The first photo is of the plant as it was last spring in March (the spikey one on the right).  The next photo is of the new shoot that grew over the summer and was there when we arrived in November.

Apparently, these plants only grow shoots like this every few years and this one will eventually stop growing, dry out and fall over.  Hopefully, it won’t fall on their furniture or our RV!!

Even though we’re on the edge of a city, we still have beautiful sky scenes, especially at sunrise.  Here’s the moon this morning at 6:30.  Notice the bright part is on the bottom, not on the side like it is at home.

Everything is going well here and we are enjoying our activities.  Stuart is playing pickleball 4 or 5 days a week and I am working out at the fitness centre and swimming for my knee rehabilitation.  I’m almost ready for pickleball, but still being cautious and giving it time to heal.

We participated in a volunteer Second Saturday event with our church on Nov 8.  We took buses to a place in Glendale called Streetlight USA where we did cleaning, painting, landscaping, furniture moving, etc.  This campus is a residential location for girls from the ages of 11 to 17 who have been victims of sex trafficking on the streets.  Due to privacy and protection, we weren’t able to take any photos on site but I have a link to the video that was made by the church—see if you can spot us working (hint: in 2 scenes):

http://vimeo.com/111311840

We enjoy the volunteer work and look forward to the next event in December.