| My new life, so far... |
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23 Jan 2011 |
Updated
May 1, 2006, adds Office, Cacti
bloom.. My New Life at Grayhawk Another "meant to be" acquisition |
FROM SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA
SCOTTSDALE, Apr 17, 2006 - "That's a beautiful tapestry," Nikolai's nanny said this afternoon looking at my new acquisition moments after I had hung it in my office (see below).
"Where do you get all these tapestries?" she continued.
"I got the the first three from Belgium," I explained. "They were custom made. But this one I got purely by chance."
I explained how I went to a local antique store today to pick up a lamp for the guest bedroom that Tanja and I had looked at over the weekend. "And as I was walking toward the lamp, I saw this gem all crumpled and folded on a dusty old table," I said. "I waster no time picking it up for a song" (about one-fifth of what it would have cost to have one like that made in Belgium). And it came with nearly all the hardware and tassels.
So here it is... the way it looks at my office now. It goes marvelously with my other mahogany pieces, such as that antique writing desk.
"Whoever sold it to the store at such a low price was obviously pretty ignorant," I said. "And I was pretty lucky to have grabbed it before someone else did."
"Guess it was meant to be," the nanny summed it up.
My office, as it looked on May 1, 2006, after I had repainted that standing lamp black. The window next to it is still in need of a "window treatment," as interior designers put it.
This May Day afternoon, I noticed one of my potted cacti in bloom that are jealously guarded by my outdoor cat Lewis...
...here's a close-up of the happy cactus in bloom...
... and also one of its neighbor which seems to have grown a crown of little purple flowers.
SCOTTSDALE, Apr 16, 2006 - Easter Sunday was a resplendent spring day in Arizona, with temperatures in the upper 80s by mid-afternoon.
The desert was in full bloom as you can see from these photos taken in front of my Grayhawk home...
... and around the neighborhood, too, where (normally green) palo verde trees are in full golden/yellow blossom.
In fact, this section of the Thompson Peak Pkwy that cuts through Grayhawk might as well be renamed at this time of the year to Palo Verde Pkwy.
But this is my new personal favorite palo verde tree. It is on Rimrock Dr, just east of Pima Rd. With McDowell Mountains in the background, it reminded me of another gorgeous palo verde tree at the foot of Camelback Mountain that Karen and I admired every spring in my old neighborhood.
