Tohono Chul Park - June 2, 2017

Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them. 

~ A. A. Milne ~

Our lovely hostess for the day, Susie, arranged for a docent led tour of Tohono Chul Park, followed by a delicious luncheon in the Tohono Chul Garden Bistro.

Tohono Chul Park was formally dedicated on April 19, 1985. “We wanted to keep something natural in the middle of all the (surrounding) development so that people could come easily for a few hours and get out of the traffic and learn something at the same time. It’s probably contrary to what most people would do, but we feel it’s really important for people to have something like this.” The original benefactors, Richard and Jean Wilson, started piecing together patches of desert in 1966. In 1968 they purchased the section containing the hacienda-style “West House” known today as the Tohono Chul Garden Bistro. The Wilsons lived in this house for eight years. Today, the park covers 49 acres. 

There were 11 Women Who Wine who were able to attend the event. The docent-led tour was very informative and made the tour of the gardens much more interesting for our group. After the tour we meandered through the gift shop and greenhouse. Christy found the perfect plant for her courtyard! Following was lunch at the Bistro which was delicious! So much fun to have our own private room for dining and visiting. The day was so much fun!

LtoR - Kelly, Debbie, Cathy, Ruth, Connie, Vicky
Daryl, Judy, Susie, Christy and Pam
The entrance to Tohono Chul Gardens

LtoR - Kelly, Debbie, Ruth and Connie
Waiting in the shade at the reptile pavilion
Surprise!
Our docent got reprimanded for having a very noisy group
as we approached. Who us? We never!

LtoR - Christy with her new scaly friend and Pam

Lifesize metal sculpture of horse 

Replica of petroglyphs on rock

Lovely grotto in the midst of the gardens
Who knew the desert could be so lush?

What is a garden without grapes?

Lovely wooden branch spiral sculpture in the gallery attached to the gift shop.
Working on that Ocotillo sculpture today!

LtR - Connie and Daryl
Talk to the hand, Connie's hand!

LtoR - Ruth, Kelly, Judy and Debbie
Lunch at the Bistro

LtoR - Judy, Susie and Christy

LtoR - Cathy and Vicky

The many faces of Connie...

No, Connie, don't check your texts!
Don't do it! Eeek!

Take that!

Crisis averted!

Extreme Bocce Ball - May 5, 2017

Who Knew?

• Bocce is the third most popular sport in the world, next to golf and soccer.
• There are 25 million bocce players throughout the United States alone.

CORPORATE SPORTS 

The National Foundation announced the following study results on corporate America recreation preferences:

1. Sport of choice for front line workers: BOCCE
2. Sport of choice for supervisors: BASEBALL
3. Sport of choice for middle management: TENNIS
4. Sport of choice for corporate officers: GOLF

CONCLUSION: The higher you are in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls.

Wait, aren't there a lot of golfers in Quail Creek? Don't tell the guys!

Cathy was our hostess for our extreme bocce ball event on Friday, May 5, 2017. Extremely hot that is! Just our luck the temperature zoomed upwards in the high 90's for our playing pleasure! We started our day early to beat the heat and Cathy brought Mimosas and treats for our brunch. There were 9 stalwart bocce ladies for the day.

LtoR - Vicky, Daryl, Pam, Debbie, Cathy, Susie and Connie
Carole joined us too late for the photo opp!

LtoR - Kelly, Pam, Debbie, Cathy, Susie, Connie and Vicky

Cathy 'splaining the rules

We decided we'd better play by Cathy's rules!

Teams are drawn by random numbering.
Connie starts off our game!

Sometimes we hit the opposite wall...

Daryl throws the pallino...anddd it's gone!

Kelly - Such form!

Susie finesses her ball

Carole winds up for action!

How did Debbie manage to look as cool as a cucumber in the hot, hot sun?!

Go Connie go!

LtoR - Team Susie, Vicky, Cathy, Carole and Pam won!

The group retired to the Fiesta Room at the Grill for a private luncheon. We did have one lady try to join us...probably because we looked like we were having so much fun!

LtoR - Connie, Kelly, Pam, Carole, Debbie, Kelly, Cathy, Susie
Cathy treated all of the ladies to lovely gifts to celebrate the day.
The winning Bocce team received decorated wine glasses.
What fun!

LtoR - Connie, Kelly, Pam, Carole, Debbie, Kelly, Cathy, Susie
The second place Bocce team received decorated ceramic trinket dishes.
So cute!

Easter Bonnets - April 7, 2017

In your Easter bonnet
with all the frills upon it,
You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade.
~ Irving Berlin ~

The tradition of wearing Easter hats or bonnets appears to have origins in the Christian custom of Easter being the time for new clothes after the fasting of Lent, and the Church-going notion of wearing your "Sunday Best", meaning that at Easter your best had to be "better than best" to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. There are also roots in the more secular and pagan notion of Spring being the time of fertility, new life and rebirth. A time when wreaths of flowers and leaves were worn in the hair to celebrate the cycle of life and the seasons.

The custom of wearing hats at Easter is also inextricably tied to the American tradition of The Easter Parade, which emerged in the 1870s after the end of the Civil War. People were stepping out with positivity in their lives, and would stream out of the churches following the Easter service dressed up to the nines in their best hats. The first Easter Parade was the Fifth Avenue Parade in New York in 1870, which doesn't appear to have been an organised affair but organically came into being when the beautiful people came out of St. Patrick's Cathedral and surrounding churches and walked down 5th Avenue. Each successive year it gained in popularity reaching a peak in the 1940's where it's estimated a million people attended, but as it grew, lost some of its religious significance and became more about a show of prosperity and frivolity.

Ann Miller, Easter Bonnet 1947
Is that a REAL bunny?!

Connie, our benefic, or in this case, bunefic hostess, for the day with her sidekick and partner, Pam, organized our day of treats and delights. About 3 weeks prior to the event, this dynamic duo delivered bonnets to each of the ladies to decorate for the event. Our instructions were "HAVE FUN  and we'll see who has the most creative and decorative bonnet of all.  Let your imagination run wild!"

We were sad that Vicky was not able to attend but we saved a hat for her return!

With Mimosas served on the patio, the first order of business was oohing and aahing over the bonnets! Each lady voted for her favorite. It was close but Connie proclaimed Daryl's hat the winner and took home a lovely pot of tulips!

LtoR - Susie, Kathy and Judy
Lots of feathers here!

LtoR - Daryl and Connie
Which way did that peacock go?

LtoR - Judy and Christy
Ladies in blue!

LtoR - Carole and Ruth
Elegant bonnets

LtoR - Connie and Kelly
Lovely spring bonnets

LtoR - Christy, Pam and Debbie
Easter baskets, no bonnets! Debbie's has real candy!

While Connie busied herself in the kitchen Pam led us in a game called "What is the Bunny Thinking?" Some of us believe the bunny is either off his meds or has had a break with reality! Game so hard! Debbie, who apparently has Easter in her veins, had the most correct answers for this game!

Debbie is excited about winning the game!

Luncheon is served...

LtoR - Carole, Judy, Pam, Connie, Debbie (seated), Ruth,
Cathy, Kelly, Christy, and Susie

LtoR - Daryl, Judy, Pam, Connie, Debbie (seated), ruth,
Cathy, Kelly, Christy and Susie

Following a delicious luncheon, we headed outdoors for an Easter Egg hunt! It's been years for all of us! Serious competition for the most eggs and, of course, to find the golden one!

Cathy points out an Easter Egg to Carole

LtoR - Carole, Kelly and Susie
Look up...in the tree!

LtoR - Daryl, Cathy and Carole

When we returned to the house, we discovered Debbie was in her element and found the golden egg for the prize of a beautiful pot of tulips. Winner again!

After the Easter Egg Hunt, Pam told us a very "bunny" story. It was left, then right, then left, left and right. It was hard to keep up with the directions, but Judy was in the right place at the right time and ended up with the prize!

Judy is the winner!

Lots of bubble blowing to end a perfect day!

Debbie proves she is a child at heart. Look at those bubbles!

Kelly eyes Debbie's bubble-blowing technique....

I'll show you Missy!

Ace of Escape! March 3, 2017

Our adventure for the day was a stint at Ace of Escape, 236 S Scott Ave 2nd Floor | Tucson, AZ. The site is a former funeral home which adds to the mystery. Thankfully, the game is timed so, no matter what the outcome, we could escape our room! There were 10 ladies of the vine who were able to participate with Daryl as hostess for the day!

Below was our mystery to solve:

A famed illusionist has murdered his beautiful assistant. Your team of investigators return to the crime scene, but find yourselves locked in and under a hypnotic trance. You must sift through the evidence distinguishing between reality and illusion to determine the cause, date and location of the mysterious murder within 65 minutes. This room is best for groups of 4 and more. Great for team-building and requires groups to work together quickly with effective communication. Lol, and then there's the Women Who Wine!

 As we depart form the Madera Clubhouse we are all grins and giggles. Little did we know!

LtoR - Judy, Christy, Pam, Cathy, Debbie, Vicky, Connie, Carole and Kelly

LtoR - Judy, Christy, Pam, Cathy, Debbie, Connie, Vicky, Daryl and Carole

This is what we envisioned going in....

and...

and...

Instead our adventure looked something more like this...

After 65 minutes, numerous hints including the game supervisor coming into the room multiple times, calling us on the radio multiple times and probably figuring she should have stayed home that day, we figured out that the murder weapon was the golf club but not the date nor location! And we all thought golf was the ultimate exercise in humility! Well, we all initialed the Wall of Shame but admitted we had fun. We did discover Vicky is the most competitive of all!

First, they blindfolded all of us and then split us into TWO rooms. The rooms were dark and lit only by blacklight. We couldn't find the flashlight but thankfully Daryl thought to keep her cellphone.

This author was super glad she wore a white bra under her blouse. Carole was thoughtful enough to wear a white bra too! The black light certainly highlights white material!

Good grief this was HARD!
Not only was the room dark and lit only by blacklight,
Daryl and Carole's white bras were so distracting!

Thank goodness they let us out at last!

LtoR - Connie, Kelly, Debbie, Christy, Cathy, Daryl, Carole
Pam, Vicky and Judy

Afterwards, we departed the parking lot but not without a minor incident. Here's to "It could have been worse"!

After our experience at Ace of Escape...thankfully it is timed for release and not based on actual puzzle solving ability, we trekked to Hotel Congress where they had a patio table ready for our luncheon respite. Our waiter needed a bit of education regarding wine but we got what we wanted at the price we expected, lol! This author has never had a waiter announce a glass of wine by price so this was a first!

LtoR - Vicky, Carole, Debbie, Judy, Cathy, Kelly, Connie, Pam and Christy

Daryl - Thank you all for the laughter!

Guessing we need more of this!

Want a little extra puzzle solving? Click on Bright Side. To see the solution click on each puzzle graphic.