Discovering Who Our Close Neighbours Are, Christmas Circle Friday Market, Preparing for Some Rain and Wind.

Friday, Feb. 17^th and I’m eating crow. It doesn’t taste too bad since the new arrivals are friends of ours. We were up by 7 and upon reading comments to my post last night we discover it is Lorne and Sue from A Place Called “Away”. Too funny! We feel better knowing who they are and why they parked where they did. We will do our best not to upset them.

There wasn’t much of a sunrise this morning, the clouds were too anxious to gobble up the glory. Knowing what we did from the weather guessers, we knew the sun would not last long with rain and winds on the forecast for today. This was our encouragement to get into town for the market as early as possible.

After we’d had our first coffee, Lorne wandered over to make peace, in jest of course, and we had a good chit chat catching up. The chit chat carried on longer than I thought it would so I left the men talking and came in and made my second coffee. I got ready for the drive into Borrego Springs.

The darker clouds have the sharper edges
meaning strong winds

Clemson was going to look after the house today, so we can enjoy the time more around the market. I don’t know what we need but I’ll know if and when I see it. First, we drove to the Chamber of Commerce and picked up some info of the area and a map showing us where to find the remaining metal sculptures.

From there we drove to Christmas Circle to see what the market was all about. There were about 8 tents set up with vendors selling a lot of the same fruits, vegetables and cacti that we could see. It was getting busy when we arrived around 9:15 but we found a place to park easily.

We didn’t really need anything but picked up a red onion, which is something Bill mentioned the other night for his burgers. Other than that, not much caught our eye. We met up with Tom and Deb as they started walking around to see what was offered.

From there we travelled out through town towards the Visitor Centre, stopping at the only gas station we could see to fill up our gas can for the generator. When you don’t have a choice, you pay the price they are asking even though it is ridiculous. The Visitor Centre is at the very end of Palm Canyon Road and it is a nice little set up. 

We walked around outside and took pictures of the vegetation, in an effort to learn the names of plants, trees and cacti from this area. There are trails all over this area with some leading to the campground to the north of us.

Inside we met with a couple from B.C. so we gabbed a bit there before picking up a couple of pcs. of info and an atlas of California. Up on the outside terrace you get quite a beautiful view of the mountains and over to where we are camped. All interesting stuff but we decided to forgo the videos and talks that went on inside.

When we arrived back, Bill had a sandwich and I made up a quick salad for lunch. By then, the wind had picked up to some crazy velocity so I wouldn’t be sitting out with my book. When I saw the sand blowing around across the desert I quickly put our chairs away again and closed all of our windows. Even shutting the door was a feat, I felt totally controlled by the gusts.

Found this interesting

The dead tree mentioned above

 Shortly after settling inside, we noticed our neighbours, Tom and Deb, and Lorne and Sue, arriving back in their respective tow vehicles. They are back safe and sound and we can all relax. BilI and l were keeping a bit of an eye out to see if any of their stuff was blowing away but I'm sure they secured what they could before leaving.

 

 The winds got wild and the sky looked even wilder. Before we left this morning, Lorne pointed out some clouds with sharp edges. He said he’d heard that they reflected strong winds and I guess he was right!

Just a shot of some of my 'learning' today

We read our books inside for a while and Bill managed a snooze with Clemson. Every once in a while, the wind would seem calmer and then pick up again. 

Could be a wild night. Our plan for bbq’d chicken went awash and I’m going to fry our Tilapia loins inside and serve them with a salad.

It will be a generator evening again, for a couple of hours while we top up our batteries and maybe watch a bit of tv. We have a couple of recorded programs to watch and it seems like a good night to do it. 

No rain yet, so that is good, we can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings!

the last burst of sun we'll see today

I hope you have had a great day in your environment and no storms found you. Thank you for reading, I love reading your comments.