Blythe, California

As we were hitching up the RV yesterday morning, I noticed the wildflowers beginning to bloom next to the RV. There has been quite a bit of rain in the desert recently, and it shows.

I tried again to get a better picture of the desert sunflower. They are on long thin stems, and they are hard to capture if there is even the slightest bit of wind.

There was rain in the forecast, and storm clouds were gathering as we were driving out of the park.

Most of our driving day was spent in the desert of Arizona. Just at the end of the day we crossed the Colorado River and the California state line.

It was disheartening to see the inspection station just on the other side of the river. Everyone goes through here. We had an avocado and some tomatoes as well as a few other items of fresh produce. I was sure our avocado and tomatoes would be confiscated, but they just waved us on through. Huh? Not worried about invasive bugs on this particular day, I guess.

Before heading to our overnight stop, we went to the post office. There, I mailed my completed Sketchbook back to the Brooklyn Art Library for inclusion in its permanent collection.

At least some of the sketchbooks will be digitized and available online eventually. I think one has to pay extra for that, and so I'm not sure mine will ever appear online. Because of that, I created an album on my Facebook page and it can be seen there. Even if you don't have a Facebook page, my album is public, and I think you can see all the photos by clicking on this link. Before finishing it off, I added a cover photo:

It's the solar eclipse as seen from Rickreall, Oregon, last summer. My one word for the eclipse: "Extraordinary."

With that task completed, we headed to our spot for the night. Blythe is situated just on the west bank of the Colorado River. It is desert all around with the exception of some green farm fields. We believe alfalfa is the crop grown here. Just as we made our last turn, we noticed the crop duster out doing its work.

After we were situated, we sat outside in the warm sunshine and this fellow paid us a visit. It's a vermillion flycatcher. It's our first time seeing one.

He was far away, and so I had my point and shoot zoomed in as close as I could. There was no time for setting up a tripod, and so this next image is a little blurred.

After relaxing for a bit, we took a short walk to the river. It's a pretty place, despite being a rather barren landscape. Looking east, we saw this:

To the west, we saw this:

Across the way, this lone duck. His friends were mostly upriver from where he was.

We had a nice telephone conversation with our son Matthew yesterday evening. While we were talking with him, I was able to put the finishing touches on the final block for the Wine Country quilt.

These blocks were started in May of 2016, and so it's good to have them finished. I'll be sewing them into a quilt, but not until we get home. I've already purchased fabric to finish them off, but I don't have it with me. In my head, I'm still considering how to set them, and I haven't pulled the design together yet.

After that, I was kind of excited to get started on a new project. This one is called Friendship's Garden from Robin Kingsley at Bird Brain Designs. It can be stitched as redwork, but I'm using colored floss.

My block background fabric was all cut to size before we left home, but when I laid it out on the lightbox to trace it, I realized that it was too busy a tone on tone pattern, and I can't see the design well enough to trace it. It's another stamped fabric, and obviously, I haven't learned my lesson about those. I'm going to have to choose a different background. I can use the blocks I've already cut for something else, but it will have to be something other than embroidery. Either way, it's all good. It just means another trip to a quilt shop...and soon. I have one all picked out already. For now, I'll get to work tracing out the next block for the Snow Globes quilt. Those stitch up pretty quickly, and so I won't have to delay my new project gratification for very long.

Today we'll head off to Hemet, California. I have some things to say about Hemet, but I'll save that for another post. For now, we weary travelers are looking forward to staying put for the next month before heading back to Oregon on April Fool's Day. It seems appropriate, doesn't it?