The weather here has made a dramatic change back to autumn temperatures with today’s high reaching 27C. Overnight it has been staying very warm as well and there has been no need for the furnace. According to some of the locals, this is quite unusual and it is supposed to last for several days so we are taking full advantage of it.

Today, when we attended our bird carving class, we were pleasantly surprised to find Vern set up at a table outside of the gallery, where we usually work inside. Today, he demonstrated for us how to carve a chickadee out of a block of wood in a little over an hour while Rick videotaped the process. Vern makes the task look so easy (while we struggle each week) and sure enough, he accomplished it in the time allotted. It seems he wasn’t particularly happy with the way our birds were turning out because he felt his earlier teaching method wasn’t up to par. Today’s lesson was an effort to show us how to carve the birds from scratch the “right” way. While Vern carved, Rick videotaped and Gladys (one of the other students) and I looked on while enjoying our good weather.

Occasionally, I would run over to the motorhome to try to call Jay because he was making his way here from Las Vegas and didn’t have directions. We had chatted briefly this morning but he was in rush-hour traffic and couldn’t pull over to write down our address. I had tried calling him back a few times later but it was evident that he was in an un-serviced calling area each time. By 2:00 PM I was finally able to reach him and he made great progress. He pulled into the park by 4:30 and I can tell you, I was pretty excited to see him! At last, the first of our family visitors has arrived!