"House & Garden," Anyone?

As you may guessed from the title, this blog focuses on Foster's house.

When you go down Rancho Mañana Road and turn left onto La Canoa Road (where Foster's house sits left on the corner), this is what you first notice ~ a dead-end road leading right to your own personal mountain.

This little fellow was sitting just behind the recycling-trash dumpster, under which I would see little lizards scurry.

Rabbits aren't the only wild life found in this swanky neighborhood. Rattlesnakes, too, like to visit, as Foster can tell you about the day he found a rattlesnake right at his front door.

So how do folks over there persuade these noxious beasts to relocate? Why with a snake stick, of course. Hey, didn't you know that?

Here's the front of Foster's house. The swimming pool is just beyond the fence to your right.

Here's another view of the front. This is what you see when you're coming around to park in Foster's front yard. See that red car on the right? That's my crappy Ford Focus.

Now that we're on the other side of the fence, you can see what the yard looks like.

Here's the back of Foster's house, over-looking the pool. I could not fit the entire house in one picture frame. The house is an L-shape, and I was not able to get a clear shot of the entire house.

OK, I think we already have an idea of what the back of his house looks like. But wait. Isn't that a saguaro cactus on the right?

No. It's an ornamental fake. In fact, that fake cactus is part of the pool-side lighting. There are supposed to be lights on top of the cactus where the fake blossoms are. And I think there are tiny lights inside.

Here's a view of the yard. Get a load of those clouds! Sunset is only about an hour away.

Here's the same view but from a different angle. Now you can see the little foot of the L-shape.

There's a set of glass sliding doors in that little foot. That's where we had to go through to get to class, which was located in that right hand block of the building, right where the toes of the little foot should be.

That sliding door is like no other I've ever seen. First of all, the handle is about eye-level, if you happen to be 5' 6". The handle is easy enough to turn, but try opening the door.

It takes monstrous strength to open the door and then keep it open so that you could pass through without chopping off any of your limbs.

Never having been privileged enough to own a swimming pool, I never knew that this was a safety feature used to avoid having young children get to the pool and drown.

For that matter, that's also probably why the latch to the gate leading into the backyard is way on top of the gate.

Had I had a pool of my own, I probably would have known all of this stuff without sounding like the bumpkin that I was.

And by the way, have you noticed those gorgeous Arizona clouds as well?

Take a look at Foster's Pool. Doesn't it look like something out of one of those fancy-schmancy home and garden magazines?

See that hole in the rocks above the right edge of the pool? That's the water slide.

You wanna know something else? At night time there are tiny lights that change colors in the waterfall. Cool!

And see what looks like 3 stones in the water at the upper left edge of the pool? Those are bar stools. Just over the other side of the pool's wall is a depression where the bartender stands to serve you your drinks while you're relaxing in the pool.

(Now if somebody would invent a pool where you don't have to step out to go and pee!)

That circular thing to the right above the pool is not a mini Jacuzzi to massage your poor tired feet after a hard day of work. It's a fire pit.

The Jacuzzi is the bigger circular thing on the side of the pool opposite from the fire pit.

Looks like Gary is having the same idea taking pictures of Foster's crib.

Here's a better look at that fake saguaro cactus pool-side lighting.

And here's the real deal on the other side of the fence behind Foster's pool. See those holes there? They are nests belonging to a number of possible birds such as the Gila Woodpecker, Gilded Flicker, Elf Owl, and Cactus Wren, which is also Arizona's State Bird.

Anyhow, tonight's party was going to be a small crowd.

The 3 girls from Arkansas decided not to come because they wanted to get more shopping done. And I don't mean souvenier shopping either. Would you believe they wanted to do mall shopping at stores like Old Navy?

Give me a break! Who would come to Arizona to go shopping at the same stores they have at home? Sounds a bit backwards to me.

So, for a crowd we had our host Foster, Carolyn from the B & B who served as chef, Gary from Texas, Edie from Boulder, Jodi from Vancouver, Foster's dog Freckles, and yours truly.

The food was really awesome, though my stomach could not put away as much as my taste buds wanted. (Plus, it still hurt quite a bit to eat.)

Nobody was interested in swimming.

"Aw come on! Nobody wants to go swimming?" Poor Foster. He probably didn't want to be the only one taking a dip.

As much as I enjoy swimming, I really did not feel like getting into my swim suit and then have to deal w/trying to find a discreet place for my clothes and underwear.

Later that evening we met Jeanette, Foster's girlfriend. What a sweet and personable thing.

Around 8 or so, people started leaving. And seeing that I still had some vino left in my cup, I wound up closing up the shop. Gee, why does that always happen to me?

Not wanting to overstay my welcome, I quickly finished up what little was left in my cup and followed the others out about 5 to 10 minutes after they left. I left the Chianti that I brought for Foster and Jeanette to enjoy.

It was time for me to go to bed anyhow.