on the road again

Soon. Taking my knitting.  Really!  A sweater I started probably a decade ago (I have several of these) and put down because I got bursitis from knitting nonstop.  I'll be relaxing for a few days in Maine with college friends and college always brings to mind two things: knitting and bridge.  

Forget the bridge - the game has changed too much since I last played.  But I knitted my way through classes (didn't we all??) and the professors didn't care, as long as we didn't drop a needle.  Fine with me, I always knitted on round needles, anyway.

For the past week I have been taking a walk every day around my complex in this perfect (San Diego-like) weather.  Here are a few pictures I took on one of those walks. 

This is the clubhouse, where I rarely go.  There is a small gym and some other rooms for meetings and get-togethers.  Adjacent to it are tennis courts (where I never use) 

and a lovely pool, where I used to go when I first moved here 18 years ago, just to meet people.  I only go now when Emma is here with her parents.  

I prefer to sit on my deck, where it is cooler and I can look at the woods.  I have put all my potted plants out there for while I am away so they get enough shade not to dry out.

I saw two things that tickled me on my walk the other day. Can someone please explain this weirdness to me?  Around the corner, this vision.

Now I can understand why someone would cover a car in the hot climate when they don't have a garage. You see this in Florida all the time.  But a garage within a garage??

You might remember that I showed you the picture of the pool, which opens at 10:am and is around the corner from his abode.  I was wondering, then, why this young man preferred to sunbathe in his driveway.  He was plugged into his iPod or some such device and probably wouldn't have noticed if I had snapped a photo from the other side, but I politely waited till I had passed him.  Wonders never cease.

Nothing amusing about the rest of the walk.  There are manicured plantings all around, on every corner.

And all the gardens people have in front are very neat and lovely.  Then there is mine: semi-wild, unmanicured, and a source of complaint from last year's chair of the landscape committee: too sloppy. LOL.  

My orange day lilies are out this morning.  

The weather is beautiful, the doors are open to let the breeze in, and you can see right through to my fireplace wall, which is painted a shade of paprika. The front room on the left is that messy sewing room you see so much of on my blog, from the inside. The yellow thing on the right in the front is an antique cooler that says Royal Crown Cola.  Years ago I dragged it home when I was on one of my walks and somebody was throwing it out.  Couldn't let that happen, could I??

This is where my walk begins and ends and I think I should get going this morning, while I still have time.