Bunco Night

The 4th Wednesday of the month is our usual Bunco night here in Rancho Grande MH Park; except for November and December, then it may be a different night so it doesn't interfere with the holidays. We play in the clubhouse.

Betty is the hostess for August. She decorated the food table with a pretty purple table cloth, lavender napkins and purple flowers.

These four ladies started out at Table number one. From the left is Millie, Lillian, Joan and Marge. Marge and her various partners had a lot of wins, so she was able to stay at Table #1 for a long time.

Starting out at Table #2 is Yvonne, Barbara, Fran and Lorraine.

These four ladies rushed over to Table #3 because they said there is only one way to go from there: UP.
From the left is Betty, Pat, the other Yvonne and the other Barbara.
Of the 12 women who play, 9 of us live in the park. It's a good group of friends. We don't really play for money. It's only $4.00 to play once a month. There are money prizes for the most Buncos, the most wins, (1st, 2nd and 3rd place), the most losses and whoever has Rover at the end of the night. That red blur in Barbara's hand is Rover.
These pictures didn't turn out too great!! Sorry Ladies.

Estate Sale Committee Bar BQ

Earlier this month George and Sue hosted a Barbeque in their back yard in Winton for the Estate Sale Committee from the Atwater United Methodist Church.
Their huge yard was the perfect place to have such a gathering.
We wandered around in the yard and found fruit trees of all kinds, peaches, apricots, nectarines,cherries, several kinds of citrus and even a walnut tree.
The food table was filled with salads, beans, veggies, beverages and a desert table.

Our host, George, in the bright blue shirt cooked the hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill. Al and Don are on the left.

Some of the guests visited in the back yard before the food was ready.

Sitting on the patio by the pool is Lily, Leesa and Kathy. The tall sunflowers were very pretty.

Caught our hostess, Sue as she wandered around making sure everyone was having a good time.

Here is Juanita, Wilene and Diane enjoying their delicious meal.

After eating their dinner, people lined up with bowl in hand to get the delicious homemade ice cream.

And here is Don dishing up the wonderful ice cream he made that afternoon.
A great ending to a delightful evening.
I didn't get a picture of everyone. I think there were about 30 people there. The weather was perfect, not too warm. It was a beautiful setting by the pool with lots of pretty flowers.
We all had a great time.
Thank you George and Sue for hosting the annual barbeque this year.

Winton Tombstone Photos at flickr

This is a picture of the Fountain of Serenity located in front of the office at the Winton District Cemetery. I hadn't been to the Winton Cemetery for about 3 years, so this was the first time I saw this fountain. It's a very nice addition to the cemetery.
For quite a few years I've had pictures of tombstones on my computer that I used to upload to the California Tombstone Project, but they quit updating that website several years ago.
I was disappointed because I still had a lot of pictures to send them.
I thought about doing a website, but decided that was too difficult so decided to upload them to flickr. I have a pro account at flickr but didn't want to mix up the tombstone pictures with the Winton Old Timer pictures and others.
I set up a second pro account under the name of Winton Historical Society and uploaded the tombstone pictures there.
You can see them here. There are more than 350 pictures there so far. More will be added each month. A few of the photos will be replaced with better pictures. (I hope) There is a set (folder) for each letter of the alphabet with surnames beginning with that letter to make it easier to find the name you are looking for.
Here is a link directly to the sets. After clicking on the set, you can click on detail and view them that way instead of clicking on each individual picture.

I may start taking requests, but I would only go to the cemetery once a month. So, it may take a while to get the picture you want uploaded to flickr. The email you can use is wintonca@aol.com

August 1, 2012

I couldn't resist this cute cup and saucer flower pot that I found at Atwater's Wal-Mart. The little Begonia plant needed to be
re-potted anyway.
I've been enjoying the Olympics, especially the gymnastics. The five little U.S. girls are so cute and did so well, getting the Gold Medal.
I've been updating my mother's side of the family. Cousins sent in their updated information by email and I typed it into Family Tree Maker; making family group sheets and descendant charts and sending them back out. It's been very interesting. I'm glad a couple of my cousins suggested it. I'm going to send an updated gedcom file to the California Mennonite Historical Society next week so we can get our updated information in the next (Grandma 7) CD. They plan to have the new CD available September first.
Today is a milestone for one of my granddaughters. She got her first Radiation treatment today. Finally. She's had a long wait, partly because her health insurance didn't approve the type of treatment that she needs. Too bad doctors aren't allowed to make these decisions.

Sunday July 22

As I sit here and type this, the thunder is very loud. Lots of lightning too. I didn't expect this. At first I thought the noise was the neighbor taking the garbarge can to the road, but wondered why it was so loud.
Earlier it was hot. After church today, Pat invited me to go with her to Alden Lane Nursery in Livermore.

The nursery was huge and spread out. Today was special with artists set up outside. There were painters with pictures and cards they had painted; several jewelry booths; pottery and sculptures.
See the large tree behind Pat. The next picture is a close-up of it.

It's a very interesting tree and through the archway was an area for children to do some painting or crafts. Pat and I loved this nursery. I found a red Penstemon plant that I've been looking for for two years and also bought a Coreopsis with a large single yellow flower.
It was really a fun afternoon.

The sculpture the man is working on is very impressive. Very clear detail. People were drawn to his work. He has a webpage.
If this nursery was closer to home, I would go there often!!

July Doings

It's been a while since I wrote on my blog. On Friday, July 13, Jill called to say she and Laura were in town wanted to meet for lunch. Laura suggested the Jantz Cafe. So, there they are, sitting across from me having lunch. I complimented Laura on her very pretty necklace, a horseshoe inbedded with sparkling stones. It was a birthday present from her boyfriend. Nice.
We played catch-up on what was going on in our worlds. They are keeping very busy.

Here's a picture of Kathryn with the beautiful quilt she made for Mandy, my granddaughter and her great-niece. Kathryn worked hard on it and got it done in record time. She really did a beautiful job.
It must be hard to give away something when she puts so much into it.
Kathryn showed me material for her next project; a quilt for herself.
My daughter Sandy is always knitting. I think it must be difficult for her to give away some of the beautiful things she knits. Must be nice to have talent.

4th of July in Atwater

Atwater always has a nice parade on the 4th of July. This year my friend Carole asked if I would like to ride in the rumble seat with her in her cousin Don's Model A. Of course I said yes. It sounded like a lot of fun.
We parked about 2 blocks from where the parade was to begin; an easy walk. We found Don and his Model A on Winton Way. A friend of his was trying to get the car started!! Don had driven to Ballico and all over and it was working fine until now.
Couldn't get it started, so we left the car, walked a block to watch the parade. Several minutes later and before the parade got started, Don decided to walk back to the car and try to start it again.
He walked back to get us and and said he got the car started. We got back in the rumble seat and moved slowly to get in line. Don had a good position this year in the parade. Number 3 in line. The Model A's were all riding together, and we slowly inched along. Then everyone stopped. Don's Model A stopped too. And wouldn't start again. That was the end of our riding in the parade.
We watched the parade in the shade of the big trees on the corner of Elm and Winton Way. It was still a fun day.

Here is a picture of Carole and her cousin Don.

4TH OF JULY LUNCH AT RANCHO GRANDE
At 2:00 p.m. the residents started filling up the Club House at the mobile home park for a lunch that was served at 3:00 p.m.
After lunch there was a drawing for cash prizes.

Here is John the manager calling out a winning number.
His wife Shirley let the winner choose an envelope with cash inside. The envelopes had different amounts inside.

John insisted he was shaking up the tickets, but the numbers called were nowhere near what Carolyn, Betty or I had. But near the end, Carolyn's number was called (543) and she won ten dollars.

After another winner my number was called (#544) and next finally John called out #545 and Betty won. She looks like she isn't going to share her prize.

So, now I'm home and listening to the fireworks both outside and on TV. Saw some beautiful fireworks outside. The ones that went high enough to be seen from here. They were going off in all directions. People must be shooting them off from their homes. It can't be legal. They are beautiful though.