Spring has sprung

This week had the endings of a couple of activities - the first session of guitar lessons and the first course of t'ai chi. I've signed up for the second session of guitar with the same instructor. We are down to a class of 5 from 7 but we're all progressing at the same rate and all 5 are returning. We managed to learn chords for G, Cmaj7, C, Em, and D. I added E and A on my own, just for fun. We have learned strumming techniques and have worked our way to smooth transitions between chords and are speeding up the tempo. The t'ai chi also suffered some attrition but 5 students managed to complete the entire 10 week series and have learned the 24 forms pretty well. All are coming back for the second session which will begin next week. I'm trying to devise a way to teach it in more of a drop in style to see if we can get more people interested. Commitment is difficult for people at the fitness center, so signing up for 10 weeks of t'ai chi doesn't work for many.

In addition we completed our gutter project today. The gutters were installed last week and today our landscaper brought his crew and connected the two downspouts to the drainage system. They had find ways to run the pipes from the downspouts through gardens, not disturb the roots, burrow under the concrete and connect with the drains that take water to the sewer system. They were here for about 6 hours but got the job completed. Fortunately there is under the concrete so the digging was too laborious.

Tonight at 10:48PM spring arrives. On my walk today I noted that spring has indeed happened here at Cypress Ridge. The blue flowers are called ceanthus, also known as California lilac; the red ones are huge geranium plants and the orange ones are birds of paradise. Flowers are busting out all over!