Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum

Just a few miles from the Saguaro National Park is the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. Part botanical garden with a huge variety of desert plants, and part zoo with animals native to the Sonoran desert, this made an interesting afternoon for Jack and I. We had our lunch in the Ocitillo Cafe and then meandered the zoo.

                                                    


                                                           First stop was a walk in Aviary
                                                                   Black headed Grosbeak

Big horn sheep are often seen on mountain sides in Arizona - they can make their way up the steepest slopes where you wonder how they can find a foothold!

The coatamundi takes a drink on a hot afternoon

Prairie Dogs

Organ Pipe Cactus grow in a cluster from one base point.

Javalinas or pecccaries are the wild pigs of the south west. They have the same snouts and shapes of the domestic pig but add to that their tusks and cranky nature and you will not want to get in their way. They will eat anything but this afternoon, this pair just wants to nap in the shade.

This was the closest we got the the real coyotes in their natural area. I think they were also taking a nap -----

                     Jack thought he should do it, too,
                          under this ramada!

But we decided that this would be a better way to refresh ourselves before we drove back to Phoenix. After leaving the park at 4pm, we passed Old Tucson Studios, a working lot for making Western movies that does daily gun fight shows and has lots of western theme activities. But that was for another day. We took Gate's Pass Road that winds it's way between mountains to 3200' and a pass giving access to downtown Tucson and the I 10 expressway back to our RV home in Mesa where we arrived just as the sun set at 6pm. A fun and interesting day!!

Saugaro National Park

The cold spell is well and gone and we are out exploring Arizona - something Jack and I love to do. Friday, January 18, after phoning and singing "Happy Birthday" to my sister Jacque in Michigan, we headed by car to Tucson - a two hour drive south of Mesa.

The giant saguaro cactus is the state symbolof Arizona and this area has one of the highest concentrations of these cacti. They grow only in the Sonoran desert  which takes in most of northern Mexico and a small part of south western Arizona and the far south of California and the Baja peninsula.

     

This saguaro points the way to the .25mile Nature Trail with many explanation boards about the life cycle of the saguaros and other desert plants.

 Saguaros often begin life in the protected area around another plant. Because they grow so slowly from seeds of the flowers that bloom in June at the top of the plant, being protected helps them survive the hot summers and monsoon rains that come periodically. This saguaro is probably 15 - 20 years old. They grow for about 75 years before they begin to put out arms. Some saguaros can have as many as 40 arms. When it rains, they swell their ribs with water to keep them alive until the next rain. Their life span is about 200 years. When they die, their strong woody ribs make good walking sticks.

       

Saguaro spines

Some saguaros have very interesting shapes!!!! While most "arms" grow upward, this giant' arms have made lovely graceful downward curves.

Taliesin West

On Thursday, January 17, we drove to Scottsdale, a suburb of Phoenix, to visit Taliesin West. This is the winter home and architectural school established by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s. He bought this property in 1937 including the hillside and several hundred acres. He then built a home of stone, cement and canvas and brought students here to study his architectural designs. When he built low buildings and set them down the hillside instead of on top of the hill, he explained that the "brow" not the top was a more pleasing place to build. Taliesin is Welsh for "shining brow".

To this day, there is an architectural school on the campus - students spend half of the year in Arizona and the other half in Wisconsin at Taliesin East.
All the buildings are set low to the ground and blend in with the surroundings. Building lines are long and linear.

The rock walls are rough concrete and rocks taken directly from the hillside - no cutting of rocks was done - the most flat side was placed in the form and concrete poured around it.  When Taliesin was built, there was no glass - only canvas was used to protect from the elements - but remember this was a winter desert place for Mr Wright and his students so not much protection was needed. Many rooms have fireplaces for cool evenings.

Mrs. Wright's bedroom as well as her husband's next door, overlooked an inner courtyard.

Many sculptures are found all around the site - this one of mother and children is in the "breezeway" - an open area between buildings that provides wonderful shade and cooling breezes in a hot environment.

One of the last places on our tour was this six sided pool - cool, refreshing and so typical of Frank Lloyd Wright designs.

Desert Botanical Gardens

It is a cloudy and cool day but we are with good friends, Dan and Barb Bloem, to visit the Botanical Gardens here in Phoenix. We love to come here and see what is new and what is familiar and what is blooming at this time of the year. At the entrance, there remains a glass sculpture by Dale Chihully whose creations found places throughout the gardens in 2010.

  Scattered throughout the gardens this year are sculptures by Carolina Escobar entitled "Whispers of the New World" . I think each person will have their own interpretation of what they see.

But there were flowers, too.

One of the most interesting sculptures was of the Four Seasons by Philip Haas - depicted in flowers, gourds and seeds of each season.







                                                                             Spring

Summer

Autumn

                                                                                 Winter



It's always interesting to visit the Botanical Gardens - so we
bought a one year membership - it will pay for itself on our
third visit and is good for 250 other Botanical Gardens across
the US and Canada - including the Royal Botanical Gardens
in Hamilton, Ontario - right near home!

It's COLD!!!

It has been 4 days now of a cold wave that is been hovering over the "Valley of the Sun". They say it has come from Canada but up north they seem to be having the same temperatures as we are here in the south west. Temps are at a 30 year low. This morning we had 31F outside our RV and that's pretty chilly!

   

The palm trees are covered to prevent frost damage

Tender growing tips of the cacti are covered, too.

But the pools are warmly heated and so swimmers are enjoying themselves despite temperatures in the high 40's  - in Arizona the sun still shines!
And the good news - by Wednesday we will be warming up again.

First hike of the New Year - Lost Dutchman Trail

    A miner named Jacob Waltz - a German -  but since they were called Deutch, people called him a Dutchman - ventured into the Superstition Mountains in the 1880s.  He brought back such pure gold that when he died in 1891 without revealing his source, a legend was born. For more than a century, prospectors have returned to the Superstitions looking for the "Dutchmen's" lost mine but to this day no one has found it.
   On Monday, January 7, a group of 30 people from our resort carpooled to these mountains, about a 30 minute drive from Mesa Regal and did  a 10.2km hike along the edge of this area. The morning was cool  and the skies were clear and it warmed up fast. Perfect weather for hiking the "Lost

Dutchman Trail".



      The trail was fairly wide and easy with a few ups and downs over deep washes coming off the mountain.

Down in one of those washes, we spotted some of these free range long horn cattle . They will be rounded up by the owner when it is time to send them to market. After the rains in December, there is actually a fair bit of low grass for them to find.

                                                                             

 

We stopped at the base of this mountain for our "snack". A lovely viewpoint!

If you look closely, you can see part of the "Arizona Earthquake Early Warning System". When that rock falls from it's pedestal - Arizonans run to seek shelter from the tsunami  :-)

 

Home for Christmas

   We are off to Ontario early on Wednesday, December 19 - the skies are clear and the flight goes well with an early arrival at 12:30pm but long line ups at immigration negate that time gain and Greg is ready to pick us up and take us to Oakville where we will spend the next two and a half weeks with our family, sharing the townhouse that we own and our son and his wife are living in until the renovation is completed on their home.

 


 Dylan is happy that "Oma" and "Opa" are staying with them for the holidays - we even share the same bedroom and that makes grandparents happy when the little guy wakes at 7am and whispers "I'm awake!" and waits quietly for the answer he wants "Do you want to come and cuddle in our bed?"  A firm "Yes" comes and then Opa lifts him into our bed for a cuddle - brief - and then time for breakfast downstairs so mummy and daddy can have a short time to sleep in. Baby sister Megan is not a sleeper and they have been awake during the night so any extra sleep is much appreciated!

   Christmas is a magical time for small children and Dylan was excited to leave some milk and cookies for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer and then on Christmas morning, waking to find them gone and a "Thank you" note from the man in red himself. The presents were piled high under the tree and most of them were for the children. Uncle Derek was home also and we all had a great time sipping coffee and tea while we opened presents - then having Grandma Sally's breakfast casserole. Dylan asked Santa for tools and Santa brought exactly what he wanted - and a tool bench and hard hat! Aunt Jacque sent a wonderful barn just like on their farm complete with horses and tractors that kept Dylan's imagination piqued for several hours.

 



  Tara had spent many hours making this lion for Megan and the best part was that it was a very "chewable" friendly lion!

On Christmas Day, after the gift opening, we all packed up and drove to London, Ontario for Christmas with Tara's family. More gift giving ensued, followed by a big turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Most of us enjoyed the dinner, but Jack had come down with the stomach flu while driving to London and spent the time on the couch or in bed. After we arrived, we found that several of the McEvoys had also had the flu. On Boxing Day, Jack was feeling better so we continued with our plan to drive to Michigan to my sister's farm. Derek followed us in his car.

 The snow had started while we were driving and overnight, we got about 6  inches of the white stuff and it was a  beautiful sight in the country. But it was COLD and the next morning the ice had to be broken on the water buckets in the horse barn.

                











Sunday, December 30 was a very important event in our family. Greg and Tara brought their daughter to church for baptism. Tara's parents, Andy and Joan as well as her brothers Paul and Mark and their families came to church as well as Jack and I. Though I felt the beginnings of the flu that felled Jack, I went to church but did not shake hands or touch anyone. We were so proud to see our son and his family standing in front of the whole church making a promise  to raise their daughter Megan Siobhan in God's ways.

After the baptism, I took to my bed while the rest of the family enjoyed a lunch together downstairs - the flu had hit me, too! I also missed the New Year's Eve party at the home of our friends the Wildeboers - but that seemed to be the end of the flu in the family - for which we were grateful!

   While we were home, we visited Greg and Tara's renovation project. The roof is half off and the tarps are up to protect the interior.

On January 7, weather permitting, the rest of the roof comes off and the trusses will have arrived to build the new roof. Meanwhile, construction continues under the tarps with studs going up for the master bedroom and bath. Greg and Tara are kept busy choosing shingles, tubs and taps as well as the double sided fireplace that will grace the entrance hall and living room.

No stairway yet means that when you want to see the upstairs, you have to go up a ladder - Dylan was happy to try this but Oma and Opa stayed down and held the ladder and watched Megan.
    Sadly, all good times must come to an end and on Saturday, January 5, we returned to Mesa, Arizona and our RV. While there are no lovely grandchildren here to hug and kiss and play cars with, we do have lots of sun and warm days, pools and aquacise, hiking in the desert and good friends to chat with under the grapefruit tree!