Five Fun Things Tucson Visit

I still have one more important post to share about Festival Hill, but right now I am going to jump ahead to our time in Tucson.  Sharing with Tricky & Carly's Five on Friday:






1.

Our dear friend, Paulette George, from Desert Springs Baptist Church, opened up her lovely home to us.  When our departure was delayed, and we ended up being with her a week, she continued to make us more than welcome!  She's a sweet Sister in Christ!

That first Friday Paulette was hosting a "Beans and Jeans" dinner for some of the church members.  We laughed so much, my cheeks hurt!  What a wonderful time with our Tucson friends!

 

 

 

2.  Church again Sunday morning....

 

 

 

and lunch afterwards at Grumpy's Grill with Pastor Ron & Vickie Moxson,  Paulette, and the Mullins, Monty and Ava....

 

 

3.  It broke 100 degrees Fahrenheit by the day we left.  The days of high 90s were taking its toll on us, and we were reminded why we were happy we made the move to Oregon (image from the internet)....

 

 

 

 

4.  We were there though during the lovely spring blossomings of some of the desert flora, including the saguaro cacti.  I took this one photo of a shorter one near the church.  Also, enjoy this video created by the Arizona Daily Star by clicking on the link....

 

 

 

 https://www.facebook.com/ArizonaDailyStar/videos/1116428848426003/

 

 

5.  One of my favorite blooming trees (the Palo Verde) was also adorned for our enjoyment during our trip....

 

 





Saguaro National Park

Visited a friend from church who is ill yesterday and on the way home we had to drive through a section of the Saguaro National Park (our fortunate friends live in a great place! :-) ) so we stopped and took a few pictures.  Saguaros (SAW-WAH-ROH)  are the cacti only found in the Sonoran Desert areas of Arizona, and Mexico (maybe a few strays in far west NM and far east CA, but it's doubtful).  Whenever anyone films about any place in the west, including Texas, they tend to include Saguaros in the scenery, but that is not correct.  Southern Arizona has many and they grow to 25 to 30 feet tall, and can live over 200 years old.  Hope you enjoy the photos; sharing with Through My Lens and Tuesday Treasures, since Saguaros are actually TREASURES! :-)  And also connecting with NF Trees & Bushes. Thanks to Mersad , Tom and Monica for these awesome memes!

In my friend's yard is a saguaro with its "nurse tree."  The new seedling cactus grows at the base of a young tree, in this case a mesquite, to protect it while it is vulnerable, then as the cactus grows tall, the tree ages and eventually will die.  You often see dead trees right next to Saguaros in the desert.

An example of a dead nurse tree with its Saguaro, all grown up.

There are unopened flower blooms at the top of the Saguaros right now...when they open they will be beautiful white flowers, and I will try to share some with you all!

A bit of an odd one

OK...yes, I am going to miss Arizona! :-)

Saguaros and Skies 1

I am starting a little series of photos to share with Through My Lens with Mersad, and Skywatch Friday with Yogi, Sandy and Sylvia and any other meme that fits over the next few weeks.  Thanks to all the hosts!  I was going through my archives and I have some really nice saguaro and sky shots of Tucson that I thought would be fun to re-share....Oh, and for those who asked about the skeletal remains of the saguaros in my landscape pictures a couple of weeks ago, yes, that's the "spine" or skeleton of a saguaro that is left after it dies.  It's posted HERE.

 

Desert Light

I am happy to say that I have been invited to join in with another of Monica's memes, Catching Light. nfverk.blogspot.com

Thanks to Monica for these wonderful opportunities to share our photos.  I am a little late, but joining in for the first time....

I dropped the grandson and great nephew off on their first day of school, and because I was out early I decided to take a short walk in the Audobon Reserve nearby.  The morning light was like a halo on the cholla cactus:

And sculpted the massive saguaro against the sky

And cast deeply cut shadows into the desert sands.

Mersad at Mersad Donko Photography also mentioned his meme, and invited me to join in there as well...Through My Lens is his wonderful new photography meme!  Thanks so much Mersad for the invitation!  Join us for both of these.

Tall Tucson Trees

I am going to apologize right at the onset for not knowing the names of these trees.   I see them every day, but have never been close to any of them.  The point I am making with this post is that, here in the desert where water is an issue (we get about 6 inches in the late winter, early spring time of gentle rains, and then about 6 more during the violent summer monsoons) there are still trees that manage to grow to great heights.  Such trees are great nesting places for raptors, and I suspect the tall pine in the first shot may be the nesting home of the Cooper's Hawks who have been visiting my back yard.  I am linking in with Monica's NF Trees & Bushes today.  Hope you will as well!

This huge pine is at least 30 feet tall and I have seen the hawks all three fly to it later in the day, suggesting they are sleeping here.  They may have also nested here.

A very large tree right next door to me

Another "straight off my back porch" view of trees in my neighborhood, some very large.

One of the Cooper's Hawks rests on the limb of the large mesquite tree on the other side of us.  This tree had to be pruned back drastically after high winds blew the top out of it, but it is very large.  Most mesquites are roughly 9 to 12 or perhaps 15 feet tall only.  This one even after the pruning is close to twenty feet tall.  You can see how substantial the limb is the hawk is sitting on.  I think it was over about 20 feet tall or more before the winds damaged it. 

Water Harvesting and other things...

1.  Two Saturdays ago I attended the Extension Service class on Water Harvesting at the Little Village Farm here in Tucson.  It was presented by the University of Arizona, of course.  We are determined not to go through another summer monsoon season without capturing as much water as we can.  Most of the class was centered on using cisterns and also on harvesting the water for landscape watering purposes, which had less pertinence to our needs.  But it was very interesting, in all respects.  They had a great packet of handouts, and I left there knowing what I wanted to do to collect the water we need.  (Will share more of that when we get it all set up).  I am joining in with Amy's Five on Friday.  I am also joining in with Monica's NF Trees & Bushes.

The young man in the light blue shirt was our instructor.  He took us outside briefly to talk about gutters, rain spouts and to show us a cistern they have there, but most of the class was held indoors.

While outside I noticed these wonderful shade trees.  They are Arizona Ash.  It has a male and female tree, is heat tolerant and uses moderate water.  It is native to Arizona and New Mexico and can grow to 30 feet tall.

A view of the leaves and fruit (seeds)

Water harvesting isn't always legal, as evidenced by the map below.  Obviously it is badly needed as a viable resource in the Southwestern states....

Not sure what's going on with New Mexico, Nevada...and California!!!

2.  Those of you who were very interested in the agave plant photo I posted showing the plant blooming, and explaining about it's single blooming season followed by it's demise, will be interested in this.  Here is the photo I posted...

and here it is, dying now. We drove by a week ago to see it fallen against the house.

Here is a look at the root of one that bloomed and fell in a different yard last year.  They have chopped off the leaves, and now just the root is left.  After they cut the leaves it would have been larger and fleshier, but now the root has gotten old.  It can give you an idea of how huge they are...they take up half the front yard!

3. Our son-in-law who is the corporate chef for the restaurant complex here in Tucson, The Hub, The Playground, and the Ice Cream Factory, 266 East Congress Street (I need to post soon about a few historic things about downtown Tucson!) was asked to do a food demo at Willam Sanoma a week ago.  We went by to see him at work, and to enjoy a pork belly taco!

That's my hubby and grandson at the top right of the photo, watching intently as Jack slices the pork belly.  Jack explains each step of the process.

Serving the tacos.  Our grandson and great-nephew are waiting patiently while a customer is served.

Our daughter, grandson and great-nephew.

 4.  Have you noticed you can't buy loose tea in the grocery stores anymore?  I usually use tea bags, but there are times when I love a good pot of loose tea, brewed in a warmed pot!  They had some Earl Grey at William Sanoma and I snatched it up...a bit pricey (like most things in that store) but I couldn't resist!  The only loose tea I normally get are small packets from Chantilly Tea Room here, which is a lovely place to go "have tea."  I've posted about the tea room before, but will again soon....

5. Finally, we had the great delight of visitors this past week.  My husband's sister and our niece were here for three days.  We had a wonderful time, and enjoyed them so much!  It was an amazing blessing.  Summer isn't the best time for people to come to Tucson on a visit, but our niece just graduated college and they were doing a Graduation Celebration tour, going from Oregon down to Yellowstone, on to Alabama and Georgia toward Florida, and then across Texas toward us here in Tucson, and then on toward home via Yosemite!  On the road for nearly three weeks!  If I haven't gotten by to make comments on your blog yet their visit is the main reason I am behind...but I'll catch up as soon as I can!  While they were here, our niece got to see the Cooper's Hawks in the back yard, and was so thrilled.  Here is a shot of her taking pictures from inside the house.

Saying our goodbyes...

Brother and Sister

Uncle and Niece

Joyful Blues and Multicolored Flowers!

I'm always so happy when someone has an interesting and successful meme and they are loyal to their contributors/joiners-in (whatever we are).  Thank you Sally and Denise!  Joining today with Blue Monday and Today's Flowers:

The Mississippi Paddleboat at Disneyland  2011

Our grandson in the pool at the hotel, Disneyland 2011

Our grandson got to talk to Crush!!!

Blue Skies and a Colorful ride

Blue Pacific Ocean

My neighbor's trumpet vine against a blue sky

My bouganvillia

This ocotillo in full bloom was in my daughter's old yard

The Sonoran "Bird of Paradise" bush in full flower. Different from the tropical Bird of Paradise...  ..and more blue sky