Twas the night before Christmas and under the tree CC and Santa sit side by side you can see! The presents are tossed round the room far and near In hopes that the Boys soon will be here. When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter We looked out the window to see what was the matter. When what to my wondering eyes should appear But three funny boys dressed in summer sports gear.
Away to the backyard we flew like a flash Dined on 2 kinds of soup our holiday bash! More rapid than eagles the boys ran to see Who could hit the ball harder, well as it happened it hit camera man, me!
These pictures were taken last time we were in Flagstaff. I think there is at least 2 feet of snow there now! I've had the last 2 days off and it has been great, time for a little cooking, baking, partying, bird watching, relaxing, reading and shopping. Thank heavens very little shopping because parking is crazy out there. We saw the movie Julie, Julia last night and it is so, so funny! So, if you haven't seen it, go check it out as it is now in the video stores. It's about Julia Child and a woman Julia who decided to cook every recipe in her book 524 or so in 365 days and blogs about it. Two true stories put together. I think I would like to read the book. Bare aspen tree against a blue Flagstaff sky. I love taking pictures looking straight up at trees. I think I'll put a bunch together on a blog one of these days. Kids sledding with the greatest view of the Flagstaff area. I bet they didn't even look at the view, probably lost in the sledding experience. Isn't it wonderful being lost in the moment, enjoying yourself so, so much that you are not aware of anything else. Those are little miracles I think. I try to remember those moments sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I think that we remember more when more senses are involved. I wonder if any studies have been done on memory and senses? Clouds tend to come and go very quickly in the high country. The whole sky can be clear and a half hour later the whole sky can be cloudy. There are often clouds hanging out over the peaks even on sunny days like you see in this picture. This was a snowy day and the sky looks snow gray. This was taken when we walked around the golf course after snow. There was a few inches of fresh snow on the ground, still easy to walk around the golf cart path. Merry Christmas to you all if I don't write again before Christmas!
I decided that today I would put up the lights outside. I thought I had learned all the lessons from other years and would get them up in a snap! I even told Jules to watch the game, that I could handle it. I flew through putting up those lights as the hummingbirds buzzed and dive bombed around my head. I got to the last string and realized 2 things. First the last string had a section burned out and 2nd I didn't have enough lights to go to the end of the house. So I thought, I'll just run down to Ace and get another 2 strings of lights. I did that came back and spent a half hour unwinding all the icicles from one string. I went outside and plugged in the new string and realized that the lights instead of being a warm yellow color were a harsh white light. I call Julian to see, he takes one look at the lights and says these are LED, green lights to save the planet. So I disconnected it and reconnected the broken to see if I could fix it. Jules says, you know you can get just as big a shock from that little broken bulb, I don't know why you do this with the lights plugged in. I say because I don't want to get them all up and realize that some of them are burned out (a lesson learned from other years). Or get them up and realize that I put them up backwards and couldn't plug them in (another lesson learned from other years) So, I said, I'm taking these back and getting the old kind. So, I take them back to Ace but of course they don't have any old kind. So I return them and go somewhere else to get the old kind. I did find them, got them home tried to plug them in and realized that they had the new plug with one prong bigger, so I couldn't connect them to the end of the light strings. By this time, I'm about in tears, so Jules says, We can take them down move them and connect the new lights up to a different cord. I say that will take so much work. We finally decide to disconnect the first 3 strings and attach them to the end where we are short. Then of course I didn't have enough because I thought one would be enough just for the end. Anyway we took the lights out of the carport, but will get those back up attached to another extension cord, which will probably be better anyway because last year I kept blowing fuses because I had so many strings connected together. The Christmas smile is back on my face and the lights are magical!
Faye and Javier have a bun in the oven, expecting July 24! Faye had bought a 3 pack early pregnancy test kit (on sale and with a coupon of course) just in case she might need it someday! Well, imagine her and Javier's surprise when it said "pregnant" two days in a row and the doctor confirmed the test! They had been "playing without a goalie", but were surprised by joy when it happened so soon. Faye is glowing and family and friends all are happy and looking forward to welcoming this baby into our family! I am thankful for Moms, Grandmothers and Grandchildren and the love they share. I am thankful for sons and uncles, nieces and nephews I am thankful for art and nature I am thankful for family Brothers and sisters. Cuddly pets Daughters and grandchildren Flowers Oranges in my yard and memories of growing up surrounded by citrus and cotton fields My back yard crops Hungry hummingbirds Hungry peach faced love bird and how they make us laugh. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
The still waters of Oak Creek reflect the multiple dark trunks of trees with leaves all shades of yellow, green and orange. The creek becomes a mirror reflecting the beauty of our Arizona Fall Season. We drove down into Oak Creek from Flagstaff last Friday and spent the day hiking and stopping many times along the road to walk down to the creek. They have a new rule that you need to have a "Red Rock Pass" to park along the road. Well, after much discussion, me thinking we were not parking if Jules stayed in the car and Jules saying that he already had his picture snapped by one of those portable speed traps and didn't want to get 2 tickets in one weekend, we decided to get a pass. We found out that Jules "Golden Age" National Park pass worked, so we didn't have to pay, just show the pass! Nothing is simple these days, however, the beauty is unchangeable.
Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. ~George Eliot The creek narrows, water falling over rocks, gurgling, bubbling, frothy, white
The red rocks used to be a sea. Arizona with a beach long ago, global warming before humans, how could that be?
Branches of the Manzanita bush, matching the red of the cliffs and the red of the maple in Fall
Arizona cypress trees. The trunks are reddish brown with peeling gray bark. These cedar trees grow only in a few canyons in Arizona, mostly in Southern Arizona. I'd never seen these trees before and we stopped at several ranger stations, looked in books and finally got our hunch confirmed by a Ranger at Walnut Canyon who is writing her thesis on Juniper trees. The detective sluthes at work!
The water mirrors the blue sky, trees and multicolored leaves.
Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees. Faith Baldwin
A little lower down in the canyon there is more green. You can follow the fall colors down hill week by week if you like.
We went up to Flagstaff to see the Fall colors. Most people think of Arizona as lacking in seasonal changes. However, Fall colour in Flagstaff is very predictable. The 2nd weekend in October brings the height of color. The green of this aspen grove is changed almost overnight into a beautiful yellow roofed outdoor cathedral. Something about walking through through that beautiful grove, brings back other Fall hikes. Hiking with Star in Zion a couple years ago, driving through aspen groves around San Francisco Peaks, walking through our Rim Aspen grove when the kids were little, it goes on and on. I remember the last hike with my Dad which was in Oak Creek Canyon North Fork. We didn't know yet that his melanoma was back. We really really enjoyed that hike, spending time together with the leaves falling all around. A family we met playing on a "bouncy pole". The little blond guy asked me to join them and I did. He didn't buy me calling it a horse, stating that horses don't bonce. This cute kid was climbing up onto this felled aspen. He was probably 5 or 6 feet above the ground and having the time of his life. Our Flagstaff neighbor, Barbara joined us on our hike. Green, blue, yellow and white together for quite a picture. One of the mother trees in the grove This is the first aspen we saw So many leaves on the ground, but most of them still on the trees. In one to two weeks the trees will all be bare. Glad we got to enjoy them!
I'm trying to decide which 4 photos I will enter into the Arizona Highways photo contest. There are 4 categories and I can enter one from each of these, landscape, people/culture, closeups and wildlife. This one would be in the closeup category (prickly pear fruit). Please help me decide and let me know which ones you like best.
Wildlife, Horned lizard Wildlife: Anna's Hummingbird in flight Landscape: Storm clouds over San Francisco Peaks Closeup: Fairy duster flowers People/culture: Grandfather and Grandson watching storm clouds in Flagstaff meadow.
Landscape, sunset over Camelback Mtn and the Praying Monk. Closeup, ripe oranges and blossoms for next years oranges. Culture, three Navajo ladies Landscape, Grand Canyon Landscape, Grand Canyon Landscape, Grand Canyon Landscape, Grand Canyon Wildlife, Rattlesnakes, mating dance
