Wearing pants and long sleeve shirts!

We spent the past few days up in Flagstaff. What a change from 114 degrees in the shade! We arrived in Flagstaff, opened the windows and felt this wonderful, cool, cool breeze. Talk about a breath of fresh air, it was heavenly! Then it rained, not a lot for Flagstaff, but lots and lots by my dry Phoenix experience. I even got to put on long pants and a long sleeve shirt off and on all the few days we were there. I took this picture when we were hiking along side Schultz Creek. Understand this was mostly a dry creek bed, but was very green with many wildflowers. In Arizona we bestow the name creek on anything that has running water at any time during the year. It may be almost dry 99% of the time, but if water runs through it during a rain, it is a creek! This is a mountain creek so it is greener and wetter than most.
We also hiked the beginning of the Weatherford Trail which goes up to the top of San Francisco Peaks. However, we turned off after about a mile and walked through this beautiful Aspen grove. As we got close to the grove, I thought I heard running water! I thought for 2 seconds that maybe there is a little spring back here. I said, "Is that water", Jules said, "It is the leaves". The aspen were growing so close together that the leaves overhead sounded like running water. We were the only people back there and it was magical.




The blue flower on the left is lupine
The one on the right is Indian paintbrush.

Columbine, grows in moist, shady, green areas



The trail through the aspen grove

Grand Canyon with clouds

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature." Anne Frank
"The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration." Claude Monet

"Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you." Frank Lloyd Wright
"To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug." Helen Keller
"My profession is always to be alert, to find God in nature, to know God's lurking places, to attend to all the oratorios and the operas in nature." Henry David Thoreau

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you...
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." John Muir

"Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life." John Muir

Az trip with Auzzie cousins

This is Max and his daughter Maxine and Julian. They visited the last week in May. It worked out great because I was just out of school for the year and so we could take them around to see the Arizona sights. I have seen Max a lot over the years since I was young. He was in the US for part of his medical training, then he has always come back to travel, work, go to conferences etc. When he was younger he was into gymnastics. We kids loved him because he was funny and would always stand on his head upon request! I saw Maxine when she was young and they came through Phoenix and then saw her for short visits twice in Australia. However, this was the first time I really got to spend a lot of time with her and really enjoyed getting to know her better. She is a nurse also so we can compare working stories. This picture was taken at Montezuma's Castle
It was a cloudy day at the Grand Canyon which is great for pictures. We actually didn't get rained on. The rain was always in the distance.

This is Wapatki National Park
Max and Maxine at Sunset Crater

Happy July 4th to all

God bless America, land that I love!

North Rim of Grand Canyon 2007

I've been going through my old pictures and found these wonderful pictures from a trip we took with our friends Don and Connie and Chris and Mary to the North Rim in 2007. I decided they needed a showing so here are a few of the many from that trip. We are so blessed to be able to visit the Grand Canyon so much. I never tire of it! It was spring so there were many flowers. Maybe I'll put up some more of the flowers in my next blog.
Mary, Chris and Jules. I love this picture of Mary! I caught her in the middle of the best laugh.



This is the cabin Jules and I stayed in. It was right on the rim. No sleep walking allowed, because you only take about 5 big steps to the left and the edge is there. That reminds me that "edge" was Noel's first word. Noel, my nephew, is blind from birth. I was visiting my sister in Strawberry. Noel was on the bed and we were impressing upon him that he could fall off easily and showing him the edge. It must have made a big impression on him because we were saying,"Noel see, this is the edge" and he said "edge", his first word. We always said see and look and guided his hands to explore the object. Noel is now married working as a chemical engineer and living in a new house in Virginia.

Back to the front porch of our cabin at the North Rim. Here I am sitting on the rocking chair on the front porch of the cabin you see above.

Old Caves Crater

We hiked to the top of a small volcanic crater in the Flagstaff area. There are caves caused by lava gurgling to the surface. There was a small Sinagua village built in the crater and caves. What is left now are piles of stones and pottery shards on the ground. I wished later that I'd taken a picture of some of them to show you. Most people may not have recognized them because they mostly just look like a flat stone. Mostly they were red on black, but a few had black on white designs painted on one side. It is so great to see them in situ, but of course they have to be left in place in case they ever decide to excavate. Also, I would feel too guilty taking any home.
One of the many caves
View from the top with another small volcano in the distance and Indian Paint Brush (red flowers) and Fairy Duster (pink)
Close up view of the Indian Paint brush flowers.
Prickly pear cactus flower
View of San Francisco Peaks (to right) and Mount Elden (to left). The view from our condo looks at Mount Elden. I love this view because it shows both mountains side by side. Usually you see only one or the other. I always imagine that Mount Eldon was formed from the top of San Francisco Peaks when it exploded, but I have no idea if that is true or not. Oh no, now I have to look it up! OMG I was wrong! San Francisco Peaks used to be up to 15,000 feet tall (classic Fujiyama shape). The tallest of 3 peaks (Humpreys, Agassiz and Fremont) is 12,600 feet. It collapsed into a partly emptied magma chamber formed after a Mt. St Helens-like explosion, then there were glaciers leaving the inner basin the smooth valley it is now. Elden is formed by lava flows and magma pushing sedimentary blocks of rock to the surface. I still like my idea!
This is a old, old alligator Juniper tree. The close up shows you why is is called Alligator. The newest branches look very red, much like the red of manzanita bush branches.
This is the flower and seed (looks like a duster) thus the name Fairy duster!
Close up of Fairy duster seeds
Another view of San Francisco Peaks. We had a great few days. Mum went with us to Flagstaff. We walked around downtown Flagstaff, enjoyed all the little shops and the old town streets. Trains go through town every 20 minutes or so. The trains are a big part of Flagstaff. It is great to fall asleep listening to the trains and feeling the cool air coming in the windows. We ate breakfast on the porch, walked around the golf course in the evenings greeting all our neighbors, both human and canine. Dogs are a big part of the evening walks and I always miss Kiwi at these times. She loved to go with us to Flagstaff. I was taking her for a walk one evening when we arrived. I had her on a leash, but all of a sudden she takes off chasing a skunk. She thought she had caught this furry creature and in fact she did, for half a second till it squirted her right in the mouth. Poor Kiwi, she was crying, foaming in the mouth and stunk to high heaven. I was told that either tomato sauce or vinegar takes skunk smell away. Well, believe you me I tried vinegar and it certainly didn't work. She had to spend the night in the garage. We took her to the groomers and they said that this happens a lot to Flagstaff dogs. They knew just exactly what to do and she came out smelling like a rose!

Colors Meet Sky

Each day I go outside and see the peach faced love birds and goldfinches on the sunflowers in my garden. I am surprised by joy anew when they suddenly fly all at once, their bright colors meeting the blue sky. The sky above the sunflower patch is filled with bright yellows, reds, greens, and blues for a couple seconds of awe and delight. I've tried to take pictures, but am not fast enough. You'll just have to imagine it in your minds eye.
These are some of the tiny Goldfinches. They love the tiny little seeds they get from the dried sunflowers. This picture even shows one of the seeds that they like so well. They are much smaller than the sunflower seeds we eat.
This little guy is really getting into it!
The Goldfinches almost are invisible among the bright yellow sunflowers.
The parrots are bigger. They bend and make the sunflowers dance as they hop from one part of the sunflowers to another.




I have been enjoying summer and time off work. May was very busy. We enjoyed Kirs, Rob and the kids visit and had a great time with Max and Maxine from Oz. I will get back to both of those visits in future blogs. Then came the end of school which was very stressful this year because our AZ schools have had major cuts in funding. I decided to come back another year even though I will have 2 schools. We nurses fought the good fight, but too much had to be cut. It was a very sad and depressing time. We had our grandsons Niko and Maceo (Faye and Javier's 2 youngest) for 3 days in early June so they could have a get-away in San Diego. We rode bikes, played in the ditch, went to see the movie "UP" with the boys. The last week or so I've got to spend quality time with Ryan. That is a whole long story in and of itself. First of all he was in a car accident. The wheel from another car came off and hit the wheel of his car. Of course the driver, had no license and prob no insurance. The driver fled the scene on foot and the police are allowed to take up to a month to make the report. However, as bad as that was, he wasn't hurt and it got him to finally realize that he was in financial crisis and could no longer support his girlfriend who chooses not to work (or is always going to but never does). He told his girlfriend to move out and she broke all his vinyl record collection before the police arrived. He decided to move from his apartment due to bad karma, a gas leak, no hot water because the hot water heater was venting in the kitchen (the gas company shut it down) and a landlord who never follows through with promises to fix stuff. So we started looking for a new apartment. He wants to live downtown to be in walking distance to his 2nd job at the Dodge Theater in downtown Phoenix. He found a studio he likes and can afford. It has wood floors, a tiny kitchen, but is actually large for a studio. He will save about $100 per month. It looks south into downtown and is a couple blocks from the Dodge Theater. Next week we will help him move into his new place. Things are looking up!