Saturday's Historic House Tour in Tucson

Laura and I went yesterday afternoon for a self guided walking tour of the old south of dowtown historic homes tour which was sponsored by the local Episcopal church, the proceeds to go to feed the homeless. Hum, irony? It was fun on such a nice 78 degree day to walk around about 7 or 8 blocks, some of the places only showed their gardens. Mostly the homes had been lived in the for the past 20 years and lovingly restored and DECORATED. Did I say gay guys????
Cute pink house, we were just walking by, I was thinking IF I lived in Tucson, this is where I would want to live, in the ACTION.
Water catchment at the back of a house owned by well known activist Nancy Bissell. She had pictures of how this house had been a burned out shell just three years ago.
Nice Tucson back yard, this was owned by a local professor.
Did I say gay guys? And their collections, and decorating, and great colors, and fun combinations of STUFF.

This morning in Sabino Canyon OUCH

The saguaro on the left is called a Crested Saguaro, I've never seen one before, so it was great to see such a big lovely specimen. We headed to Sabino Canyon because I remember being here six years ago. They have a tram that goes up the mountain side in the canyon, it makes NINE stops and when you buy a ticket you can get on or off at any of the designated stops.
Laura and I decided we would ride the tram all the way to the top and then walk back down, with the possibility that if it got to be too much, we could just jump on the tram.
However about half way up the tram hit a rock, and came to a sudden DEAD STOP and I zoomed forward, slid off my seat and my already injured knees went right into the textured metal seat back ahead of me. OH MY GOD, just what I didn't need (kneed) since I am not even fully recovered from my fall on the sidewalk in front of Cary's apt in Portland. That really HURT. Well, we just kept going up on the tram and I tried to assess the damage. Not really that bad, but oh it smarted. I knew I needed to get back home, ice and take Arnica. Kind of a real bummer to not take this much anticipated hike. I'll live. But maybe I won't really feel like going to the dyke dance tonight.

Thursday we went to Tubac, about one hour south

Just could not resist taking a picture of this beauty. Tubac is a small "artist" community one hour south of Tucson. It's the kind of place that is full of tourists, and I think they just didn't want to risk going to Mexico, so they came here. Lots of shops, a few galleries, we saw one real art gallery, too many gee gaws for me.
But we did have a nice lunch, looking out on the courtyard, SO SUNNY, can't be unhappy here.


I really won't bother coming here again, just too too touristy.

Wednesday morning in Tohono Chul Park

When in Tucson, it's required to go out and walk around in a desert park, hope that none of those cacti jump out at you.......the air is fresh and cool but the sun is warm, I'm actually getting a little tan.
And relaxed, this is a desert park with a lot of architecture right at the edge of Tucson, very pretty with a lot of flowers at this time of year.
We don't see these in Portland
Another view with the Catalina Mountains in the background. Not planning on going UP THERE.
This is a huge piece of malachite and azurite.......with Laura who has lived in Tucson since 1972.

Getting acclimated to desert air at Bill & Judy's

It's Saturday morning, I've already been up and out to get an oil change, ready to drive on to points south. I went out last evening to take these pictures around Judy and Bill's house. The back patio area looks out on the horse pasture. They are on about an acre of land, with orange and grapefruit trees lining one side of it. This is all in the middle of a Mormon enclave......not that you can tell by looking at the people, but Judy has told me this.
Judy did this painting, I'm going to guess at least 15 years ago of her great-great grandfather, funny he looks a lot like Bill.

The view of the pasture and huge palm trees, don't see them like this in Portland. It was about 85 degrees yesterday, and somewhat overcast, so not too hot, but feels so so very different from home. When I went to the local Starbucks and they asked if I wanted my coffee hot or iced, I murmured oh yes that' s right, I'm in Arizona now. So of course the barista asked when I came from and I said Portland, Oregon politely. That always gets a positive response, like oh it's so beautiful there, oh I want to go there.....anyway the conversation ended with "well, welcome to..............hell."

Leaving in the rain, getting to 90 degrees......

It was pouring rain when I left Eugene Monday morning.....just thought I'd see if I can take pictures one handed driving 70 miles an hour down the freeway. Yes I can. blogspot does not like exclamation points, damn. Probably good for my writing though. Got all the way to Red Bluff the first night. Fairly tired, but not too bad, had very ordinary Mexican food for dinner, and vow not to do that again.
Further south, well just somewhere south of the boarder, still not easy to be going that fast and CATCH something. Shasta is there to the east.
Red Bluff, unlike Redding, actually has a main street, some very cute side streets with darling old houses, this one I could not resist. A real fixer but so cute. Left Red Bluff about 8:30am.
Drove all the way to Bakersfield, oh man, what a dump that place is....stayed in a Motel super 8, Judy says they are nicer than Motel 6. Managed to sleep pretty well and get the hell outta there at 7:30 and DROVE all the way through, to Barstow that's the old Route 66, don't EVER try to stay there, to Needles, down a small two lane highway over the rolling desert to Blythe, just one more hell hole out in theCalifornia desert, turned onto Interstate 10. Drove steadily, never stopping at that point until getting to Judy's house at 5:30...............so road weary. And now it's HOT.

Chilly morning with Snow and Flowers

I took a walk this morning to take some pictures of the early spring flowers, although we've had some really balmy and sunny days, hey, this is March after all..........bound to have hail, snow, freezing rain, sunshine and RAIN of course. This is the last week of me helping Tessa and babies to get off to day care and work. Jean-Luc is due back on Thursday, arriving about 1pm. We'll all be happy to see him.
Mama still wears her high heels.....amazing. It's really a trip to try to keep track of Lucie and Matteo when they are walking in different directions.
And every morning while Tessa is getting ready, Tom is on his way to work, so this is the routine, Lucie is always ready to be picked up, Matteo likes hardware, balls and closing the doors.
His checking out the light fixture, really he is fascinated with hardware.
Wow camellias all over the place. And now, soon, this Saturday I'll leave for the southwest...headed to Mesa, AZ first.