I have been working hard all week, packing boxes for the local Humane Society thrift shop. My sister suggested weekends were for fun, too, so yesterday I drove north to visit the sunflowers of Northern Arizona. These sunflowers provide stability for me. For fifty years, they have always bloomed out on Fort Valley Road north of…
Rest in peace, West Fork, Oak Creek Canyon
I’ve lived in Arizona for over 50 years, and for most of that time Oak Creek Canyon has been my haven. I rode down the switchbacks in my girlfriend’s boyfriend’s ’57 Thunderbird, when it was brand new and we were, too. I had my Senior High ditch day at Slide Rock. I swam naked…
This past Sunday I took an early morning hike looping around Courthouse Butte. Do you know why it is a butte and not a mesa? Because it is taller than it is wide. Here is another, Capitol Butte, shaped roughly like our nation’s capitol: Here in Sedona, we like to name rocks. This is muffin…
Ah, the mighty artichoke! According to legend, it was created by Zeus when he turned a rejected lover into one. (Zeus had a habit of doing this). Upset with the propensity for schools using Native American caricatures as school mascots, the Scottsdale (Arizona) Junior college adopted the artichoke for their mascot. At least their football…
My neighbors are winter visitors, coming here only when their Chicago jobs permit. they miss so much! Today one of their cactuses was in glorious spring bloom: When I visited my own garden, this bloom surprised me. Yesterday it hadn’t been there, and this morning it was: …