The desert is blooming at Tohono Chul

 

I wandered around Tohono Chul gardens yesterday in the warm desert sunshine and was amazed at how many plants are blooming! I don't know the names of all of these, but they spanned the rainbow.

Red penstemon?

Yellow brittlebrush

Mexican sunflowers

Butterfly

Tohono Chul has some wonderful water features. In the video above I was at a streamside garden where I  spent awhile in one of the chairs with a nicely reclined back. The adobe wall below features water cascading from one pot to another, making a delightful trickling sound.

Holly agaves

Not all the plants have colorful flowers, but there were plenty of shades and shapes of green. 

Cholla

Prickly pear  cactus (foreground), palo verde tree, saguaro in background and a Tucson Mountain peak on the horizon.

Art is scattered throughout the gardens.

I love this glimpse of sunlight from the palm oasis and the rocking chairs under a shade canopy. Tohono Chul is a wonderful place to relax.

Have a colorful day

"Canyon and Cosmos"

My Flagstaff friend Don Lago just sent me a publisher's copy of his new book, "Canyon and Cosmos: Searching for Human Identity In the Grand Canyon." I'm so excited for him! He's published other books about the Grand Canyon, but I didn't know him then. This one will hit the bookstores in May. If you want to preorder, here's the Amazon link: ref=sr_1_1

Here's Don, who's usually either hiking

or with his nose in a book.

From the book jacket: "A major work of literary nature writing, Canyon and Cosmos takes readers on a journey through the Grand Canyon's deep time, geological forces, and biological evolution, making them very real, personal, and meaningful. Through decades of hiking and kayaking, author Don Lago has gotten to know the canyon intimately. Ranging through world mythologies and Native American spirituality, he explores how humans have sought to understand the universe. He confronts existential questions of whether humans can find enough meaning in the scientific cosmos. Through poetic prose, symbolism, and philosophical insight, he shows how existence itself is our deepest source of life and meaning."

My most recent trip to the Grand Canyon was with Don in 2023. Here are some photos from that trip.

And from my first canyon trip, 40 years ago:

These two pictures are me on very first trip to the canyon, in 1985 when I was 29 years old. I backpacked a couple of weeks down there, immersing myself in the incredible light and bird calls and river. Tourists on the rim only see the amazing colors of the rocks, but when you're down by the river there are lush green hanging gardens and sparkling springs and the clear cascading call of the canyon wren. It's a whole different and more intimate world at the bottom.

My last canyon visit inspired this quilt, above, for the colors of the rocks.

The piece I'm working on today uses those same colors. No surprise, since orange and blue are my favorite pairing! And now it's back to reading Don's book.

Have a grand day

Night visions and water spirits

 

The spirit moved me to stitch outside today! It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day. High of 78. Iced tea was called for.

I worked on two spirit dolls, shown here before I assembled the pieces. I painted and stamped the fabric, applied colored pens and pencils, and then added the stitches.

I did the final mark making with pearl cotton thread and big stitches, loose and random.

This one is called "Night Visions."

The blue one is "Water Spirits." 

They're each about 20 inches long from the top of their head feathers to the tip of the yarn tail (about the length of a human newborn) and about 8 inches wide. I'll take them up to the gallery tomorrow. I like to photograph them against one of my quilts, more interesting than against a plain wall.

When I moved my work inside, my hanging crystal spun sunshine all over the room! I hope you can see it in this video:

You can see from yesterday's sunset where I get my color inspiration!

Have a colorful day

The Feet & Forks do Phoenix

The Feet & Forks had our annual Southwest get-together last week and spent four jam-packed days in Phoenix. What a colorful town! We had our first meal at Barrio Queen, above. Mexican food, of course.

Palms everywhere.

One day we wandered around looking for colorful districts, which is where we found this mural.

That same day we ate at a restaurant called Match that had an adjoining gallery area, above ...

... and some mighty tasty sweet potato fries (our go-to side dish).

After lunch we found a cute little neighborhood of hundred-year-old homes, each one unique in style and color and with mature trees.

Because it was chilly, we spent a lot of time inside museums. Here I am with Nancy in front of a butterfly installation at the Phoenix Art Museum. Below is a dress by Marimekko from 1972 in a fashion exhibit at the museum.

We took a tour of the Wrigley Mansion, which was dripping with opulence and displays of wealth. It's perched high on a hill with spectacular views of the city. It was built as a part-time home for the Wrigley (chewing gum) family, who only used it a few weeks out of the year. Above is the entrance rotunda and below is me in a room with chairs that match my top. Every room had sparkling unique light fixtures. 

 

Before we left, we had drinks in one of the bar areas overlooking the city.

One night we went to an exhibit called Light Bloom at the Desert Botanical Gardens. It featured geometric installations with intricate cut outs that cast multicolored shadows over the garden as the sunlight faded. It was mesmerizing.

My favorite part of the trip was the Musical Instrument Museum, which is about so much more than just instruments. It's about the live music, the performers, the instruments, the costumes and the culture surrounding music from around the world. 

I went back several times to watch Bob Marley perform with the Wailers because he's one of my favorites. Visitors are given headphones that automatically pick up music from the exhibits you are standing by, so you can wander from country music to reggae to jazz to rock without having to adjust anything.

Above is a Native American powwow and below is a mask used in a Buddhist dance by the Mongol people.

MIM's founder, Bob Ulrich (then CEO of Target), was inspired to develop a new kind of museum that would focus on the kind of instruments played every day by people around the world.

The beaded piece above is part of a drum apron for a Santeria goddess performance and was made by an artist from L.A. Below is an intricate textile piece for a Yoruba masquerade in Nigeria.

While I couldn't find a display of my favorite band -- the Grateful Dead, who I've been listening to for 50 years -- I did find a Grateful Dead lunch box in the gift shop! I bought it for Juniper because I'm grooming her to be a Deadhead.

Prince's purple piano was also there, which leads to my purple and red pajamas that I put on so I could dive into this nine-layer chocolate cake in cozy comfort. Yes, I did share it -- a little -- with Nancy, Joyce and Kandi while we played cards on our last night.

On the drive back to Tucson, I spotted this doorway in the little town of Florence where we stopped for a quilt store and lunch. I love the soft aqua wall color.

Have a colorful day