Next project and more hiking

 

I found this amazing fabric in all of my favorite colors yesterday at Quilters Market in Tucson. It was my first quilt store visit of the year and the occasion was a sale on everything you could fit in one of their tote bags. Now I have to decide what to do with it.

I pulled out all of my Grunge fabrics that coordinate with it, but that's as far as I've gotten. I poured through my quilt books last night looking for inspiration but only got overwhelmed, so I'll just let things percolate awhile in my head.

In the meantime, there's hiking! We still have some snow on the mountains from last week, but the sunshine has returned and today's high will be 70. I'll be hiking this afternoon.

A few days ago I hiked at the Sweetwater Preserve west of the city in the Tucson Mountains, where I was surrounded by saguaros.

I love how they each have their own personality. The one above seems to be signaling "come on over," while the one below has a boo-boo.

This next one looks like a very tired old person -- how I feel sometimes.

The ones that soar way up into the sky are my favorites. They're tall and strong.

I'm also still looking into senior homes for my parents in case they decide to move to Tucson. This inviting sitting area is in the place I toured last week. The woman who took me around said that in the afternoon, residents congregate there with a bottle of wine and solve the world's problems in 30 minutes. Sounds good to me!

Have a colorful day

First quilt of the year finished

"Joyful Desert" is done and on the wall!

It's my first quilt of the new year.

Even though it's 44 inches wide, it looks small by the large fireplace and tv. But I liked doing it so much that I just might make another, bigger, one to hang in that spot.

My first quilt teacher some 30 years ago emphasized making nice labels for our quilts, so I've always given mine a name and a label. Thanks to her, I don't consider a quilt done until it has a label, a hanging sleeve, and a photo for my records.

The quilt encompasses the colors of the Tucson Sonoran Desert that I've seen since I moved here, but yesterday the desert got a new color: white snow!

The mountains surrounding the city were all dusted by snow, although most of the city just got badly needed rain. Today we're back to sunshine.

Have a colorful day

A change in the weather

Clouds over my favorite vista at Catalina State Park.

Change is in the air. Clouds and cold moved in yesterday, and today we had rain and hail. I didn't take pictures of the rain because it reminded me too much of the perpetually gloomy, grey, rainy Northwest winters that I left behind.

We might get some snow on Tuesday, though, and I'll be sure to get photos if that happens.

View from my dining room window yesterday.

Even Bernie shivered in the cold, cloudy weather. This is at Roper Lake State Park in Arizona.

And this has nothing to do with our weather,

but I think it would be a good idea.

Have a colorful day

Quilting and changes

I pulled out the selfie stick so I could get a picture showing you non-quilters how we wrangle a quilt through our sewing machine. This is just a wall quilt, but imagine handling a king-size quilt!

I'm almost done, but I got sidetracked the last few days.

My dad in Los Angeles suffered two TIAs last week and ended up going to the hospital by ambulance two days in a row. Luckily, my brother in San Diego could drive up in a matter of hours, but it finally made my dad realize that maybe he should look into getting himself and my mom into a senior facility where they could start out living independently -- as they are now at ages 89 in a three-level house -- and also have assisted care available when needed.

So I have begun looking into facilities here in Tucson, starting with this one today. It's beautiful, but because of COVID the common indoor areas can't be used and the pool was empty because we had a rare cloudy, chilly day. I would love it if they moved out here!

And speaking of new beginnings, my blog book for 2020 arrived in the mail. I chose this quote for the front cover: "And suddenly you know it's time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings."

And for the back, a sunset photo from my new home.

And here's something surprising -- look at that little snowflake in the weekly forecast!

Have a colorful day

Colors of the desert

Today I snapped some photos in the neighborhood that reflect the colors in my "Joyful Desert" quilt, which I started quilting this week.

Some people think the desert is just brown and "dead," but it's actually full of colors (some thanks to irrigation, like citrus) that glow in the endless desert sun

Yellow grapefruit from my neighbor's tree,

a spiky green native sotol ...

Pink heat-loving bougainvillea in my back yard ...

Rocks in my front yard ...

Desert-loving yellow flowers ...

Fiery sunsets of yellow and orange ...

Green-blue prickly pear ...

Yellow blooms on a green barrel cactus ...

Oranges against a deep blue sky ...

And there is some brown, too!

Even the chocolate chip cookies that I made last night reflect the lumpy sandy desert floor. They wiped out a week's worth of weight loss in one night of debauchery, which means I'll have to step up the hiking. But they were worth it!

Have a colorful day

Days speed by, and saguaros

The days between blog posts are speeding by for me, unlike the summer when I was stuck inside by the oppressive heat and time dragged. Every day now I'm outside feeling exhilarated from the sunshine and clear desert light.

Today I had to return some books to the Oro Valley Library and I took a photo of the very large tree and book sculpture there. The pages have this poem:

"The more you read

the more you know.

The more you know

the more you grow.

Then after you grow

the stronger your voice

when speaking your mind

or making your choice."

Yesterday I took a picture of another tree while hiking -- a "nurse" tree sheltering a young saguaro. My hiking friend told me about nurse trees, then last night I found an explanation of them in a book about saguaros. 

It says that young saguaros generally need to grow beneath the cover of a "nurse" tree or a shrub. The protectors moderate conditions for the baby plants, decreasing extreme heat, retaining moisture in the soil, buffering against frost, and preventing most trampling by animals. It looks like this palo verde tree is wrapping its around the cactus in its care.

We also found a crested, or "cristate," saguaro, where the growing tip mutates into a fanlike crest. My book says that only one in roughly every 200,000 saguaros develops a crest. Scientists think a genetic factor may be involved, but they're not sure.

Look at how massive they are compared with my friend! My book says they weigh about 80 pounds per foot and generally grow 18-30 feet tall. A lot of the ones on our hike on the El Camino Del Cerro trail  in west Tucson looked at least 30 feet high. They often reach 50-60 feet, and the tallest one recorded was 78 feet.

And those arms give each saguaro its own personality. They don't start to grow arms until they're about 12 feet tall, or 40-80 years old. And they can live up to 200 years. Some never grow arms while others are covered with them.

It was a good hike, with enough stairs to make the climbing easier than scrambling up rocks. The views of Tucson were amazing. It was sunny and in the 50s, with enough of a breeze to make it energizing.

Today, however, I'm being lazy. After running a few errands, I had lunch in the sunshine on the back patio. Next I'll do a little sewing on the desert quilt.

Have a colorful day