Gardens, Desert Museum and Tubac

With Linda at the Tucson Botanical Gardens

My friend Linda from Sumner, WA, is visiting for nine days and we hit the ground running. In the past three days, we've been to the Tucson Botanical Gardens, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and the artsy town of Tubac. Tomorrow will be hiking and the Happy Saguaro, with more adventures in the following days.

Tucson Botanical Gardens

Spring has sprung at the gardens, with color everywhere! Above is a prickly pear and below are poppies against a purple wall.

There are probably dozens of varieties of irises blooming.

Linda means "beautiful" in Spanish, so here is Linda looking beautiful surrounded by spring green.

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

The day we decided to visit the Desert Museum, which is largely outdoors, is the day the rain clouds finally split open and dumped on Tucson after a long drought. 

A coyote posed beside our car on the way in.

The cactuses were exploding with flowers!

A dove was perched on a tree bursting with yellow blooms.

People who say the desert is just brown have never been to Tucson in the spring!

Tubac

The historic village of Tubac, south of Tucson, has become a destination for the arts, with galleries, shops, working artists and restaurants.

This colorful Mexican glass caught our attention. Linda bought a little pitcher to use for coffee cream ...

... and I bought a large Mexican Talavera pottery pitcher for iced tea.

Color, color, color surrounded us in Tubac.

Back home

Last night we decided to cook at home instead of going out. Linda got excited over prepping the tomatoes and mushrooms, which she roasted with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Delicious!

And after dinner there was a double rainbow!

Have a colorful day

Happy Earth Day!!!

Every day is Earth Day in my mind, but since today is officially Earth Day I'm posting some photos of  glorious Mother Earth here in Tucson.

But first, an Apache blessing:

The arms of this saguaro from yesterday's hike seem to be reaching out to cradle us. If we take care of the earth, she will take care of us.

The David Yetman Trail yesterday took us to the remains of a stone house that was built in the 1930s by the city editor of the Arizona Daily Star and his wife. What peaceful views they had.

Signs of spring were all around us as prickly pears and saguaro cactuses burst into bloom.

"Springtime inspires us to believe that, along with the earth, we too might change, release the past, and give birth to new ideas," from Daily OM.

Tile art at Catalina State Park.

Catalina State Park, above, and Sabino Canyon, below, dressed in spring green.

The evening sky pulls a soft comforter over us

and we'll wake to a new beautiful day.

Have a colorful day

The Shady Ladies do Bisbee

Beth, Barb and Tere at the Copper Queen Hotel.

My Shady Ladies hiking group made our first field trip last week -- to historic Bisbee, AZ!

We found a mirror to get us all in the photo.

Even though we didn't wear our wide-brimmed hiking hats (that's why we're the Shady Ladies), we tried some Western hats on in the hat shops. Barb totally rocked this red one. 

Bisbee is a hilly, mile-high old mining town in the Mule Mountains of southern Arizona that's become quite a tourist destination. It's full of historic buildings that have retained their old-Western character.

Bisbee became a mining boom town in the late 1800s, and by the early 1900s it was the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco. Mining tapered off in the 1970s, and the mining community was replaced by artists and other free spirits who have kept the town alive.

Now the old buildings hold art galleries, restaurants, wine shops, vintage emporiums and other tourist attractions.

Window display in a vintage shop.

 

Colorful murals and doorways are mixed in with the historic architecture.

We had an amazing lunch at Le Cornucopia Cafe, but I forgot to get a photo of the food. I had a luscious crustless green chili quiche, Greek salad, and a thick slice of homemade bread with a piece of coconut pie to take home.

And we couldn't leave town without a stop at Pussycat Gelato. Then we hit the road for the 90-mile trip back to Tucson.

Have a colorful day

New life from the ashes

"Breath deeply and courageously, 

and take one step after the other, 

because beyond darkness, 

there is always light." 

--Tamara Levitt 

Today I walked through a part of the Santa Catalina Mountains that was blackened last year by the massive Bighorn Fire that raged through nearly 120,000 acres from June 5 to July 23. Firefighters converged from around the country and fought the fire day and night, then rain finally helped put it out. Hundreds of homes were threatened, but none was lost.

Some of it still looks pretty charred and devastated, but I was heartened to see green leaves and flowers sprouting among the ruins.

New leaves are infiltrating blackened branches ...

... and brave little flowers are popping up in the dry dirt.

This area is along the Birding Loop Trail in Catalina State Park. An old-timer told me that before the fire, this loop was one of the prettiest in the whole park, with shady trees, wildflowers and birds. I could imagine that as I hiked in silence in the early morning coolness. I had the trail almost to myself, except for a jack rabbit and doves.

I have faith that its beauty will return.

Have a colorful day