Month: July 2016

While we haven’t completely bonded with the intense heat (dry though it is), we are enjoying the mountain views and desert flora and fauna.  Just thought we’d share a few of our most recent photos while we continue to wait for the promised monsoons.

In light of the recent US and world events, I have to start with the photo below.  This feels like it’s become the half-staff year.

Bob and I had a great visit to the Saguaro National Park — western division this past week.  Our visit started with a film in the lovely visitor’s center on the interdependence of the desert plants and animals on each other in order to survive.  There seemed to be a message there for all of us . . .

We continue to be impressed with the size and longevity of the saguaro (pronounced Sa Wah Ro) cactus that grows so prominently in the Sonoran dessert.

It’s amazing that these often giant plants begin as a seed the size of a pinhead and grow so slowly that they may be only 12 inches tall after 15 years!  A 7 foot saguaro may be about 50 years old, and if it has sprouted “arms” it may be at least 75 years old.  Saguaros that live 150 years or more may be over 50 feet tall and weigh more than 16,000 pounds!

Other plants that we finally learned the names for at the park are the Ocotillo, the Cholla cactus, and the Palo Verde tree which is identified by its green trunk.

We have seen some beautiful flowers as well here, but we have learned that we need to get a photo of them right away as the blooms don’t last very long.  Here are two plants in bloom right in “our” yard.

There are definitely some agricultural areas around here as well.  This weekend we went to Willcox, AZ to an orchard to pick peaches and then stopped into one of the handful of wineries near that town.

Finally, we have had some interesting animal sightings.  I saw my first bear on a hike late last week.  Luckily, I saw it before it saw me, so I had time to figure out what to do since it was alongside the trail in the direction that I needed to go.  I finally decided to move into its line of sight and move very slowly looking as big and as confident as possible.  It decided I wasn’t that interesting, as it headed off.  Of course, then, I wished I had gotten a photo.  Still, glad to be alive to have that regret.  Bob captured some other fun animals that we saw this week —

Neighborhood sightings include lots of birds and lizards, roadrunners, rabbits, Gambel Quail, and some fairly sizable coyotes.  Also, and one long snake that I stepped over as I was walking one of the dogs before realizing what it was!  Pretty exciting stuff for city dwellers!

When we aren’t playing with our new favorite M & Ms (“our dogs” — Molly and Maya), we have been doing some desert and mountain hikes to get up close and personal with the area.

We did two hikes recently in the eastern portion of the Saguaro National Park and a mountain hike on Mount Lemmon.  Both areas are near Tucson.  We paid $10 to go into the Saguaro National Park for our first hike.  However, the fee was good for a week, so we had to go back for a second hike.  The hike on Mount Lemmon is part of the Coronado National Forest, and there was no fee to hike there.

The following are some snaps from our hike on the Douglas Springs Trail in the Saguaro National Park.  This was a great hike through a cactus “forest” to a waterless springs which made for a good picnic break.

A few days later we hit the Deer Valley Loop trail in the same park.  This ended up being a bit of a sandy hike as the trails had us walking through dry washes.

Yesterday we hiked the Butterfly Trail on Mount Lemmon.  We did not see any butterflies, but along with the great mountain views and pine trees we did see a wild turkey and a big, black snake (not photographed, just happy not to have stepped on it!), and a large fungus.

So, there is volunteering and there is “volunteering.”  Beth has been volunteering one day a week at the local library.  This makes Beth a happy book nerd.  Last week, Bob and I “volunteered” at a Tucson distillery to help them bottle and package their smoky whisky.  Unlike in Scotland where they use peat to create the smokiness in their whiskies, this company uses mesquite.  They also make an unsmoked variety.  Bob and I were part of a five person crew that worked the afternoon shift 11-3).  For our help, we received a free lunch and a 750 ml bottle each of one of their whiskies.  The owner and staff were really nice, and we learned a bit more about Tucsan and the bottling process — just ask us about those shrink-wrapped necks the next time you see us.