Away from the Arboretum: The Caper

Three Tucson artists play an art prank on an internationally known ceramicist....

Another lovely weekend

Just a few pictures:












See below:
I had the cats out for a supervised outing, and Topher disappeared around the edge of the house. I called him and he wouldn't come (naturally), so I went after him. i heard a sound and thought, "It's too early for cicadas..." and found him face to face with a Western Diamondback Rattler. I really didn't want to kill the snake... and didn't. What does one do with these?

Topher: the Movie

If you're John Edwards and you're reading this, it's not the video I referred to. You'll find that just below. Feel free to watch this too, though!

Opening

Taking a break from patio building and tree planting, Lisa and I actually made it into town for an unusual dinner and art opening....

The Arboretum flowers

Here are three of the blooming highlights of this past weekend:



This is the Blue Palo Verde we call Blue, but he sure looks happy here!





























Mr. Berlandier, the Berlandier Acacia has been blooming for months (through the winter!), but never more enthusiastically than here.




















Though she took a while to get established, our Honeysuckle Vine, Betsy, is going "great guns." We hope to see great things from her this year!

Screw!

Screwby, our screwbean mesquite is leafing out. What a great tree! It's an Arizona native, but not nearly as common as other varieties. I can hardly wait until the beans come out...

Who can resist seed pods like these?

Pix from this weekend

Beautiful and unusual

Baja Fairyduster

And the desert shall bloom....

When we bought our property, there was a huge scraped scar left where the leeching field had been installed. I referred to it as The Leechfield Desert. It looked like this:




Here's how it looked this morning:



Here are a couple details:









Desert Marigold















Berlandier Acacia

Take a hike...

The Arboretum hosted a Walk in the Park on Saturday for friends and participants Joseph Boudreaux, Denise Webb, and Sonya and Ivy Roberts. The Walk started with a short jaunt to Signal Hill to see the petroglyphs, and continued with a short hike along Wild Dog Trail to the Avra Valley Overlook. Although there was a dearth of the hoped-for California poppies, we've never seen the brittlebush more prolific.

Here's what it all looked like:

It's undeniable... spring is here

Taken this morning in Saguaro National Park, on my way into work:


These are California poppies...

Graphic Life

I've discovered this amazing website, Bitstrips.com, where you can create characters and comic strips... and you don't even have to be able to draw! Actually, I wish I could have a little more control, but one can still do a lot.

Here are the first 7 installments of Graphic Life, my new comic strip series....














WARNING: It's VERY addictive!

See more Graphic Life.

Though I appear unfaithful....

The one or two of you who read this blog from time to time, may notice that I've not been posting often, hanging out here less.

If you miss me, check out the Citizen's blogs, Animal Alley and Fresh Paint.

I'll return to writing about the Arboretum when the Arboretum calls....

P.S. I haven't heard a thing from my neighbor-to-be (below).

A Modest Proposal

When Lisa and I bought the Arboretum, the views had a sense of limitlessness and beauty. Sure, our neighbors, the Garlands, lived in their manufactured house, but it was way back there.

Our view of the Tucson Mountains was severely challenged when our backyard neighbors-to-be brought in loads of fill, and built a house on the (now) highest hill in the neighborhood. Like this:
















Lisa and I now have been talking about building a wall seven feet high and 40 feet long... we could build it ourselves for less than $500 and do the best we can. Or we could hire it done for about 3x more money. I was thinking about asking Wade, our new neighbor-to-be, to chip in for half the difference, but I've had another idea.

What if we could get Wade and Leah to buy paint, and I'll use my presently-dormant muralist skills to paint the view as it once was on their house. Something like this:



We could live with that....

Signs of spring

My friend, John Grimwade, wrote that he's now looking for signs of spring. They may well be harder to spot in NYC than here in Tucson, but I've started noticing them here.

Here are a couple pix from the Citizen's courtyard:









































And one from the Arboretum:













And, oh yeah, it's 75°. ;-)

The plants are in the ground

Lisa and I finally found time to plant the new plants that John and Joyce Grimwade gave us!








The Arboretum is now home to a Valentine bush and two varieties of Penstamon. Thanks, Grimwades!