Ahoy, Matey!!

13 Monday Jul 2026

Posted by in Arizona, Uncategorized

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Ah, Arizona! The state where all with a nautical bent hope to end up. Wait a minute, that’s Rhode Island. Or Massachusetts. Or South Carolina. Arizona? Not so much. But there is more water here than our desert climate might suggest.

Wait a minute – let’s back up. The River pictured above is called the Salt River (it’s the pale blue line that runs from Roosevelt Lake through Apache, Canyon and Saguaro Lakes. The darker line is a road, a thrilling, curvy, scary road. Why is it called the Salt River when it’s nowhere near the ocean or any other source of salt water? “H” recounted its origin story for the USC Digital Folklore Archives:

H: This is a story of the Salt River, as told by my Grandfather, a member of the White Mountain Apache Tribe. The Apaches did not call themselves Apache. The called themselves “Dene,” or “people,” [pronounced ‘din-ay’]. The term Apache comes from the Zuni for “Apachu” or “the enemy.” Well the Apaches were raiders and warriors, but over time they settled in Northern Arizona in the Mogollon Rim… and led peaceful lives hunting, fishing and living off the land. They battled the Spaniards, and then ultimately the Calvary. And the government came in and took their land, they acquiesced and lived on the reservation. And the treaty they signed so they could stay on the reservation as long as the grass grew and the rivers ran. One group of Apaches, however, refused to sign the treaties. And they lived in a basin. The Apaches called them “Tonto,” or “fools” for continuing to fight. That basin the “Tonto Basin,” is ultimately where the Salt River is. The creek that was found was named “Tonto Creek,” but ultimately became the Salt River. As the Calvary tried to capture their chief, Del Shay, they were unable to do so. They fought fiercely, they tried to shoot him, and poison him. But ultimately, the Federal Government gave a few silver dollars to one of Del Shay’s nephews, to kill him. And they went into town-camp, took his head, and brought it back to the Calvary. His wife it is said, cried for a hundred days and her tears filled the river of the Tonto Basin and turned it salty. And forevermore, the Tonto Basin river remains salty from her tears with the Calvary capturing her people and killing her husband.

The more recent history of the Salt River is equally dramatic and interesting, especially if you like dams.

This is the magnificent Theodore Roosevelt dam, completed in 1911 and dedicated by Theodore Roosevelt that same year. The dam created the 21,493 acre Roosevelt Lake, cornerstone of the Salt River Project, which supplies water to the Valley of the Sun.

Heading south below the dam you come to Apache Lake, formed by the remote Horse Mesa Dam, which was constructed between 1924 and 1927. It was built to expand the area’s hydroelectric capabilities and uses the river’s drops to generate power.

Canyon Lake, the next lake to the south and central to this post, was formed by the Mormon Flat Dam, built between 1923 and 1926. This dam includes a pumped-storage unit built in 1971. And no, I have no idea what that is.

(photo by By Unknown author – https://www.flickr.com/photos/waterarchives/5650699300/in/photostream, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16260925)

The last lake in the string is Saguaro Lake, which is west of Canyon Lake and accessed by different roads. It was formed by the Stewart Mountain Dam, completed in 1930.

All of these dams were a result of the National Reclamation Act of 1902. Signed by Theodore Roosevelt, this historical law funded irrigation projects in 16 Western states (including Arizona) to turn arid lands into productive agriculture. It established what is now known as the Bureau of Reclamation.

The engineering and construction work needed to bring the water to the Valley is mind-boggling and could fill several books. For those of us living here, the happy result is three lakes we can access. Our tai chi group decided to do just that, and one evening a few weeks ago we boarded the good ship Dolly Steamboat to explore Canyon Lake.

The Dolly Steamboat is a 103′ double-decker ‘paddleboat’ with room for over 100 people.

Such boats have been cruising on Canyon Lake since 1925. The present Dolly dates to 1983, and has been owned and operated by the Grimh family since 1987. The captain narrates the 2 +/- hour cruise peppering his chat with history, nature facts and a bit of stand-up comedy. The lake is beautiful, especially late in the day (and perhaps early in the morning? I wouldn’t know!). Unfortunately, according to me, there is non-stop music piped all over the boat. I would have preferred a calmer ambiance, but then, I’m an old fart. It was the only downside to what was a lovely outing.

You keep thinking you’re about at the end of the lake, but then there’s a curve in the rocks, and more lake appears.

We were lucky enough to book on the only Wednesday scheduled in June. There was a large 50th wedding anniversary party on the lower deck. We and some other fortunate people had the top deck; it was not at all crowded. It’s already hot here in June, and we found the air conditioned cabin most welcome.

The topography is so dramatic – big stone cliffs tumbling right down to the water.

That’s Four Peaks in the cleft of the rocks.

We were lucky to catch glimpses of quite a few of the bighorn sheep that live around the lake. It seems impossible that they can maneuver in that landscape, but they can!

This photo is from the June 3, 2024 issue of Arizona Highways.

I had hoped we would see eagles; I’ve seen them there before, but they weren’t in evidence that evening.

The Dolly Steamship has various kinds of cruises. We were on the evening dinner cruise. I meant to take a photo of the meal, but I was so hungry I forgot. We had tri-tip beef, chicken, salad, rolls, and a really good cheesecake for dessert. There was also iced tea, lemonade, and a pay bar. It was all quite good, especially given that they were feeding so many of us.

Here are a couple more photos of the magnificent scenery:

That’s Weaver’s Needle poking up in the distance.

Alas, all too soon it was over, and time to get back in the car for the hair-raising drive home on the scary road mentioned at the top of this account. The sun had just set, a lovely end to an excellent adventure.

The World’s Most Expensive Tomatoes

14 Thursday May 2026

Posted by in gardening, Uncategorized

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Would you pay $46.80 for a tomato? For a smallish Roma tomato? I, too, would have answered “No,” not so long ago. That was before I wandered into Costco a month or so ago and saw this:

Oh all right, that’s not exactly what I saw. I saw a stack of flat boxes with images like the one above on the outside. It inflamed my imagination. Tomatoes! Fresh, homegrown tomatoes like we had in Connecticut and later in Italy. Big, succulent, sweet, juicy tomatoes. Caprese salad! BLTs!! Yay!!! So I humped one of the big boxes into my cart and brought it home.

I love to assemble things – some have called me the Queen of Ikea – and this planter went together like a dream (Costco sold it for considerably less, just in case you think I’ve completely lost my mind). All the pieces were there and they all fit together exactly as they should. So far, a total win. There followed an online order for potting soil (so many choices!) so I wouldn’t have to carry the heavy bags to the car; all that was lacking was plants. Speedy went off to… somewhere… and returned with 3 Big Boy plants, 3 Roma plants and a pepper plant. When I inquired what type of pepper it is, he replied, ‘hot,’ which is good – our favorite kind.

It was loads of fun to assemble everything and to plant our garden. The above item has a nifty watering system. There is a plastic reservoir – you can just see its black plastic bottom under the cedar box in the photo above – and there is a funnel that sticks up above the dirt and delivers added water to the reservoir below. A cheerful plastic flower floats in the funnel, when the flower sinks, it’s time to add more water.

Then began the hard part – waiting. I bought a pound of bacon in anticipation of delicious BLTs in the not-too-distant future. Amazingly, everything went as we hoped. The plants all survived, grew and flowered. Little tomatoes formed and became larger tomatoes, and began to blush. Oh boy.

Here’s something I didn’t know, because it was never a problem in our former gardens. Birds like to peck almost-ripe tomatoes, and once they do, the tomato is pretty much ruined. That happened. I left the victim on the bush:

ugh. But there’s a solution to every problem, right? This one was a net house to keep the birds off the rest of our crop.

You can rest assured that if there’s a gardening mistake to be made, I will make it. This net is exactly what I wanted, but only 5′ tall. I am 5′ 7″ tall, so I have to crouch to get into the little house, and stay crouched while inside. Which is not the end of the world, but not ideal. Why did I not get a taller one, you ask? They were all too long for the space I had designated for the garden. Nonetheless, our precious crop was now safe from birds.

Have you ever heard of the tomato hornworm? I had not, but made the acquaintance of one the day after assembling and installing the net house over our garden. These critters (they are kind of appealing in a disturbing way, aren’t they?) come out of the soil, so thank you bags of soil. I’m glad I got only one, because one worm can denude an entire plant in just one night. That’s what happened to this plant:

It doesn’t look so awful here, but it was pretty shocking to go out in the morning to admire our unpecked fruit and find one of the plants leafless on the top half. It didn’t take long to find and remove the culprit – I put him, and his stem and some leaves, under a bush. I think a bird ate him, although he can move at 9 mph so maybe he got a whiff of someone else’s tomato plant and headed in that direction. What would he have become?

A five-spotted hawkmoth, that’s what. You can see where he gets his name. Evidently he is an important pollinator, sometimes mistaken for a hummingbird due to his large size (2-4″). I don’t care; he can’t have our tomatoes.

Then things kind of stalled while we waited for the remaining 20 tomatoes to mature (11 Roma, 9 Big Boys, of which 3 are medium Boys and 6 are very small Boys). We have waited in vain for even one pepper, in spite of numerous flowers. The tomatoes have produced more flowers, too, but none of those have made fruit. Turns out tomatoes are a bit fussy. To pollinate successfully they prefer temperatures at 60-75 F at night, and 60-90 F during the day. Our day temperatures are already higher than that.

The University of Arizona Extension Service recommends transplanting tomatoes from February-April. We were just at the tail end of that range, which probably affected our production. Peppers are on the same schedule and, like tomatoes, are in the nightshade family, so I haven’t a clue why we haven’t gotten a single one. Maybe the plant is lonely? I got wondering if pollinators could get into the garden with the netting in place, so every morning I open up the side of the netting away from where the birds gather. I also take a soft paintbrush and, making appropriate buzzing noises, go from flower to flower in an effort to assist pollination. No joy.

Like pretty much everything else, having a garden in Arizona is a completely different practice than having one in New England or Italy, those relatively humid, cool places. The schedule is different and the plants require more attention. It’s a challenge, but a fun one. I suspect planting cherry-sized tomatoes (next year! The gardener’s annual cry!) will be more successful.

So why do I think our tomatoes are so expensive, and are they worth it? I took the cost of the planter box, the dirt, the plants and the netting and divided it by the 5 tomatoes we have harvested thus far. If the other 20 survive and we can eat them, that will cut down the price per tomato by quite a bit. It’s still a better deal to buy them at the grocery store, but not nearly as much fun. To be honest, the taste has not been noteworthy, but store-bought have no flavor at all, so we are incrementally ahead, and yes, at the end of the day they are worth every penny.

Growing tomatoes in Italy:

Growing tomatoes in Arizona

It all depends on how you look at it…

01 Friday May 2026

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Friends who have followed this blog for many years will have noticed that there are ever fewer posts. There’s a reason for that: when we moved back to the States from Rapallo I thought, who would want to read about day-to-day life in Arizona? Rapallo? Now THAT was interesting. Gold Canyon? Not so much.

But I’ve changed my mind. There’s a woman in southwest Virginia who writes a blog every single day. Her name is Bonnie K Hunter, and her blog is primarily about quilting, a craft that has piqued my interest of late. She and her husband own a Victorian house which they have lovingly refurbished and turned into a retreat inn for quilting groups. But she talks about so many things other than quilting: her family, her cats, her neighborhood, her cats, the weather, the wild ponies, the cats. Did I mention she has cats?

This afternoon I took a lovely short walk in the wash behind our house, and I got thinking about Bonnie’s blog and how I look forward to reading it every day, less for the quilts (though they are complex and fun) than for a peek into Bonnie’s life in extremely rural Virginia. It made me think, one doesn’t have to be living in an exotic locale or to travel hither and yon to find things worth looking at and worth sharing, even if they are quotidian (lovely word, that).

That insight leads me to post today. Will I rededicate myself to my once-loved and long-neglected blog? I can’t promise that, but I do know that sharing something that has called to me gives it added value. With that as a background, here are some photos from today’s walk.

The walk through the wash gets a lot of traffic. Some thoughtful person, or perhaps the homeowners’ association, put a welcoming bench under the boughs of this ancient tree. It may be an ironwood, but I’m not sure of that identification. Birds congregate in and around the wash. The bench is an excellent spot for watching and listening. The painted rocks at the foot of the bench read “For all to enjoy.”

Spring comes early to the Sonoran Desert, and it has been especially lovely this year. The palo verde and ironwood have finished blooming, but the prickly pear cactuses are really showing off. This arc of flowers reminds me of a tiara, worn by your particularly prickly great aunt.

There are so many rabbits around here. Their population ebbs and flows depending on where the coyotes are prowling. We’ll have tons of rabbits for a while, then we’ll hear a lot of coyote song, then there are fewer rabbits: the good old circle of life. It’s no wonder they are very shy. This fellow looks more like a shadow than an animal.

Can you find the female cardinal. She’s hiding in plain sight. (It’s a poor photo, for which apologies.) I found her because she just had to sing.

Evening is the best for taking cactus photos – their spines do something magical in the long light. (It may be that early morning is equally fine, but I can’t speak to that.) This healthy hedgehog made me think of a cathedral:

Well, there it is, the first post in about a year. I’m as rusty as can be, both in writing and taking photos. Perhaps posting a little more frequently will improve the quality. Have you seen similar photos here before? You have! But nothing ever looks exactly the same twice, and it never hurts to revisit beauty. Meanwhile, I leave you with a prickly pear flower, so complex, so beautiful, so fleeting.

A Superior Visit

20 Sunday Jul 2025

Posted by in Arizona, Art in Arizona, Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Murals, Public Art, Superior Arizona, Uncategorized

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Not long ago Hiking Buddy and I returned to Boyce Thompson Arboretum and the little town of Superior. We got off to an early start because these days it gets very hot very fast. In spite of the climbing mercury, we enjoyed a very pleasant visit to BTA, walking the main loop (fear-o-snakes kept us off the more rugged paths) and visiting the Wallace Collection. This extraordinary collection of over 5,800 plants and trees, originally situated in Scottsdale, began its move to BTA in cars, trucks and semis in late 2015. It was a mammoth undertaking; many of the plants and trees were well established and old, which means moving them was risky and tricky. Well over 90% of the specimens survived the 75 mile journey, a remarkable achievement. Hiking Bud and I had visited the collection shortly after the new 13-acre garden was opened; it was… well, new-seeming. The plants had not yet settled, the shade was spotty. To be blunt it was underwhelming. What a change a few years has made. The new garden is a delight, tempting trails lead hither and yon, signage is okay, and the whole garden has a welcoming feel. The plants are well-established and have filled in the former gaps. The Wallace Collection trails are in blue on the lower left of this map of the entire Arboretum.

After the exertions of our walk, we headed into one of our favorite places, Superior. One of the delights of Superior is driving around and admiring the murals painted on the buildings. The last time we visited Superior we were there to take a hike, and didn’t spend much time downtown. The last time we really looked at the buildings together was 2016, when we took a Superior House Tour, so we were due for a good bounce and gawk.

The Tucson Mural Project visited Superior in 2020 so their photos are a bit out of date. The murals change from time to time – weather takes a terrific toll on paint in the desert, new folks come along with a need to express themselves. It means that a repeat visit to this little town will always have something new to offer.

The food bank is covered with cheerful veggies:
I particularly like this painting, which was new to me. A quote from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, it’s a great reminder for those of us on a Superior amble.
We’d not seen this very large mural, an homage to the famous Southwestern painter Frida Kahlo.
Hiking Buddy once considered buying a pied-a-terre in Superior. I don’t know if this is an ad for a realtor (there are many serving Superior) or if it’s something else. I’m guessing realtor. Sold! BANG!
This whimsical and faintly disturbing mural fascinates me because I have no idea what it’s about, other than that F=ma is Newton’s second law of motion (Force = mass X acceleration). I don’t know what the other formula is – if you do, can you tell me in comments?

Back in the day we used to enjoy stopping at the Sunflower Cafe, which closed sometime around Covid. We were so happy to see that a new, charming restaurant/bar/cafe has taken its place, Bella’s. Being Italian in decor and flavor, it spoke to me right away.

An appealing menu, clean decor, good food and a well-stocked bar – what’s not to like? (photo from Yelp)

Hiking Buddy had a minimal breakfast before our exertions, so she had a real breakfast. I had had a hearty breakfast, so opted for ‘only’ a crème brûlée, from which, I was assured, all the calories had been removed.

HB’s fresh spinach omelette (made from real eggs, if you please), some kind of potato fry and something else. She ate every last scrap, even the ketchup, and declared it all delicious.
This was the best crème brûlée I ever had in my whole life. The custard was cool and creamy with just the right amount of firmness, the sugar caramel crust was warm and beautifully brittle, and spoke words of love to the custard beneath. I’m so glad they took out the calories!

We had further adventures awaiting us on our jaunt (*antique malls*!) so it was time to toddle off. As we left, though, we paused to admire and take a photo of one of our very favorite Superior murals, painted by our dear buddy Anne Coe.

Anne is a quintessential Western painter (4-th generation Arizonian). Her work is both serious and whimsical. Take a look at her link to see more of her paintings.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum is well-known and much visited. Superior is arguably not as well known, but is more than worth the time, not only for the charming downtown and murals, but for the nearby hiking trails. Put it on your list of places to visit, you won’t regret it.

Fun at the Ranch Market

17 Tuesday Jun 2025

Posted by in Food, Mexican food, Uncategorized

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It’s been many years since the Captain and I visited this terrific market on Southern and Stapley in Mesa, which specializes in Mexican foods and products. The original Los Altos market chain of seven markets was acquired by Cardenas in 2017, which I think must account for the lighter, brighter and yes, cleaner, store Demonstration Buddy and I found yesterday, and the fact that the sign no longer says Los Altos Ranch Market. We will always think of it as Los Altos, though.

We stopped by the market for a look-see and for a delicious taco lunch. It definitely all looked a lot fresher and tidier than the last time Cappy and I dropped by. It differs from our usual markets in oh so many ways. For instance, you want dried peppers? Take a look at this whole wall of different kinds of peppers!

You need some herbs and spices for taco night that you might not find in your regular grocery? Check out this wall:

Not only do you get a fair amount of what you’re buying, the prices are more reasonable than the McCormick bottles you’ll find in the big chain store.

Some of the items are things we know well with their names in Spanish – cinnamon sticks, little packets of tomato flavored pasta (?!), cardamom seeds; but some are things we don’t recognize, either by sight or name. Fun!

We enjoyed seeing meat that was displayed without being all packed up on plastic trays with plastic wrap. And where else are you going to find chicken feet (Patas de pollo)? (Well, probably at Lee Lee, but that’s for another post sometime.)

We were kind of amused by the fish display. Demo Buddy has eaten these upside down fish in Mexico and reports they are bony, oily, and are neither delicious nor much fun to eat. But someone sure must like them – or knows how to prepare them better than the person who cooked them for DB. Poor guys look like they’re trying to hide. Too late! Too late!

Please excuse the poor quality of this greatly enlarged photo below which I stole from the interwebs and which shows the cafeteria-style lunch counter at Los Altos. Here you can get fresh-made juices and all manner of Mexican prepared food. We opted for tacos, and were delighted to see our tortillas plucked off a board and cooked to order, then made with our requested filling (chicken, please, and for toppings: todo!). We couldn’t resist sides of refried beans (yum), fried bananas, and guac (note to chef: way too salty, have brought home to add more avocados and some sour cream). Sitting at the long picnic tables and dining with strangers is loads of fun, as is seeing what other people are eating – sometimes recognizable, sometimes not. It was the perfect luncheon for hot and weary ladies of a certain age.

We were able to resist the bakery section – seen below in a 2021 photo from Yelp (thank you, other photographer). We both have always found the colors and the amount of sugar in these baked goods a bit alarming. We are so boring.

There are all the usual supermarket items in the aisles, and loads of fresh fruits and veggies. You could certainly do all shopping here and be more than happy. I haven’t included photos of these aisles because, well, supermarket aisles. meh. The fruits and veggies are beautifully displayed; here’s a photo from the store’s website.

I’ve saved the most fun for last. Los Altos has what can only be described as a Rube Goldberg tortilla maker, that was feverishly pounding out corn tortillas as we watched. It goes so quickly it takes three people to handle the output. Just after making the video you can see here, one of the gents waved us over and gave us hot-off-the-press tortillas. Very delicious.

If you have a chance, check out the Cardenas/Los Altos Ranch Markets. There are nine locations, (only the one I’ve written about here is in the East Valley; the rest are to the West). You won’t be disappointed.

The MAC

22 Tuesday Apr 2025

Posted by in Art in Arizona, Arts and crafts, Uncategorized

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Every month or two a small group of friends meets to eat mid-day. Yes! We are the Ladies Who Lunch, and we offer no apologies.

Recently we have taken ourselves to the Mesa Arts Center for a look at the exhibits in the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum (we prefer to think of it as ‘the MAC’ rather than the MCAM; our way rolls more happily off the tongue). As museums go it’s small, intimate even, with just a few exhibit rooms. The shows lean towards local and regional artists, though the Museum casts a wide net when seeking exhibitors. What amazes me every time I go is how many very talented artists there are, producing interesting and stimulating pieces, year in, year out.

A couple of weeks ago we caught the end of the 46th Annual Contemporary Craft exhibit. These are not crafts the way you see them at the local Craft Fair, these are more along the lines of the Arts part of Arts and Crafts. We did not see a single gourd bird-feeder or framed photo of the Superstitions (no shade on gourd art, that’s just not what the MAC exhibits). Instead we found glass, fabric and ceramic pieces that demanded attention and, if you’ll excuse some artsy-fartsy talk, dialog with the viewer. Here, in no particular order is some of what we saw. If I’ve erred on titles, I apologize in advance to the artists.

This piece cracked me up – at first I thought it was a bunch of bananas, but no. It is 81 porcelain cactuses, suspended from the ceiling over a representation of ground. Titled What Comes After, most of the cactuses are illuminated by LED lights. It was made by Tucson artist Joseph Sivilli in 2024.

Roisan Rubio’s Breaking the Social Contract, 2022 was another quite large installation:

The artist, in his statement, said, “This installation reflects on the broken social contract between society and its instututions, focusing on the often overlooked epidemic of violence within Black communities. Each ceramic bullet represents a life lost to violence in a single year in cities like Detroit, St. Louis or Baltimore.” This work made me feel sad and helpless.

Heidi Dauphin used paper lists, thread, watercolor and fabric in Circle Squares with Lists, 2023.

I make my lists on my phone now. How much more fun it would be to stitch up a quilt of lists before heading out to the grocery store! How envious the other shoppers would be.

Jim S. Smoote II from Chicago showed several works in quilted textiles. Damon portrays a ‘typical young man,’ through painting and traditional quilting techniques.

I wish I could quilt so well! The above is from another of his quilted and appliqued works:

Richard Ansaldi, from Tucson, used clay and horse hair rope to make Roping Skills and Pot Sherds Beneath the Fabled Red “Sipapu,” 2023. And no, I don’t understand the title fully. A sipapu is a small hole or indentation in the floor of a kiva. Pueblo mythology (Hopi, Zuni, Acuma) suggests that people first emerged onto earth from the sipapu.

John Randall Nelson had us all chuckling again with his Bellhop to Bishop, 2024:

What are these beings? The are, “manifestations of the Fool and Trickster figures of deep-rooted mythos.” As the artist statement and the printing on one of the figures suggests, “The artist sees himself in them and winces with recognition.” This piece won the 2025 Juror’s Award.

Two of the smaller pieces captured my heart the moment I saw them. Steve Hagan’s pithily titled Lime Wedge, 2024 is a glass creation that simultaneously made my mouth water and my gullet crave a margherita. How does a glassmaker achieve such detail??

I’ve saved my favorite of the exhibit for last. I can’t tell you exactly why I like it so much, perhaps because of its simplicity. It is made of handwoven linen, cochineal dye, cactus spikes and a found object. It is called 31 over 110, 2023, and refers to the summer of 2023 when those of us in the Valley survived 31 days with temperatures exceeding 110 F, a result of the climate change that is affecting the entire planet. As Ann Morton, the artist, cheerfully concludes, ” Our days are numbered.”

There were many, many more objects in this excellent juried exhibit; in fact, I have tons more photos on my phone of pieces that appealed to me, but I fear your patience may be wearing thin.

Yes, these pieces were made of materials that are frequently associated with the more homely ‘crafts,’ but they transcend merely pleasing objects. They invited us to engage with them, to think about what they represent, and to react, viscerally and intellectually. It was a delightful exhibit in the true sense of the word, and I came away invigorated and… delighted. Of course it didn’t hurt that I was with congenial friends and that lunch awaited, just around the corner.

Welcome Tai Chi

11 Friday Apr 2025

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This post has a very specific audience – the members of my tai chi class.

Welcome, y’all. You will find a lot of broken links here – I’ve much tidying up to do on this long-neglected blog. But since you expressed interest in this, I’ll get cracking.

Meanwhile – let’s work on the 24 forms, and if you need some inspiration, here it is:

Bingo Fun for Ferals

25 Wednesday Sep 2024

Posted by in Cats, Uncategorized

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Recently a couple of friends and I went to a fund-raiser for our friend Kathy Lynch’s project: Fearless Feral Feeders. The name tells part of the story, but it doesn’t say it all – in addition to feeding feral cats in the Mesa, Arizona, area, Kathy and her doughty volunteers operate a trap-neuter-release program. For those unfamiliar with this idea, trap–neuter–release is a method that attempts to manage populations of feral cats by live-trapping them, having them neutered, ear-tipped for identification, and, if possible, vaccinated, then releasing them back into the outdoors to live their lives as best and as long as they can without procreating and adding to the feral cat problem.

The fund-raiser was a big Bingo game, and it was loads of fun. Held in an enormous VFW hall, we were there with 130 others folks and a dozen or so volunteers.

As you might guess from the above photo, supper was served: pulled pork bbq sandwiches, loads of fresh fruit, several delicious salads and, my downfall, cakes (yes, plural, one in the shape of a cat).

Also included in the ticket price was a little brown bag with 10 bingo game sheets, a pen, three red tickets, a pen, 3 crayons and a drinks chit.

It was a bit complicated for those of us who had not participated in such an event previously. When we arrived we were given the opportunity to buy two kinds of tickets – white raffle tickets for tables with about 30 items on them (I bought 15 of these tickets). Raffle items were things like cat beds, cat food, cat games and many other general interest things, including a few items for dogs that snuck in when the cats were napping. Blue tickets for a 50-50 drawing were also on offer (50% of proceeds to the winner, 50% to Fearless; I bought 0 of these). The red tickets (see brown bag above) were for items on what Kathy called ‘garage sale items.’ Kathy interspersed drawings for the raffle items and the garage sale items between the bingo games; the 50-50 drawing was at the end of the event. In addition there was a table with a silent auction for more exciting items, including round trip air tickets on Southwest to anywhere in the U.S. Last but not least there were several tables of prizes for people who won the actual bingo games. If you understand all that you’ve picked it up quicker than I did the evening of the event.

Not long after we arrived bingo-caller extraordinaire Kathy got the games rolling.

She did a great job calling the numbers and her volunteers did a great job checking sheets and running prizes to winners; my friends and I did a less good job filling out our bingo sheets, though I must say we got better at it as the evening progressed. Kathy was quite funny as she called the numbers, making rhymes and mentioning people she recognized by name.

One of the people she paused to introduce to us all was Sterling Davis, otherwise known to many of the attendees as The Trap King. I’m sad that I’d never heard of him because he has a remarkable calling: he drives all around the country with his three cats in a van educating about and promoting TNR activities. You can see photos of some of his activities here. He clearly has a great time doing what he does, and he does so much good. I’ll be following his adventures from now on (and of course I think you should too).

Back to the game! The above shows the table of an inexperienced but well-organized bingo player – me. The water bottle pretty much says it all.

So, I hear you ask, did you clean up with prizes? Idid! Towards the end I won a bingo, and chose a cat scratching post from the appropriate table. A little later one of the numbers on my red tickets was called, and I chose two adorable leather-covered elephant figures from India (a bank and a candle-holder), so I left the event well-satisfied. My friends did not win anything, but like me they were satisfied with the evening because it was in support of something we all believe in.

Not everyone agrees with us, however. The American Bird Conservancy says this about TNR: “Not only is this systematic abandonment inhumane to the cats, it perpetuates numerous problems such as wildlife predation, transmission of disease, and property destruction.” I understand where they’re coming from – bird-watching is another of my favorite hobbies, and feral cats are a terrible problem for birds. But the cats have already been inhumanely abandoned, if not born to a feral, and if we don’t neuter the adults, the problem will continue to grow exponentially. The unfixed ferals will still be preyed upon and will still be prone to disease. But after TNR they won’t be reproducing. It is nigh on impossible to domesticate a young or adult feral cat, so trap-neuter-rehome is not an option; there’s a better chance of domesticating feral kittens. Every shelter in the country spends a fair amount of time and money doing just that. The average life expectancy for a feral cat, neutered or not, is about 5 years. A queen can have three or four litters a year with up to 5 or 6 kittens a litter. You do the math – even if only half the kittens survive, one queen will increase feral population by a lot.

The best solution would be no feral cats at all. But (to mix metaphors horribly) that horse has left the stable. The problem exists. TNR, while not a complete solution, helps way more than doing nothing.

I shall now leave my soapbox and show you the wonderful items I won at the Bingo fund-raiser:

I know you are consumed with envy, but perhaps there will be a bingo game near you soon, and you, too, can win valuable prizes.

Texas Falls – no, not that Texas…

03 Saturday Aug 2024

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This Texas Falls is in the great state of Vermont, near the town of Hancock, a speck with a population of almost 350. To the great state of Texas, Hancock and its river and falls would be a mote of dust to be brushed off the panhandle. To a trio of intrepid ladies of a certain age, it was the scene of a splendid picnic and ‘easy’ hike through tree roots and mud.

Here’s some back ground on the area, which is part of the Green Mountain National Forest, for those of you who wish to know how the Falls were formed and what they are made of (besides water). It includes a map of the 1-mile trail we took which is variously described as ‘easy’ and ‘moderately challenging.’ The latter description was apt for us, what with the aforementioned tree roots and mud, and all our artificial bits and pieces.

Every good hike includes food, and we girded our loins for the test with a delightful picnic in the Forest Service-provided pavilion where we were joined by a bold little squirrel who, it turned out, was a fool for my stump-served bread crusts.

Time to head out! Ours was not a 30-minute hike; it was more like an hour and a half. Part of our slow time was due to everyone having to wait while I took a million photos. Coming from the part of the world where a forest looks like this:

Saguaro National Park: photo credit: National Geographic

the vivid green and the density of over- and undergrowth required many a stop to exclaim and to record. (Excuse odd typeface here, heh heh).

This trail is not the groomed path of more accessible parks.

Just look at all those roots waiting to trip the unwary! As well there was an elevation change of about 200′, and plenty of mud after some recent rains. Footing was sometimes a bit tricky.

In a woo-woo encounter we met a young woman who also graduated from our school, though many years after we did. She was accompanied by a very fine hiking dog.

Here are some of the photos I took, in no particular order:

Did woodpeckers do all this? It reminded me of the granary trees of acorn woodpeckers. Maybe this initially looked like a good storeroom, but the birds changed their minds.

Did I mention the roots? These hills are made of granite. In places the tree roots cannot go down, so they crawl along the surface of the ground.

Several times we came across mushrooms – some alarming orange ones, a stale shelf musroom, and one that appeared to have exploded.

We decided not to sample any of them.l

This being a loop trail one could start out walking along the stream taking the trail counterclockwise, or head northwest in a clockwise circuit. Had we gone along the stream we would have seen the falls almost immediately, might have said, ‘oh, that’s nice,’ might have said, ‘okay, let’s go home now.’ Had we done that we would have missed all the interest of the trail, and that would have been a pity. Tired as we were, though, it was not a disappointment to descend to the river bed and see, at last, the falls in all their Vermont-sized glory.

Looks like the original bridge and stairs leading up the hillside washed out at some point. That’s not a surprise. Though the falls may look modest, there’s a fair amount of water moving through the gorge, enough to have carved a gorge in the first place. Imagine what it would look like after a big storm! Sadly, Vermont has had too many big storms in recent years, this last weekend being only the most recent.

We were fortunate to have fine weather for out little mini-hike, and grateful to the Forest Service for maintaining this delightful trail.

A touch of Greece in Florence

15 Wednesday May 2024

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No, we’re not in Italy again, sad to say. Instead Greece came to us in the form of St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery, located in Florence, Arizona.

Friends had visited there a year or two earlier and thought we would enjoy seeing it, which we did. Disclaimer: I know pretty much nothing about the Greek Orthodox Church, other than having attended a Greek wedding once about 25 years ago, so if some of what I write sounds ignorant, well, it’s because I am! ( I don’t remember a lot about the wedding, but I remember a flowery bower and the bride and groom’s hands being lightly bound with ribbons several times. It was great.)

Six monks arrived in Florence, Arizona, in the summer of 1995. Florence is a town of some 25,000 people with a sweet downtown. The monastery, however, is nowhere near the downtown. It is in the back of beyond, popping out of the desert like a decoration on top of a flat cake. These first six arrivals began the work of building, which continues to this day. There are now over fifty monks and novices in residence. In addition to the main church, dedicated to St. Anthony and St. Nectarios the Wonderworker (one of your newer saints), there are chapels for Prophet Elijah, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Seraphim of Sarov, Saint Demetrios of Thessalonica, Saint George the Great Martyr, Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Panteleimon the Healer. Heaven knows we can use all the Wonderworkers we can get with the world in the state it’s in. There are eleven St. Anthonys, and I’m not sure which one is venerated in Florence, but St. Anthony of Padua seems to be most often referred to.

In addition to all the chapels, the monastery encompasses a vegetable garden, a small vinyard, citrus orchards and an olive grove. Highly designed gardens, pathways, gazebos and Spanish fountains lend a botanical garden air to the whole enterprise.

You want to visit this monastery if you are a fan of ornate decoration, woodworking, bright colors, mosaics and/or the Greek Orthodox Church.

The monastery sits on a flat plain:

This is the site of the olive orchard. We were not sure if it has been removed or just really pruned.

There is intricate woodwork throughout the chapels, both in the building itself and in the altars and furnishings:

Let nothing be unembellished!

Although outer altars were visible to visitors, the interior altars were all hidden behind purple cloth.

Every saint gets at least one portrait in mosaic.

The monks have truly made an oasis in the desert.

I’ve made an album with far too many photographs and a couple of short videos that you can look at here.

Our visit was interesting, though visually exhausting. Dress codes always annoy me, especially ones with an unspoken assumption of the devious and wicked nature of women, and the inability of men to resist us. We were required to wear long skirts, long-sleeved blouses and headscarves. On the other hand, all the monks were draped head to toe in heavy black fabric that looked exceedingly warm. Their house, their rules, so of course we willingly complied; and they are very generous to open their grounds and chapels to visitors, so I shouldn’t complain.

It all felt too bright and too new to me during our time there. Afterwards, though, I thought – maybe visitors in the year 2424 will find it all as charming as we find the chapels in the other Florence, the one in Italy. They were new and bright once upon a time.

You too can visit the monastery if you’re in the Phoenix/Tucson/Florence area. They welcome guests from 10:30 to 2:30 every day, though it’s best to check their website and make sure they are open.