Flashback Friday

Today I'm flashing back to a place we all loved: our house in Shorewood. On December 2, 2006, we got hit with an early snowfall. With the blue sky behind the house and all that white snow, the aftermath was really pretty.

Tucson in June

Here are some pictures I took in Tucson in the first two weeks of June. I don't think they need captions so I'll let them speak for themselves.

I realize I said I'd let the pictures speak for themselves, but just so you know, that's a hummingbird.

This Ice Was Nice

We've had cold morning temperatures in Tucson this week. On Monday it snowed! And we got some interesting ice on Tuesday too. 

Mary has been on a hot streak with her knitting. These days she's working on a small blanket. Nothing can stop her!

And then there's Lloyd. Even though the Packers' season is over, he's still getting mileage out of his snuggly suit. In just a few months he'll have a cousin, and this week Peter and Jessa found out it's going to be a girl. We are all very excited!
 
 

January Grab Bag

I've got a few unrelated pictures for this post. First, here's Peter sporting one of his Grandpa Harrison's hats. Both Brad's dad and my dad liked to wear hats. Since they've passed away, it's been heartwarming to see their grandkids wearing their grandpa's hats.

Lately the Tucson sunrises have been pretty spectacular. Here's one from the other day.

Mary's continuing to knit. Her latest project is this dishcloth.

And last but not least, lest Lloyd grow up thinking that he's the head honcho, Sirius is here to remind him that the dog is the big brother and Lloyd is the little brother.

 

Airplane Views

My favorite seat is the window seat and I like to take pictures. So after flying into four picturesque cities I have some photos to share. This, of course, is downtown Chicago upon our approach to Midway Airport. (Our next city after Chicago was Denver, but going in and out there weren't picture-taking conditions.)

We were delayed leaving Denver but it made for a practically constant sunset the entire way to Seattle. This is Mount Rainier.

It was the strangest thing. Shortly after I took the above picture the plane changed position and really Mount Rainier brightened up. 

We departed Seattle on a clear morning. That's the Murrow Bridge to Mercer Island. And Mount Rainier in the background.

I've tried to identify this mountain peak, but I haven't had any success. All I know is that it's west of Mount Rainier and very stunning from the sky.

This is Lake Pleasant, which is northwest of Phoenix. It was created in the 1920s as the result of a dam. I was surprised to see so much water so close to Phoenix.

This was some interesting agriculture near Tucson. I see these all over the country and I never thought to look up what they are. These round fields are created by what's called a center-pivot irrigation circle. Which it turns out is basically just what it sounds like it is.

On our approach into Tucson we turned around over these pecan groves. I've driven past them but I don't remember ever seeing them from the sky. They pop out because they're so green. This huge pecan farm is just south of Tucson. And with that, my view from the summer sky is complete!

Room With a View

I'm getting used to a completely new routine which consists of working from home, and by "working" I mean the kind where I get paid not only in appreciation, but also in cold hard cash money and employee benefits. It's been quite a long while since I've been gainfully employed, and I've never had a job where I worked from home. But here I am. A couple of days ago I was staring at my computer screen (I've been in, and continue to be in, training) and when I looked up this beautiful rainbow was what I saw. I think it looks pretty good in the picture, but it looked more vivid in real life. The rainbow was bright and it stuck around for quite a few minutes. It was a perfect sight to end the day from my new office. 
 

Postscript

After everyone left town—and by everyone I mean not only our kids but my siblings and their families too—Brad and I found ourselves tired and alone on a quiet Sunday evening in McGregor. It was the perfect time to go for a walk. 

McGregor made for a good place to stay for a few days.

The cute little downtown has seen better days, but it's still pretty cute.

The morning of our departure I ran, and found something we hadn't seen before: a hidden cemetery. I actually ran by a sign that said the cemetery was straight ahead. So I went up this road a half a mile to the top, and there was just one thing there: a beautiful and small cemetery. It was so peaceful and serene, especially in the fog. 

This is what I mean by peaceful and serene.

I told Brad about it, and on our way out of town he wanted to see it so we drove up. By then the fog had cleared and this is what we saw. And this is all there is. When we drove around we saw a fawn walking on the grass and some turkey too. It feels like a secret place and I'm so glad we found it. If I go back to McGregor, I'll visit it again.

After leaving McGregor we drove south to Bettendorf, Iowa, and visited our friends Sue and Harry. It was great to see them, as well as Harry's parents. We spent the night at their house and flew home the next day.

The hollyhocks in McGregor were plentiful and pretty. They make me realize that life goes on, that there is always beauty in the world, and that pink is a good color. 

 

When Kelle Brought Food

When my sister Kelle drove out here a little over two weeks ago to stay for a few days before she and I left to drive to Iowa for our mom's funeral, she brought some amazing food. Let's start with this donut. It was the size of a plate and honestly and truly, perhaps the best donut I've ever eaten. It's from Rose Donuts in San Clemente and I highly recommend!

She also brought fresh fish. Her son Jack, who's a fishing boat captain and lifeguard, caught some bluefin tuna off the coast of Dana Point the day before Kelle drove out. Not being a fish expert in any sense of the word, I wouldn't know that it's practically unheard of to catch bluefin off Dana Point, but apparently it is. Anyway, he caught five of them and she brought these six steaks with her. This is my only tuna picture, which is a shame as it was so gorgeous. Brad pan-seared it and it cut like butter. It was utterly delicious. We had a feast, and on the second night I just let it come to room temperature and we ate it that way, and it was almost as good as the first night.

The weather was hot but not too hot and we spent a lot of time outside.

And in the pool.

We also went down to Patagonia, Arizona to visit a hummingbird sanctuary. 

The hummingbird sanctuary was called the Paton Center for Hummingbirds, and it's run by the Tucson Audubon Society. We saw not only hummingbirds, but also other species of birds. Patagonia wasn't too far from here (about an hour south) but it felt far removed. The sanctuary was beautiful and interesting and teeming with hummingbirds, and it made me appreciate our own hummingbirds at home. We have a lot of feeders around the house and we get a lot of birds and we practically have our own little hummingbird sanctuary right here. And, we have something exciting happening right now too .....

We have a hummingbird nesting on our back patio! We watched the nest being built for a couple of weeks. And before the nest was built, for another couple of weeks we watched the bird scout out locations for the nest. We'd see a hummingbird that kept flying around our ceiling fans (there are six of them) on the back patio and landing on the pull chains. We would laugh and wonder why a bird would do that. It couldn't have been for the thrill of swinging on a chain. Turns out, it was apparently scouting out a location for where to build the nest. Slowly but surely, it gathered the nesting material and started building on this one pull chain, then connected the nest with the other pull chain on the same fan. It built what looks like a hummingbird hammock. I read that they build the nest to be elastic, so that once the eggs hatch it should stretch to accommodate everybody. The eggs take about two weeks to hatch and the birds take about a month to fledge. We can't wait for the baby hummingbirds!

Coast to Coast

I got to San Juan Capistrano on Monday and Kelle was ready for me. I no longer sleep on the patio (I'm quarantined in the house from Kelle and Mom, as my bedroom has its own entrance) but the patio is still my living room, dining room, kitchen, and yoga studio. This was my complement of dishes for the week that was waiting for me when I arrived. Out here I have a coffee maker, hot pot, refrigerator, and loads of snacks, all thanks to my sister. The patio is large enough that we eat dinner out here together, distanced, every night. (Mom is in bed and basically non-responsive, 24/7.) With a resident hummingbird named El Chapo to brighten my day and beautiful weather, it's not such a bad place to be.

This is El Chapo. He's like Kelle's pet. Out here in the back he comes to his nectar stop at the feeder or hangs out on a nearby leaf. And when Kelle is at the front door or right outside the front door, he'll often fly over and say hi. It's so cute.

This morning I ran a few errands and stopped at a park overlooking the ocean in Capo Beach. The water was pretty and these squirrels were an unexpected surprise. Apparently there's food-a-plenty here.

And the squirrels are tame. I say this because they came right up to me. (This picture was taken without using my zoom.)

This is the squirrels' view. When my parents lived in San Clemente my dad used to ride his bike here. It's a lovely place called Pines Park. I drive by it fairly often but haven't stopped since I was last here with my dad about a million years ago. So I was glad to take it in on such a pretty day.

Out here on the patio, Simba is my buddy and my guard dog. He likes to lay on my yoga mat with me, which I don't think he realizes I find just a tad annoying, but mostly quite endearing. I've been telling him about how he's going to get a brother named Sirius and how he'll get to play in the snow in Colorado, but I don't think he'll fully understand it until he gets there.

Meanwhile in Baltimore, Mary and Andy are getting to know their new neighborhood. Over the weekend they went to a local restaurant to pick up some lunch.

Tikka's getting to know the neighborhood too. What do you think, does she seem like she's getting tired of having her picture taken? I told Mary that this one should be called "Tikka is so over Instagram."

I got a Minolta 35mm camera for my 16th birthday. I used and loved it for years, and then when I met him Brad had an automated camera so I got lazy and eventually stopped using mine.  After a long time gathering dust and moving everywhere with us, I decided it was time to finally part with it and so Mary recently became its new owner. She's taken her first roll of film including this one.

John and Troy continue to have a fire near them. My sister Kathy took this picture from Denver, and sad to say that Colorado has enough fires that this isn't even the one that's near Fort Collins, but it's in their general direction and you get the idea. This picture is the East Troublesome Fire and it's the fourth largest wildfire in Colorado's history. It's near the fire that's closer to Fort Collins, which is called the Cameron Peak Fire (and is, sadly, the largest wildfire in Colorado history). I'm hoping that the next time I write a post I'll have better news about the fire situation.

 

This is Cheating

On Sunday, Brad and I went to the Desert Museum, which is basically a botanical garden and small zoo. I say "this is cheating" because the animals were not totally free, but we saw a couple of interesting ones that were easy to photograph, such as this lizard. 

My favorite part was the hummingbird sanctuary. We saw a lot of hummingbirds, which we also enjoy at home, but we're in the process of struggling with ants and bees at our feeders so it was nice to be in a hummingbird-centric zone.