Sonoran "Winter"

I had another lovely dog walk yesterday, just Patton and me. It wasn't super chilly or too cold for her by any means, but Alexandra had no desire to come along. And look, between you and me, sometimes I'm okay with that. She's a tough cookie and does the mile long walk no problem and has for over a year, but it takes almost 40 minutes. I can do it in 20 or less and when I have her dinner to get on the table, our dinner to prep, baths to draw and showers to take, all before her bedtime, that extra 20 minutes comes in handy.

ANYWAYS. When I don't have a sweaty little hand in my sweaty little hand, I have a bit of brain power to focus on some pretty things I see.

I love how the blinding sun, momentarily tucked behind a tree, can transform this little street. Like, where am I right now?

I love daffodils, they're pretty much my favorite flower ever. We had slews of them growing in our yard back in Nashville. I also love than they're alternatively known as jonquils. What a fun word! Who came up with that anyway?

jonquil (n.)

1660s, species of narcissus, from French jonquille (17c.), from Spanish junquillo, diminutive of junco "rush, reed," from Latin iuncus "rush;" so called in reference to its leaves. The type of canary bird (1865) is so called for its pale yellow color, which is like that of the flower.

Oh, okay.

I love that this is still technically winter. This is the time to visit the Sonoran desert, let me tell you. It's like visiting Chicago in the early summer, you're all "OH MY GOD these people are so LUCKY to live here, why don't I move here?!" and then you come here in the summer, or go to Chicago in the winter, and you're convinced the locals must be out of their goddamn minds. Oh yeah, Lent is over for me. I gave up. Hey! I gave up Lent for Lent! I'm on the right track.

It's the desert! There is grass and greenery everywhere! Someone call the paramedics! I love how unique each photo is. The first one makes you think I'm like ten minutes away from twilight, but these were taken in order. But we have a wide, wide sky out here in Tucson, it's breathtaking really, and it provides a lot of room for creativity when it comes to sunlight.

I think this last one is sort of my favorite and I'm not sure why. It's not even really in focus. But the sun, still tame and nowhere near the menacing force it will be in two months, is a tangible presence. There in the upper lefthand corner, you can see the rays almost lending an autumnal array of color to the trees. Where am I? What season is this? How did I get out of the house?

"I want to see the lizard."

That's what Alex said when I told Todd to come check out the blizzard.

Now, let me stop here to say to all people who live in a winter-friendly area: DON'T LAUGH AT ME. This is legit a Tucson style blizzard, OKAY. I have to blog about this because it is historically important.

These pictures don't even really do it justice. I hate how tiny and far away everything looks, and how miniscule the snow flakes look but my God they were like big fluffy cotton balls floating down. Lemme zoom a bit.

Them's are flakes, man!! Then this little guy showed up:

Eat up, my friend!

They were hitting up the nectar buffet all day long, and I'd like to think they were grateful for a meal. If only I had cocoa mugs small enough.

Alex had a blast, too. Unfortunately I was in the middle of cleaning up so by the time we coudl get out there, the snow had stopped falling.

But that didn't stop her from eating some snow...

And grinning about it.

From eating some slush...

And being all, WTF about it!

And doing a little snow stomp here and there. Well if the grass hadn't been dead before, it'd definitely be dead now.

Look at how proud we are of our tiny grass patch with our even tinier snow patch. Go desert dwellers!

But then the coolest thing happened. Later that night...

BOOOOOM more snow! Look, I'm from back east and even though Tennessee is pretty mellow when it comes to winter, I still HAD a winter. Snow did happen. Ice storms were more likely but snow FELL man. so I was running around the back yard like a puppy at chuck wagon time when I realized what was happening.

I look like an axe murderer but THERE IS SNOW IN MY HURRRR

Beautiful blurry hawthorne, covered in snow.

I look like hell here too (yay no makeup) but we have snow on our heads! CALL THE POLICE.

I love love love this photo.

It was such a wonderful surprise. I would like to think that God was listening the night before this all happened, when I mournfully, wistfully told Todd I always thought I'd be raising my kids in Nashville, in grass, in seasonal shifts. So, thanks Lord!

A Winter Road.

We recently spent a riotous weekend up on Mt. Lemmon in a cute cabin right outside of Summerhaven. We got through the sheriff blockade by the skins of our teeth, too, and Dave and Gneiss almost didn't get up later that Friday evening. After 10 minutes of waiting for us to check our stupid cell phones to verify that they were coming to stay for the weekend in the rental, finally the sheriff just rolled his eyes and said "Just go."

It stormed like crazy all of Saturday but Sunday was a glorious sun-soaked winter wonderland. The roads were perfectly cleared but at one point we drove through a cloud (I was slightly hungover and just kept saying "We're in a cloud, Todd. We're in a cloud"), and suddenly the landscape took on a spooky, haunting quality.

Dude, bro, we're in a cloud.

I loved the streams of melting snow running down the windshield.

The sun is trying to burn through.  Some streams of melted snow may or may not look like sperm attempting to reach the egg. I hope I didn't ruin it for you.

A cloud, man.

Fall Feeling

It happened on Friday as I walked to my car after work, and it happened yesterday, too: a feeling of fall. It's a little early to be getting that vibe, but I definitely felt it. It's a subtle change to the light and the intensity of the sun, and it's something about breezes that aren't just gusts of hot air, that actually behave how a breeze should.

Usually these moments strike me sometime in September. The sun's rays aren't as potent and there's... there's a quality to it that has changed. It's settling down, relaxing into autumn. It's a fun and exciting sensation, too. A promise of respite from the heat. A promise that the humidity will die down as the monsoon season dies with it. And we have had one HELL of a monsoon this season. Finally!

It's not a lot to talk about today but I wanted to make note of it. I don't know if other people pick up on that subtle feeling of things slowly shifting gears into another season, but I like that I do. I feel connected to things, and it's nice to realize that I'm not so caught up in myself and my little world that I can't realize the bigger, the enormous things that are going on around me.

Rainbows.

Several days ago, we were hanging out in the backyard in the late afternoon, after a storm, enjoying the cooler, breezier weather. We looked to the east, and were blown away by how the setting sun, sifted through the clouds, made the trees glow.

It was unbelievably vivid.

These trees over our roof seemed particularly lit from within.

Cyprus on fire! If you're curious, we got that satellite at Coscto.

Palm, stuck in the web of urban living...

Ooh, a glimpse of a pantless fairy child. The camera was shaking, I was so excited!

"Hey, girl. Don't mind me, I'm just picking all the buds off your Texas ranger."

And then, as if inspired by my little angel girl, the sky let loose this bad boy.

It was a lot brighter on this side.

AND THEN. If you can believe it, a very faded double rainbow showed up above the bright one. You can baaaaarely see it here.

A liiiiittle better here...

And even better here. Look at this beautiful sky!!

This picture makes me want to pretend that the rainbow is the outline of a huge planet that is super close to us, sort of like that picture floating around the web, photoshopped to show what it would look like if Jupiter were as close to us as the moon.

The view to the west was just as glorious, but in a completely different way. It was so dramatic.

Aren't those rays called God's fingers? In moments like this you can totally understand why.

A beautiful finale on an early summer Sunday evening.

Drizzle Drizzle

We had a winter weather bomb hit today, which is a refreshing change of pace, even for a spring fever junkie who is always chomping at the bit for warm weather at this time of year. But Tucson is pretty predictable; I knew March would give us at least one more bout of chilly weather before swaggering right into 90 degree weather and cloudless skies. And Tucson delivered. Here is my view, right this moment, from my sofa right now:

I woke up this morning feeling like our little house was a wind-battered ship out at sea, the gusts were so ferocious. And to think my dear husband, his brother and friends were out camping in that crap. I pulled Alex out of her crib, opened the shutters in our bedroom and we snuggled under the covers, gazing out at the rain. What a difference 24 hours can make. 

Anyways, as much as I enjoy and look forward to balmy days with the windows thrown open and screen doors in position to catch breezes and birdsong, it's always nice to wear warm fuzzy socks, have a hot bowl of soup for lunch and doze to the sound of rain pattering on your roof. 

Pre-Spring Loveliness

Today was my non-chore day off during the week. Wednesdays are all about laundry and cleaning house. Not all, of course Alexandra is the main player, but I'm grateful that she now loves to help (get in the way of) me doing the vacuuming and, yesterday as a first, pretend to polish the leather couches with me.

Thursdays, though, are fun days. Todd and I switch off days we get to sleep in when I don't work. So I sleep in Wednesdays and Saturdays. Thursdays I get up early so we can hit up Story Time at the downtown library, where we listen to stories, sing songs and dance, and at the end there's craft time and then playing with toys. I am in love with story time and am truly bummed when we can't make it (which is why I always sleep in Wednesdays and not Thursdays).

After story time today, and seeing how absolutely gorgeous it was outside, and knowing that Alex and spend entirely too much time indoors at home, I knew we had to go to the zoo.

For the first time in her life, Alexandra showed serious interest in the animals. She loved the tiger and the peacocks, the giraffes, otters and the elephants.

Me: Alex, what does a tiger say?
Alex, staring in awe, whispering: Rraahhh.

 I was so happy we went. It was a little warm, but Alex and had such fun. She loved watching the kiddos as much as the monkeys, too. I think it was a slight surprise too, to see the animals up close and in real life instead of small cartoonish figures in a book. But boy, could she pick out which animal was which. "Tuh-tle!" "Buhd! Twee-twee!"

After the zoo, we swung by Home Depot for some plants and so Alexandra could flirt with even more grown ups, and then it was home for nap time and planting time. All the sunshine, mama-daughter time and observing and working with nature was just what this restless Spring Fever girl needed. I think Alex enjoyed it too, although by the time our plants were in their new pots, she was snoozing away.

I had such a lovely time, in my apron with my happy hands in the dirt, and now for my tiny trouble I have three new pals for our once barren back patio:

I can't wait for the inevitable cold snap to come and go so I can dig my nails into spring and hopefully never let her go. Even the sunlight streaming in through my horrible kitchen's window is just so sublime when it's warming up and wonderful.

I've been full of complaints about Tucson's heat this past year. Last summer, it wasn't even actual summer yet before I was fed up and talking about living in Montana or on the Oregon coast in some cabin somewhere. But now I'm giddy with the upcoming heat and balmy summer nights. I want to replant our weed-choked garden and let Alex play in her kiddie pool and under the sprinklers. It's going to be a lovely spring and summer, I just know it.