Boxes and Dust

 

I was doing some dusting last weekend when it occurred to me that I've accumulated a collection of boxes in a variety of shapes and sizes.  I don't actually collect boxes but it seems that I have purchased a few that have caught my eye.  The ones in the photo above are the oldest.  I bought both of these on my very first trip to Europe back in 1985.  Both were purchased in Germany.

These two were purchased closer to home and approximately 12 to 15 years ago.  They are both made of glass.  The black one I got at a street craft festival and the one with the shell embedded in it I found at a gem and mineral show in Tucson.

This last one was purchased in Costa Rica in 2007.  It's made of wood native to that country.  

Wednesday evening I got one of those noisy, emergency notices on my phone because of a dust storm.  When I checked outside, it was calm but I did see some clouds in the east.  It took 30 minutes for the storm to reach my place and once it did, the wind rattled the windows and blew things around for another 30 minutes.  The storm brought some rain too but not enough to make a difference.

All that dust blowing around will make it necessary to do some more dusting.  In the desert, there is no escaping the dust.

Clouds at Sunset

 

I was hoping for a brilliant sunset this last weekend since we had such cloudy and rainy days.  

Since the clouds were breaking up a bit Saturday evening, I thought that might be the best chance.  However, this was the best we got.  

It was pretty enough.  Just not the explosion of red I was hoping for.

 I actually went out at 6:00 PM to see how the clouds were shaping up as the sun was starting to slip downward.  You can see why I was hopeful.  There were lots of clouds that could reflect the sun as it sunk below the horizon.  But in the end the reflections only happened low in the sky.

Dark Clouds, No Rain

 

On Sunday evening I noticed that some dark skies were starting to form over the mountains to the north of me.

I zoomed in closer and saw some very heavy clouds that looked like they might open up at any moment.

The skies to the northeast over the complex were getting very dark.

All of this dramatic build up and not one drop of rain fell.  I heard that areas north of Phoenix got some rain but no such luck for us city folks.

My weather app says we have a stronger chance for some rain later this week.  My fingers are crossed!

Posted this AM, the rains came Monday night and it was a good solid rain!  Makes me happy.  

Brilliant Sunset

 

I noticed a red glow on my balcony wall one evening last weekend so I stepped outside to check out the sky.  It had been overcast all day long but unfortunately no rain fell.  However, all those clouds created a stunning sunset.

I zoomed in a bit to get a better looks at that colorful sky.  My weather app shows us being rather hot for the next week but there is a possibility of rain next weekend.  My fingers are crossed!

Kitchen Mascots

 

I think almost everyone has little collections of things in their kitchens.  I certainly do.  I bought this little tile trivet on one of my trips to Santa Fe New Mexico.  The image on it really appealed to me so now I can see every day.  

A friend of mine has this cute little chef sitting on her kitchen shelf.  I love seeing him and on my last visit, I decided to get a photo.

The kitchen is a good place to place for items that remind us of interesting places and happy times.  

Fast Forward...

 

My new passport arrived last week and it prompted me to take a look at all my old passports.  As you can see, I now have 50 years worth.  If you want to get a "fast forward" look at yourself aging over the years, just take a look at the photos on all your passports.  It's a sobering experience.  

Those Lovebirds

 

Seeing that peach-faced lovebird that I posted yesterday reminded me of all those birds that used to visit my yard when I lived in the house on the other side of town.  I went into the archives to look at some of those photos.  If you have followed my site for the past 12 years, you might remember how they used to flock to my yard because of the seed blocks I put out for them.  I found this photo in the archives of one of the lovebirds inviting a little sparrow to take a bite.

For those of you who haven't followed me that long, here is what it looked like back then.  I would get a big block of bird seed, and put it on a big rock in my back yard and these cute fellows would show up and feast on the seeds.  I miss seeing them all the time so I'm happy when I spot them around town in different locations.  

Sunset on 2025

 

Today the sun will set on 2025 and tomorrow we are off to a new year and new adventures.  It seems like only yesterday that we slipped from 1999 to 2000 and here it is 26 years later.  I enjoyed my adventures in 2025 and I'm hoping 2026 will be just as good.  Enjoy your New Year's Eve celebrations!

Holiday Tableau

 

When I was getting out all the Christmas decorations for the season, I came across some of last year's Christmas cards.  You might remember the little Christmas tree pop-up card my sister sent me.  I posted photos of it here.  I also found the Santa card that a friend sent me.  I thought they might look cute together so I set up a little tableau using a white towel as a back drop.  

I think it looks kind of cute.

Since the back drop was all set up, I decided to photograph two of my favorite Christmas decorations.  

First is my little glass Christmas tree.  I bought this tree in 1998 when I was working in Chicago.  It served as my holiday decorations for my home away from home.

I also photographed my little, sleek Santa.  I bought him on my 2013 trip to London in the village of Amersham.  He is currently standing guard in the window at my front door.

I love the little things that bring back fond memories.  

Mourning a Loss

I'm mourning the loss of two huge ficus trees that used to shade the central courtyard where I live.  They were taken down as a precaution against some of the storms we've been hit with recently.  We had one of those storms a few weeks ago that caused some severe damage to homes and apartments in the east valley.  Inspectors decided that these two trees were possible targets for what are called micro-bursts that cause severe damage.  

I understand the need for safety and damage control but I have to admit this made me very sad.  Apparently, I'm not the only one.  I see that someone else placed some flowers on the tree stump left behind.  When I saw the flowers I thought "my sentiments exactly".

 I'm glad I took that photo of the trees stump and flowers (above) when I did on Sunday because yesterday they were grinding up the stumps with this serious looking machine.

I've been told that the grounds will soon have some new trees which is good news.  However, it will take a very long time for new trees to reach the scale of the trees that were lost.

Floating Blooms

 

I saw these pretty flowers growing along a pathway and I decided to take a photo with my iPhone using the "portrait" mode.  I like the way that mode blurs the background.  This time it blurred the stem on the flowers so that it looks like they are actually floating in the air.

Here's another photo of the plant.  Google says this is called a Mexican Petunia.  I have no idea if that is right.  The Google AI bots get it right about 40% of the time.

Sunshine and Rain

 

I snapped these two photos yesterday morning when the rain was coming down while the sun was shining.  It was just the remains of that crazy storm that happened on Friday. The top photo is looking northwest where the rain was coming from. The second photo is looking southwest where the skies were clearing.  Both photos were taken minutes apart. Rain and sunshine at the same time happens quite often in the desert.

The rain only lasted a few minutes and then things dried up until late in the day when I poured down rain again.

I copied this photo from the AZ Central online news.  This is what it was like on Friday when I was driving home.  Desert cities aren't built for rainy weather.  When we have storms like Friday's, the water accumulates quickly and floods streets and yards and causes flash floods in normally dry washes.  

I heard that flights were grounded in Phoenix from 11:00 AM to almost 7:00 PM.  It must have been chaos at the airport.  Friday was one crazy day in Phoenix.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

 

It had just stopped raining when I left my house to go to Scottsdale.  While I was in Scottsdale it started coming down like crazy.  

When I got back to my car, the street where I parked was flooded and I wasn't sure how I was going to get into driver's side without wading through a river of rushing water.  I finally got in the back seat, slid across to other side, got out where the water wasn't so deep on the street side and then got into the driver's seat.  

However, getting into the driver's seat wasn't the end of the trials.  It was raining so hard it was hard to see anything and the streets were flooded in all directions.  It was very slow going but I made it home unscathed.  Then I got completely drenched in the short distance from my car to the covered walkway.  It was kind of like someone threw a bucket of water on me.

I haven't seen a storm like this in this area in a very long time.  It warranted four emergency alerts like this one.

Sunrise Beauty & Noise

 

Early yesterday morning around 6:30, I heard some scraping and banging noises coming from outside.  I went outside to investigate and before I could spot the noise maker, I was struck by the beauty of the rising sun lighting up the mountains north of me.

After admiring the view, I noticed that there was some type of construction going on in the street below.  Could it be the start of the job to fix our electrical problems?

Just an hour later, our parking lot was full of heavy equipment and the noises of trucks, jackhammers and diggers. Yippee!  They have started to work to lay new underground cable.

Three big spools of cable are sitting in the parking lot waiting.  It looks like we are going to get the electricity outage problem fixed.  That makes me very happy.  

An Interesting Follow-Up

 

I did learn something new from yesterday's electrical outage event.  Have you ever wondered how they put those very heavy steel plates over the construction trenches on our roadways?  I found out watching this process take place.  They use a big robot machine resembling a dinosaur.  They pick up the steel plate with what looks like a magnet.

Then they swing it into place using some kind of remote control device.  That man in the lower right of this photo is operating the control.

After it's in place, the man with the remote folds up the robot while the other two workers put down some sealing asphalt around the edges of the plate.

The guy operating the robot packs it up and drives away.  It's an interesting operation requiring a lot of heavy equipment that must cost a lot of money.  I'd say they would be wise to get this issue fixed soon before it costs more money.  

Not a Pretty Picture

 

I woke up at 3:00 in the morning and when I opened my weary eyes, I was looking straight up at the ceiling fan above my head.  It took a few seconds for my brain to kick in and wonder why the fan wasn't running.  Then I turned my head to look at the clock.  You guessed it, the electricity was out once again.  I checked my phone and saw a text message from the electric company saying it went out around 1:45 AM.  

I got up and walked out on my balcony just in time to see the electric company trucks arrive.  

After a lot of digging and scraping and fiddling around (my technical term) in the electrical boxes, it finally came back on at about 9:30 AM.  

Three times this summer is way too much.  

Here's hoping that old idiom "third time's a charm" is true in this case.  

P.S. Luckily, the temperature this morning was around 78.  A lot easier to tolerate than the 110 when it happed twice earlier this summer.  

Storm in the Desert

 

On Monday evening, a storm passed through the Phoenix area with some heavy winds and wonderful rain.  All those clouds roiling around help create a great sunset.

Looking in the opposite direction I saw a rainbow forming.  I made my way outside to see if I could capture it.  It was a great way to end the day.  

Gifts

 

My sister Judy likes to sew and recently she sent me these hand made placemats that she made.  She told me that she thought I'd enjoy them because Paris is a place I've traveled to.  She didn't realize that I still had this set up Paris-themed dishes that I bought several years ago.  It's one of the sets I've held on to.  These placemats go perfectly with these dishes.

Two years ago she made me this small lap blanket that I keep handy.  

My sister is really good at putting different patterned materials together to make little textile works of art.   

The Trials of Modern Living

 

We started the month of July with an electrical outage and we are ending the month with a water line break.  I was leaving the house around 4:00 in the afternoon on Saturday to meet some friends for drinks and dinner.  I saw this river of water gushing up from the ground and flowing down the street outside the gate.  In fact, those two cars you see were driving very slowly so as not to splash the water.  

When I came home around 10:30, this was the scene.  A City of Phoenix construction crew was hard at work digging a hole to get to the water pipes.  By that time, the water had been shut off.  That was something I quickly discovered when I turned on a faucet.  Luckily I had a full water bottle to get me through.  Sometime around 3:00 AM, the water was back on and the construction team was filling in the hole.  

Water and electricity....we take these things for granted until they fail us.  In spite of these two recent inconveniences, I consider myself very fortunate to live where I do.  There are far too many people around the world who have neither of these or other basic benefits.  

My Mountain Views

 

I've featured photos of the mountains to the north of where I live many times before.  I feel lucky to have some very nice views surrounding my home.  Yesterday, the air was so clear it made the mountains looks so crisp.  I couldn't resist a photo.

Sometimes I'll snap a photo because the play of light contrasts so well with the clouds that are rolling by.

On another occasion, I snapped a photo because the sunset was turning the sky and mountains a shade of dusky pink.

And on this occasion, I took the shot to capture those puffy clouds that were hovering over the top of the rugged peaks.  There seems to be and endless supply of appealing views no matter the weather or time of year. I'm lucky I get to see it all.