The Castle

I took an exploratory drive out to Chandler Arizona last Friday.  I thought I'd drive by the building I was working in when I first started this blog back in 2008.  However, I found a lot of new things to admire and of course to photograph.  One of them was this place called The Castle.  It's a place for rent for weddings, conferences and parties.

Of course, it's built to look like a castle.  A small castle, but a castle nonetheless.

It came complete with a rusty cannon just in case it might be needed.

Big, sturdy wooden doors look like they are fit for a castle.

And, a large circular fountain sits in front surrounded by stone frogs spouting streams of water.

Do you suppose if you kiss one of those frogs they turn into a prince?

I have more discoveries to show you over the next few weeks.

I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today.  I'm visiting a hot tourist spot in my own way.

What a Face!

I haven't had a photo of my friend David's dog Nikos on my site in a long time.  Like many animals, he's not that keen to get his picture taken so when I get a good one I feel the urge to share it.  Nikos is a true sweetheart but, a lively one.  He has a much more exuberant personality than most golden retrievers.  He's always happy to to see me and bounces around like a puppy.  Just look at that big smile on his face.  You can tell he's a happy dog!

An Assortment of Plants

Today I just grabbed some random photos of plants that I've taken over the past few months.  When I'm out taking photos I sometimes snap a few photos of the plants surrounding buildings and homes when they catch my eye.  I noticed that I have quite a few of these random plant photos so I thought I should share a few.  Above we have a pomegranate still on the tree and almost ready for picking.

A fancy pot full of bromeliads surrounded by more pots of bromeliads.  All located on the patio of an office building.

The ornamental grass used in many landscapes always catches my eye.  I love they way they move when there is a the slightest of breezes.

This is one of my favorites.  An exceptionally colorful aloe bloom.


Lots of different plants and not one of them was taken at the botanical garden!  These are all from different landscapes around town.

Sea Weed People

One of my favorite sculptures at the Heard Museum is this one called "Sea Weed People" by John Hoover.  It's located in the reflecting pool near the entrance to the museum.

There is something about the graceful lines to this sculpture that appeals to me.

You can probably tell from the light that this photo was taken on a different, more overcast day.  It gives a better view of the little reflecting pool in this garden area.

At Work in the Kitchen

The Olive & Ivy Restaurant located on the Scottsdale Waterfront is another restaurant with a big open kitchen where you can see the chefs and staff preparing the meals.  I liked the look of those big bowls of fruit and I marveled at how someone actually balanced that orange on the very top of the pile.

There is a big U-shaped bar in the restaurant where you can have a drink or dine in.  All those bar tenders are being watched by a rather large group of heads above them.

What an eclectic way to decorate the bar area!

The Fierce Lion and the Little Pig

Over the weekend, I found another Paradise Valley Lion guarding the gate to a property.

In fact, there were two of them.

Just look at the snarling face on that lion.  He looks like he means business.

I also saw this devilishly colorful pig sitting pretty on a fence post at another location.

I never know what I might find driving around the curvy foothills streets of Paradise Valley.

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day to all my American readers or as we call it simply the 4th of July!  This local restaurant called Grassroots has a permanent patriotic display with this wooden flag that is located on a side wall.

And, this near-by condominium development has got their patriotic display on the gates to the property.  All that red, white and blue bunting looks pretty nice on that gate.

I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns.  I'm visiting a place in New York that not many tourists ever get to see.

View from the Street

If you scroll down and look at my post from July 1st, you will see a tiny little A-Frame building down there on Central Ave.  I thought I'd show a street level view of that building that has survived all these years.  It's now the home to Honey Bear's BBQ and I can tell you that the BBQ here is excellent.  I've been there many times.  I think this building was either a House of Pancakes or an old Village Inn Pizza place years ago.

Next door to the BBQ place is this little place called Best of Philly.  I've never eaten here so I can't comment on the food but, it has been here for quite a while so I think it must have a following.  As many of you can tell from that sign, it was once an old Taco Bell taco stand.

As you can see from this photo and from the top photo, these two little buildings are squeezed in between two high-rise buildings along an area that that is well dotted with very tall buildings.  I'm not sure how these two little places have survived all these years in such a prime location but, they have!

Navajo Code Talkers

After looking at yesterday's "Look Down" post, I decided that the statue that looks like a little dot in yesterday's photo and that I featured way back when I first started this blog deserved another look.  So, I drove down to Central and Thomas and took a few new photos.

It happens that this is the very first public art tribute that was made to the group of 400 Native American soldiers who worked as radio operators during WWII. Using their native language, they created an unbreakable way to communicate with other US units thus keeping locations and planned actions secret.

The statue was commissioned through the Heard Museum and Doug Hyde was the artist.  You might remember that I featured some of Dough Hyde's work in early June.

Theme Day: Look Down

For today's theme of "Look Down", I found this photo that I took a few years ago while visiting an office high up in one of the towers at Central Avenue and Thomas Road.  You can see that the left turn arrows were on when I snapped the shot because there are cars making left turns off of Central Avenue onto Thomas Road in both directions.  On the right of the photo, just below half you can see a statue.  That is a huge statue paying tribute to the Navajo Code Talkers.  I featured that statue in my 11th post on this blog, way back in 2008.  In the upper left of this photo you see the base of another high-rise building which happens to be the building with the huge mural on the back of it.  I feature that mural back in September of 2014.  Before I moved two years ago, this used to be my neighborhood.  I've posted many photos from around this location in the past.

As most of you know, the first of every month is a theme day for all City Daily Photo Bloggers.  To see how other bloggers have depicted the "Look Down" subject, click here.

Have a Drink!

I love these water fountains located in the park around the Scottsdale Civic Center.  They are built to accommodate adults, children, people in wheelchairs and even our four-legged friends.  They certainly are a welcome sight at this time of year when no one goes anywhere without taking water with them.

More Urban Explorations

The homes I'm featuring today are from the same area of Paradise Valley that I explored in yesterday's post.  The one above is certainly palatial with stunning landscaping and those striking striped awnings.

This colonial style house looks a little out of place in a desert environment to me.  It looks like it would be better suited to some place on the east coast.

This one has a rather dramatic entrance with that fabulous glass door surrounded by arches.

I love it when I stumble on to areas that are completely new to me.  I'll have to do some more exploring during these hot summer months when I can explore from the comfort of my car.

Urban Explorations

A few days ago I posted some lions I found roaming around Paradise Valley.  I found those lions by exploring in an area of the city that I hadn't visited before.  I found some huge estates worthy of all those lions.  In fact, the one above features two of the lions I posted a few days ago, the one standing tall and the one sitting on the post.  You can see in this photo that the one standing tall had a twin on the other side of the entry.

This house didn't have any lions but, it did make up for it in very large pots overflowing with flowering plants.

This home has its own lake in front.  It sort of made me think of a moat around a castle and it's certainly large enough to be castle-like.

I have no idea what this home might look like.  The rather formidable gate blocked any view beyond. However, that block fence makes me think of a Frank Lloyd Wright design.  I have no idea if it is but, Wright did use that type of block in many of his designs.

Tomorrow I'll show you a couple more from this area I explored.

Photo Project

I went to the Phoenix Art Museum last week to see an exhibit of photos by David Taylor.  Between 2007 and 2015, Taylor worked on a project to photograph all 276 of the obelisks that mark the border between the United States and Mexico.  Working between El Paso Texas/Juarez Mexico (where the border leaves the Rio Grande river and moves across land to the Pacific Ocean at San Diego California/Tijuana Mexico.  The obelisks were put in place during the 1890's by the International Boundary Commission and they were documented then by photographer D. R. Payne.  In 2015, Taylor published a book with pictures of each obelisk in numerical order and this exhibit also includes all 276 photos along the wall above.  It was fascinating to see how the terrain changes and how some obelisks are now surrounded by border walls and fences while others in rougher terrain are still wide open.

Above is a closer shot of some of the photos so you can get a better idea of how they look.  Many people have called them 'mile-markers' but the placement was not measured that way.  They were placed with consideration that they would be visible from each other.  Most of them are between 2.5 and 3.5 miles apart along the 690 mile stretch from the Rio Grand to the Pacific Ocean.

One Cute Dog

This is "Root", the twelve-year-old dog of some friends of mine.  I took this photo of him sprawled out on the floor because I thought he looked like a cute dust-mop ready to go to work.

Isn't he a cutie?  My friends hosted the June meeting of our "Art Challenge" club and Root enjoyed having a big group of people around to give him some extra loving.

I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today.  The town of Cortina in Italy is on the agenda.

The Lions of Paradise Valley

Yesterday I said I'd show you the most common yard ornamentation I see in the Paradise Valley area.  It has to be the proud lion.  I see lions perched in a variety of places in front of many homes in Paradise Valley.

This one is sitting tall and proud like a soldier on duty.

This one is sitting atop a fence  in a more relaxed position but still alert and watching what is going on in front of him.

This one is looking very fierce with his paw on an orb and a little growl on his face.  

Even though they are outnumbered by lions, a horse or two also shows up in this area too.

Giant Butterfly

I found this giant butterfly lurking among the flowers in this yard of a home in Paradise Valley.  It actually was a rather different sort of yard ornamentation for the area.  Tomorrow I'll show you the most common animal I see sitting in yards in this part of the city.

Surprise Dessert

Last week I had lunch with my friend Glenda at our favorite watering hole, Zinc Bistro.  When we each ordered a glass of Prosecco, the waitress asked if we were celebrating something.  I said yes, we were celebrating one of life's little milestones (not the birthday kind).  After we devoured our lunch, the waitress brought us a gorgeous chocolate souffle complete with a sparkler candle.  Wasn't that sweet of her?  Thanks Zinc Bistro, it was delicious.

Domestic Duties

I was climbing the stairs in a parking garage when I spotted this pigeon sitting on a ledge in the stair well.  He just sat there keeping an eye on me as I made my way up the stairs.

When I rounded the corner on the landing I saw the "Mrs" sitting on a nest back in a hidden corner.  So I think Mr Pigeon was doing his domestic duty and watching out to keep the Mrs safe while she tends to her maternal chores.  Just a little slice of the domestic side of wildlife.

The Last of the Old West Steak Houses

Since 1957 the Pinnacle Peak Patio has been serving up mesquite grilled steaks, their signature steak being a 32 ounce porterhouse.  I've had the pleasure of dining there at least two times but both times were a very, very long time ago.  The restaurant developed a reputation for snipping off the neckties of any gentleman who arrived formally dressed.  After all, it was a cowboy place, not a dress-up place.  All those ties got tacked to the ceiling and there were thousands of them.  As you can guess, guys wore a tie just so it could get cut off and left hanging in the restaurant.  The property sold a while ago and the restaurant is now closed.  There were a couple of other similar places in the north Scottsdale area but they all closed a long time ago.  This was the only one left.  The owners are supposedly looking for a new location but, I recently heard that an auction has been scheduled to sell off a lot of the restaurants memorabilia.  That sounds to me like there might not be a new place after all.

By the way, this is the near-by rocky outcropping that is called Pinnacle Peak that gave the old restaurant it's name.  It's not going anywhere!

Water Feature

There was one feature at the Scottsdale Quarter that I didn't tell you about in yesterday's post.  It's this splashy fountain area.

It was very popular with mothers and very young children.  I actually sat down and watched the sheer joy on those tiny tots faces as they ran through the streams of water.

I watched this young man fill up his bucket and then take it over to where his mother was sitting.  There was another child who would sit in the circle of the water spouts when they were low to the ground and then wait for them to shoot up in the air all around him until he was almost hidden by the wall of water.  I had fun just watching it all.