Train Derailment

 

Some of you might have heard about the train derailment that happened on July 29th in Tempe. It happened as the train was crossing this railroad bridge.  The bridge was built in 1912, the same year that Arizona became a state.  

On August 2nd, they demolished the end of the bridge that was damaged so on Thursday I took a drive to Tempe to see if I could see anything interesting. I couldn't. I couldn't even get close. All the streets I knew would give me a view were closed.

It looks like they've already made some progress in reconstruction. I zoomed in to see the workers. Those big lights make it look like they might be working round the clock.

If you would like to see some images from the actual crash, click here.

Farm to Table Dining

Arcadia Farms is a great little restaurant in old town Scottsdale that has been in business since 1990.  It started as a take out bakery and deli and later became a full restaurant with great, fresh food.  A few years ago, they added a building next door to serve as the "marketplace" where people can stop in and grab something to take-away.  

Obviously, I took this photo back when things were normal.  I'm sure there are no people outside handing out samples today.  However, the take-away business is thriving.  They have incredibly good baked goods.  I might have to go there soon and find something delicious to eat.  

Sliding Roof

I was stopped to take a photo of a mural I recently found and when I returned to me car I saw this building across the street.  What an unusual roofline.  It looks like a section of the roof is sliding off.  It makes me wonder why it was designed this way.  It is certainly a curiosity.  

Just a note: When I went to create this post, I saw that my site had been automatically updated to the "new" blogger.  That made creating this post a bit of a challenge.  Why on earth did they think they needed to make such a strange bunch of changes?  I realize that I will eventually get used to the new format.  I just can't see anything that I would call an improvement.  

A Look Into the Past

Here's a few more photos from the slides I scanned last weekend.  These will show how well Kodak Ektachrome did in preserving the color.  These are from 1985 which makes them a whopping 35 years old.  Above is a scene from Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany.

 This scene is somewhere in Switzerland.  I remember stopping along the side of the road in several places just to take pictures of the amazing scenery.

I believe this building was in the town of Oberamergau in Germany.  I made a lunch stop here and I remember all the buildings were decorated with these murals.

This last photo is back in London and of one of the Horse Guards.  What struck me about this photo is the fact that the young man on the horse is probably retired by now!  Thats sort of a sobering thought!

A Blast From the Past

Since I've been stuck at home over the past few months, I've tried to organize a few things around the house.  Last Friday, I decided to pull a box out of the bottom of the closet in the room I use for an office.  I had no idea what was in it but it was obviously something I didn't need.  What I found surprised me. It was full of old slides and a slide scanner that I totally forgot I had.  How could I have forgotten that I owned a slide scanner?

So, I spent Friday and Saturday scanning slides and editing and organizing them all.  I found lots of fun things that brought back great memories.

Above is a photo of me and my two sisters posing in our grandmother's back garden.  That's me on the left looking down.

To the left is a photo of my mother before she and my dad were married.

I also found a whole set of slides from my very first trip to Europe.  That's Buckingham Palace in 1985 above.  That year I spent time in London and then flew to Germany, rented a car and drove all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

And, I also found another set of slides from my second trip to Europe in 1991.  On that trip I visited London again along with Bruges Belgium and Paris.

I was surprised at how many of the slides still had good color.  Some of the oldest ones like the one of my mother had faded quite a bit.

It was fun looking at them all.  I'll have to pop a few of them into some posts in the future.

See Ya Later....

Alligator!

I found this new mural on the side of the St. Francis Restaurant on Camelback Road just east of Central Avenue.  It was created by Cory Schnitzer, a California artist whose work I hadn't seen before.  The mural is on the side wall of the restaurant but it actually faces the drive-up windows for a bank branch.  So, after you've made your deposit, you get a little friendly wave from Mr. Alligator.  

Linked to Monday Murals!  

Hummingbird Activity

This little hummingbird made a circle around my head before he focused in on these agave blooms.  Luckily, I happened to have my camera with me so I stood still and waited to see if I could get a good shot.

This little guy turned out to be quite cooperative, hovering around the plant while took several shots.  I love it when they ham it up for the camera.

I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today.  I'm visiting a historic mission in Southern Arizona.

Theme Day: City People

The first of the month has rolled around again and it's "Theme Day" for City Daily Photo Bloggers.  Back in January when this theme was scheduled, getting photos of people out and about was not a problem.  However five months into the pandemic shut-down and gatherings of people are not easy to find.  Add to that some excessive heat here in Phoenix and the only people I see are in the aisles of the grocery store or on the computer screen for Zoom sessions.  So, I dug into my archives to see if I had any photos that might work.  I found this one that I took back in 2012 of a fellow that used to appear from time to time near where I was working.  He was nicknamed "The CEO" because he always looked like he was in charge.  This day he even had the cigar and the swivel chair to complete the picture.

You might notice those people standing around in the background.  There was a very popular restaurant across the street.  So popular that people would stand outside waiting for a table.  I haven't been by this corner in a long time but I'm betting there isn't a line these days.

To see other "City People" from around the world, click here.

Radiant Grove

I mentioned yesterday that I went to the Phoenix Public Library last February to see a special Student Art Exhibit.  While I was there, I was able to view several other art exhibits that the library was featuring.  These colorful "trees" caught my eye.  It's a piece called Radiant Grove.

The artist is Daniel Funkhouser and this piece is created from laser cut acrylic.  The colors were amazing but I was kind of wishing they had been placed against a plain wall. I think all the different pieces of colorful plastic that make up the trees would pop out more against a solid background.

This was part of an organization called In Flux which is a collaboration between six valley cities, Phoenix, Chandler, Glendale, Peoria, Scottsdale and Tempe.  The six cities selected 10 artists to create temporary public art works that could be displayed in locations around the valley.  I'm glad I caught this one and learned about this art project.

Student Art Exhibit

Back in February when life was going along at a normal pace, I read somewhere that there was an exhibit of student art work on display at the the main branch of the Phoenix Public Library.  It was work by students at Phoenix College, the school I used to live near.  I decided to take a look.  It turned out to be a very small exhibit with only five artists represented.  I only took photos of two of the pieces.  The one above was created in hand-dyed fabric by Brenda Mason.  It's called "Path to Forgiveness".  One of the members of my Art Challenge group does work with fabric so I could appreciate this one very much.

The second one I photographed is by artist Curtis Owens.  It is called "Scarred Fragments" and it's constructed of ceramic pieces on panels.  They made me think of a type of body shield.

Finding these photos made me sigh and wish I could go museums and libraries once again.

Tomorrow I'll show you another interesting piece of art I found at the Library that wasn't a part of this particular exhibit.

Around the Corner....More Smooth Curves

 You might remember that at the end of June, I took a Sunday drive to Scottsdale and wandered around the outside of the Scottsdale Museum of the West.  While I was there I found another beautiful sculpture by Khang Pham-New.  I posted a picture of the other sculpture of his back in June.  I found this one right around the corner.  This one is larger than the first one I found.  The artist calls this one "Realm of Passion".

This sculpture had a descriptive plaque and I found the information very interesting.

It reads:
In the late 1970's and early 1980's Vietnamese refugees fled Vietnam by boat and migrated to many countries, including the United States.  Known as "Boat People" many families resettled in the greater Phoenix area, and as Vietnamese Americans they contribute to the rich cultural diversity of the American West.  Vietnamese artist Khang Pham-New created these sculptures to serve and show gratitude for both our country having given his people lawful permanent residency and to the Vietnamese immigrants for proudly preserving their cultural characteristics, most importantly family loyalty.  

Reading that gave me a whole different perspective of this wonderful artist.

Southwest Pieta

Here is another sculpture I found on the Arizona State University campus.  This one is located outside the Nelson Fine Arts Building.  It's called Southwest Pieta and it was sculpted by Luis Jimenez.  Jimenez was born in El Paso Texas but lived in New Mexico for most of his career.  He has scultptures all over the country.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, he has a sculpture by the same name as this in Albuquerque New Mexico that was named a National Treasure by President Bill Clinton in 1999.

Art Challenge Meeting

My Art Challenge group met last Friday evening and this month's challenge was "Hidden".  I used that editing software on my very old laptop and came up with this photo that I called Hidden Land.  A landscape that has been captured and hidden away in a floating orb.

We met via Zoom again for the fourth time.  Obviously, it's not as much fun as all of us being together but it will have to do for the time being.

Since our "in-person" meetings always consisted of a vast array of food and drink, I decided to create my own little "buffet".  It was a nice treat to enjoy while we viewed all the fascinating art that had been created on the subject of "Hidden".

I got to choose the challenge theme for the next meeting.  It will be "Curiosity".  I have no idea what I will create but, I have until the end of August to come up with something.

As the Day Progressed

Friday afternoon around 1:30, I headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things when I noticed the clouds building up to the north.

I made a bit of a detour to get to place where I could snap a couple of photos of those big puffy clouds in the distance.  I was hoping they would bring a monsoon storm our way.

At around 5:45, I noticed what looked like rain but the sun was shining.  I went outside to see what was happening and sure enough, it was raining with the sun shining brightly from the west.  It's hard to tell in the photo above.  I think the camera was overcompensating for shooting into the bright light.  However, you can see the shadows of the trees.

At 7:30 that same evening, there was a definite golden glow shining on my windows so I went out again and caught this fiery sunset.  I'm hoping for a few more days like this one.

I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today.  It's another virtual walk, this time near the beach.

Spirit

I took this photo last fall when I was attending one of the lectures at Arizona State University but I only recently found information about this statue.  It was donated to the W. P. Carey School of Management by entrepreneur Morton Fleischer and his wife Donna back in 2009.  For a while the statue stood in front of the Fleischer Museum in Scottsdale but the museum closed in 2002 and the statue was moved to their ranch.  The statue is 14 foot high and 20 foot long and depicts five horses rising out of the earth.  It was created by sculptor Buck McCain.  It must be quite a job to move a statue this big.

More Historic Charm

I have three more homes from historic neighborhoods today.  The first one is from the Del Norte Place neighborhood.  This area dates back to 1927 when the area was conceived as an English Cottage style community.  Later construction featured more ranch style homes which explains this one.  Houses here are probably in the $500,000 to $600,000 price range these days.

Earl Place is another neighborhood that dates back to 1927.  This area was named for E. A. Earl who subdivided his agricultural land to help meet the growing need for housing.  Homes here were advertised as charming cottages with custom wood interior detailing and modern conveniences such as electric light switches and kitchen appliances.  Prices here are probably the same as above.

This last house is from the East Alvarado neighborhood.  This area dates to 1929 with a lot of traditional and early ranch style homes.  However as the neighborhood grew, a lot of different architectural styles began to appear.  Prices here are about the same as the two above.

Gables, Shutters and Curves

I have three more historic neighborhoods represented here today.  First up in in an area called Cheery Lynn.  It's described as a prototype neighborhood with predominantly English-influenced architecture.

The next photo is a house in the Coronado historic neighborhood.  This is one of the larger neighborhoods with homes dating back to 1900 through the 1930's.

The Country Club Park neighborhood sits just outside of the Phoenix Country Club and the homes here are in a variety of styles.  This one has a bit of an art deco look to it.

All of the historic neighborhoods are denoted by the blue signs that sit atop the normal street signs in each neighborhood.

A couple of my readers asked about the cost of these homes and I can say that it depends on which neighborhood.  Most fall within the normal value for the amount of square footage, probably between $180,000 to $300,000 and maybe one or two as high as $500,000.  However, a few of the neighborhoods fall well above that range, many rising above one million.  The Alvarado neighborhood I pictured a few days ago falls in that category.  I'll point out some of the other expensive ones when I get to them.

Finally the Clouds Have Arrived

We've been not so patiently waiting for our summer "monsoons" to begin and it looks like they might be on the way.  The past few days we've seen more and more cloud build-ups but so far no rain.  It is predicted to rain sometime in the next few days but, you know how those "predictions" go.

On the bright side, all those clouds make for some spectacular sunsets.  This one caught my eye Monday evening.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly....

...of internet service!

No one should have that many laptops on their desk!  For the past three weeks, I've been suffering from a very strange malady that made no sense at all.  My work laptop would no longer connect to the internet via wifi.  No one could figure it out.  They asked me to connect the computer via an ethernet cable which I did and that worked however, my modem and router are in a different room than my office,  So tethered to the router, I had to work from my coffee table with a series of wires draped across my living room.  Not an optimal situation for productivity.  I contacted my service provider and they blamed the computer.  My technical staff at work could find no fault with the computer.  They finally gave me a loaner laptop to use which connected without any problems but, when I joined online meetings with the loaner, my connection kept failing.

After three calls to my service provider I finally found a technician willing to listen to my problem and work on a solution.  It was determined that my modem was old and wearing out.  I spent all day Friday figuring out the problem, buying a new modem and then installing it myself (with the help of the technician on the phone). It was the only way to get help because my provider is not making any in-home service calls in Arizona or Florida because of Covid-19.  Everything is working now but there is simply no explanation for why the two work laptops had problems.  My Apple products had no connection problems at all.  

That is my explanation for why on Friday I had five laptops sitting on my desk.  My two MacBooks that worked without fail and my two work computers that each had its own set of problems.  Back in the corner is that old Dell laptop I keep for the photo editing software only.  I'm happy to say all is back to normal today and my desk looks once again like a normal work space.

So that is my Good, Bad & Ugly internet saga.  Technology is "good" when it works, "bad" when it doesn't and "ugly" when things happen that no one can make any sense of at all.

Madonna Mural

This reverent Madonna graces the front of a Tattoo parlor on McDowell Road in Phoenix.  It was painted by the artist known as El Mac.  El Mac (aka Miles "Mac" MacGregor) is a Los Angeles based artist who actually grew up in Phoenix.  He has a number of murals around Phoenix and an even larger amount in Los Angeles.  I wonder how many Madonna tattoos have been created in this shop.

Taking part in Monday Murals.

Living Near the College

When Phoenix College opened up in 1939 it was located just outside the city limits.  Its opening created a demand for nearby housing and thus the Historic Neighborhood of Campus Vista was born. I think I've mentioned several times that I used to live in a Historic Neighborhood and it just so happens that this is the neighborhood I lived in.  In fact, this is the house I lived in.  This photo is from my archives and it reflects how the house looked while I was living there.  I actually began blogging from here back in 2008.

I drove by the old house recently and this is what it looks like these days.  I like the brown trim and the trees have grown nicely.

It's almost hard to believe that this area was once outside the city limits because today it is located right in the heart of the city just minutes away from downtown Phoenix.

I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today.  I'm taking a virtual walk in the high desert.

Phoenix Historic Neighborhoods

I started a series over six years ago of photos of homes from some of the Historic Neighborhoods in Phoenix.  I don't think I ever finished it.  Since driving around neighborhoods and shooting photos from my car is something I can do and still remain socially distant, I think it's time I revisit some of these places.  So I'm going to try to cover all 35 of our historic neighborhoods over the months ahead.  I'm starting above with a house from the Alvarado neighborhood.  This neighborhood has some wonderful old homes that have been beautifully maintained.  I pictured two of them in the past here and here.

This house is in the Ashland Historic Neighborhood and you can tell from the high-rise buildings behind it that it's located very close a business corridor.  Those are buildings along Central Avenue in the background.

This last house is from the Brentwood Historic Neighborhood.  This area began developing in the 1920's and was considered a suburb of Phoenix for a while. Now it's right in the heart of town.

I love looking at these old houses.  They have so much character.