Whooooo....is that?

Who is that peeking out from a hole in a saguaro cactus?  I believe it's a Western Screech-owl.  I have  an early morning bird-watcher to thank for this photo.  I never would have spotted him without her help.

This house finch was enjoying his reflection and an occasional drink of water.

This fellow appears to be feathering his nest.

And this Gila Woodpecker was on his morning rounds.

A 6:00 AM walk around the Desert Botanical Garden on Sunday morning was very productive for bird sightings.  I must say that now that summer is approaching and the winter long exhibit has been dismantled, the garden is back to being a great place for a long walk.  I know that the art exhibits the garden has during the fall, winter and spring months produces a huge amount of income for the garden but, it's always nice when the crowds are gone and the garden is once again peaceful and full of wildlife.

Lunch at the Museum

On Friday I met my friend Janet for lunch at the Heard Museum.  I arrived early so I could walk around and take photos of some of the outdoor sculptures.  The museum is composed of four buildings.  The main museum building straight ahead in this photo, the gift shop to the right in this photo and the cafe to the left.  There is one more building with offices and meeting rooms located behind me.  They all are arranged around this wonderful courtyard area.

I love the fountain that runs down the center of the  courtyard with two round pools and the long canal of water.    When I sit outside for lunch here, I enjoy watching the birds fly down to the fountain for quick drinks.


I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today.  A visit to one of Chicago's architectural gems.

Boxed

I wasn't sure what to make of this sighting.  There were no belongings sitting near by and it was located to the side of a convenience store.  The pants and socks look in good shape.  Maybe he's on break and felt the need for a little nap.  Or, maybe he's just sleeping it off.

Colorful Umbrellas

There are several restaurants on the south side of the Biltmore Fashion Square shopping center and it seems like all of them have some outdoor seating.  It makes for quite a collection of colorful umbrellas running down the length of the center.

Bus Stop

All over the Valley of the Sun (the Phoenix metropolitan area) there are artistic bus shelters in certain locations.

When I was in Mesa last weekend, I found this bus stop shelter right in front of the high-rise building I featured yesterday.  This has to be one of the most elaborate bus shelter I've spotted around the valley.

I found out it was designed by Joe Tyler and placed there in 2002.  The design consists of a dome supported by artificial palm trees.  Perhaps the artist was inspired by all the palm trees that surround the building.

Glass, Water & Palm Trees

Across the street from Fiesta Mall (featured yesterday) is one of Mesa's few high-rises buildings the 16-story glass tower called the Mesa Financial Plaza.  When it was built the building was called the Western Savings Tower but Western Savings was a financial business that failed back in the 80's when we went through the Savings & Loan crisis.

I was happy to see that the building appears to be thriving with Bank of America being the major financial tenant now.  I always loved these two gorgeous fountains in front of the building. There used to be interesting sculptures on the property but, those appear to be gone now.

I loved the way the water was reflected in the glass building.

It's one of the prettiest fountains in the area!

Death of a Mall....Part 2

I took a drive out to Mesa on Sunday and while I was there, I decided to go inside Fiesta Mall, the mall I featured at the end of last month.  I was curious to see what it looked like inside.  I remembered it as being a new and attractive mall back in the 80's.  From the outside I got the impression that Sears and Best Buy were the only two stores still open.  I was wrong.

Although there were quite a lot of empty stores, there were still lots of stores that were open.

Then I noticed that Dillard's was open which surprised me.  I saw hardly any cars on that side of the mall.  When I went inside Dillards I noticed that there were signs everywhere saying "Inventory Closeout" and it had that warehouse look to it with racks and racks of sale items.  It looks like Dillard's will be closing soon.

I stopped by the food court for a quick peek.  I was there at noon and as you can see, not many people were getting lunch.

On the end of the mall by Sears, there was a very nice playground that was being used by quite a few children. 

One thing that impressed me was that the mall was quite attractive.  I think I was expecting it to be a bit run-down but, that wasn't the case at all.  It was just very, very quiet.  Not at all what it's like when I visit Scottsdale Fashion Square.  I'm glad I stopped to see what it is like now.

Hug a Tree

If it hadn't been for a comment that Grace (Perth Daily Photo) left on my site yesterday, I would not have known that today is Love a Tree day. I looked it up and sure enough, loving a tree is one of the designations for May 16th.    So I encourage you to do like this Northern Mockingbird, give a tree a hug today.  If you are not into hugging, an appreciative and admiring glance will also work.

Another Bloom'n Tree

While driving toward mid-town yesterday, I caught sight of this tree out of the corner of my eye.  Those gorgeous purple blooms had me so enthralled that I turned around to get a closer look.

I don't recall seeing one exactly like this before so I had to do some research to find out what it is.  It's called a Chaste Tree or sometimes Monk's Pepper.  Those long spiky flowers appear at the end of the branches.

It was sitting in the middle of someone's front yard so I had to do a little zooming in to get a close-up shot of those gorgeous flowers.  I think I might have a new favorite tree!

I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns.  I'm back at the Huntington again but, this time I concentrate on the masterpieces in the art collection.

Super Indian.....follow-up story

I'll apologize up front for the somewhat grainy photo.  I took it right off of my computer screen.  I wanted to follow up on yesterday's post after I saw this story on a local television show.  We have a local show that is a version of the national PBS show call Antiques Roadshow.  The local show is called Arizona Collectables.  Thursday night, the TV was on but I wasn't watching it directly.  That is until I heard this story when I stopped what I was doing and made my way to the TV.  The painting  above is by an artist named T.C. Cannon, a Native American artist who studied under Fritz Scholder (the artist I featured yesterday) at the school he taught at in Santa Fe.  The lady above on the right bought this painting at a Goodwill Thrift store for $7.99 because she just loved it.  The appraiser on the left told her that in its present condition it was worth around $15,000.00.  She went on to say that if she had it professionally cleaned and a couple of places repaired, it would be worth $25,000.00.  How is that for fantastic return on her money?  The lady who owned the painting had no idea of its worth and said she would still love it even if it turned out to be worthless.

T.C. Cannon was one of Fritz Scholder's students and I can certainly see some similarity to the paintings I featured yesterday.  I just thought it was such a coincidence that I featured that story yesterday and then found this connection to the same artist.  It also shows just how much influence Scholder had on the American Indian contemporary art scene.

Super Indian

When I was at the Phoenix Art Museum a couple of weeks ago I saw an exhibit called Super Indian and I was introduced to an artist I had not heard of before, Fritz Scholder.  He was a Native American artist who became one to the first to be recognized for his contributions to contemporary art.  He challenged the cultural stereotypes of American Indians through works that were bold, colorful and uniquely abstract.

The description for this painting, his first in this series reads:

"When Scholder moved to Santa Fe in 1964 to teach art to Native American students at the Institute of American Indian Arts, he vowed never to paint and Indian.  Three years later he broke that vow and painted Indian No. 1 (left) as an experiment in how to depict Indian imagery in a new way."

 
Scholder and his students looked at historic photographs of Native Americans for inspiration.  This one was inspired by a photo from an Arikara Medicine Ceremony.

This one is titled American Portrait with One Eye.  It was done in 1975, eight years after he started his abstract series.

This one is called End of the Trail and was painted in 1970.

I enjoyed seeing these paintings and learning about this man.  I can certainly see the influence he's had when I peruse the local galleries where Native American Art is shown.

Hacienda

I circled back after passing by this home in Paradise Valley.  That southwestern pueblo style caught my eye and I was determined to get a photo of the place.  The only angle that would work was from this corner.  There were too many trees along the front and they hid the beauty of the place.  This the kind of house you could pick up and drop down in Santa Fe New Mexico and it would still fit right in.

More Yellow Blooms

I'm still seeing a lot of palo verde trees blooming all around town.  Some started blooming back in March and others waited a little while to show their colors.

I couldn't resist stopping for some photos when I saw this long row of trees along a street in Scottsdale.  

Pretty soon, they will all be back to their light green color and I'll be missing that spring time look.

America's Best.....what?

If I hadn't seen this sign hanging in the Ladies room at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, I would never have known that there was a judging system and award for restrooms in America.  Apparently, there is and here's a link to the site to prove it.

It is a nice looking ladies room with some panels the change to soft colors to take the edge of the stark stainless steel.

I'll assume that the gents is just as nice but, I didn't check it out just to make sure.  I'm going to have to take a closer look at restroom design from now on.  You never know, I might find one that got top billing!

Create Academy

This wall on the side of a school faces a busy street and looked rather dull and plain until just recently when it got a new paint job.  I'd say this colorful, abstract mural better represents the name of this school.

The Cart and the Donkey

This yard is decorated with a cart loaded with barrels and a donkey loaded with luggage.  The cart and barrels look like real antiques.  I found this by accident when I was tying to locate an address.  This wasn't the place I was looking for but I stopped to get a photo anyway.  I hope you are having a great Sunday!

I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today.  I'm back at The Huntington and looking inside the grand home on the estate.

One Bloom

This single bloom on a desert rose plant caught my eye.  It was not only the only bloom, there were absolutely no leaves on this plant either.  In fact, if it hadn't been for this bloom, I would have thought the plant had died.

It made me wonder if the leaves would pop out soon or if this flower was it's last effort.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This garden seems to be growing just beautifully.  I found this garden near the front door of home in my neighborhood.  It was too beautiful to resist.  I drove around the block to go back for a photo.

Jeep with all the Trimmings

I snapped this shot out the car window while I was sitting at a traffic light.  I noticed that this Jeep was decked out with all the trimmings. Big tires, special lights and a big rack on top to carry all that camping gear.  Very nice!

By the way, that's a "red light" traffic camera sticking up above that fence.  It's aimed at the intersection to catch people who run red lights.

More Cactus Beauty

One of the great things about living in a desert area is that I can find beautiful blooming cactus almost everywhere in the spring time.

These pink beauties were in someone's yard.

I spotted this colorful cactus in the front yard of a home not far from where I live.

These three were a stand out in that cluster of blooms.

Hey Y'All

When I took that Phoenix Home & Garden tour a few weeks ago, I took a lot of photos at each house.  Some of those photos were just little details that caught my eye.  I thought I'd do a post of some of those details.  Above is a cute pillow that was on a patio chair.

A beautiful ceramic jug graced an opening in the wall that enclosed an outdoor dining area.

A colorful little birdhouse hung from a backyard tree.

Here a peaceful looking Buddha had a calming effect in a small garden area.

I love little details like this.

Dinner in the Garden

My good friend Julie (remember her from Scottsdale Daily Photo) invited me to attend the annual fundraiser dinner for the Desert Botanical Garden with her and her mother Glenda on Saturday night.  It turned out to be a fabulous event even if the weather was little less than perfect.

As we arrived, there was a light sprinkling of rain and a lot of wind and dark skies but, fortunately it never turned into a messy storm.

This lady was posing near the entrance and she blended in nicely with that backdrop.

The piano player was safely tucked under a cover just in case those dark clouds opened up.

And, then there was a surprise "after party" with a great band called The Rave.  They played a lot of music from the 60's and 70's which had my toes tapping right along.

Thanks again Julie!  It was a totally fun evening.

Theme Day: Smell

The first day of the month is always "Theme Day" for City Daily Photo Bloggers and this month's theme is "smell".  I chose a plant that most people would call smelly.  This plant is sometimes called the Starfish Cactus but, it's real name is Stapelia grandiflora but, a more morbid name for it is the carrion flower.  It's rather unpleasant odor is used to attract insects that pollinate the plant.  Although it looks a lot like a cactus, this plant is actually part of the succulent plants group.

To see other City Daily Photo Blogger's choice for the theme, click here.

I have a new post on Sharon's Sojourns today.  I'm visiting a garden, a library, a gallery and a grand estate all in one stop.