While I was admiring all the copper on the outside of the Scottsdale Museum of the West, I took another sneaky photo of The Greeter statue located behind the museum.
I spied him through the branches of a palo verde tree and thought I get the photo while he wasn't looking. 😁
I featured this statue in a post back in 2020. You can see a clear shot here.
The Scottsdale Museum of the West is located in a copper-clad building in the heart of the Scottsdale Gallery District. All that copper against a blue sky makes for some interesting photo ops.
I took advantage of the light and snapped a few photos of the museum's exterior.
All that copper makes a rather weathered background for an equally weathered yucca plant.
My favorite scene is to catch that copper against a bright blue sky with a few passing white clouds.
Just a bit of architectural abstract framing.
There was a display at the Scottsdale Museum of the West of a few of Andy Warhol's works based on western themes. A portrait of John Wayne was among the prints on view. However, it was these pieces by Billy Schenck that caught my eye. Schenck was inspired by Warhol's works and started using the same thechniques with some of the promotional materials created by movie companies.
Saturday was my museum day. I stopped at The Shemer Art Museum first and then went to the Scottsdale Museum of the West. I hadn't been to the Museum of the West since long before the pandemic.
Inside the museum, I found this western scene painted on a wall and continuing out over the floor. It's quite an impressive painting. That horse's body is on the wall but his neck and head are painted on the floor. The 3-D illusion is perfect.
I'm not sure if this qualifies as a mural but I think it's pretty special so I'm going to use it for Monday Murals.
We had another break in the weather with a crazy storm that hit Thursday night. Lot's of lightening, thunder and crazy winds. It managed to bring the temperatures down once again so I took another garden walk on Friday afternoon. It was sprinkling rain most of the time but not enough to get anyone wet.
I found a desert rose to photograph along with these tall cacti with the stormy skies above them.
It wasn't raining enough to deter the butterflies or the bees. They were still making a showing.
I found another one of those painted horses in Scottsdale. It was a fund raising event for the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show last spring and I was seeing these painted horses all over town. I posted three of them back in April.
I just recently saw this one in front of a cafe in Scottsdale.
This one is called Sunflower Soul and it was painted by Tiesha Harrison.
I like Sunflower's location in amongst the bougainvillea bushes.
Three or four years ago, a friend gave me a bottle of champagne that had this depiction of the Eiffel Tower on the bottle. I kept the bottle because I liked the look of it.
Last year, another friend gave me a set of LED lights that you can slip down into a bottle to light it up. So now the Eiffel Tower glows at night!
The City Daily Photo Bloggers theme for September 1st is "Bottle". To see other bottles, click here.
Here are a few more scenes from the Desert Botanical Garden trail I featured yesterday. Above is a little shelter and an animal corral and to the right, a fenced garden.
This spot is described as "kitchen" or cooking area.
Another animal corral above and a clay vessel for holding water to the right.
This trail tells a story of how ancient civilizations lived in the harsh, desert environment.
There is one trail at the Desert Botanical Garden that is called the Plants and People of the Sonoran Desert Loop. On that trail, there are many places with examples of the types of homes or shelters that indigenous people once built.
This particular shelter is getting some new "siding". I was impressed that the new branches were being tied on to the structure with long, thin pieces of plant fiber. No modern techniques were used.
This trail highlights how indigenous people used native plants for food, fiber and shelter.
I pass by this building quite often and I've noticed the rock wall with the clock on it many times but it wasn't until a few days ago that I saw that it was created to look like a wrist watch with a nice multi-colored band.
These days that corner office space houses a Kids Dental office. I couldn't find any history information on the building but I'm betting there used to be a jewelers in that building years ago.
I saw this brand new mural on the side of an apartment complex on Thomas Road recently. I recognize that black and white cactus as the work of Andrew Brown who sometimes goes by the name "Soldier Leisure". I wish that advertising flag to the right wasn't in the way but there was nothing I could do about that. I love the clouds in this one.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
Two years ago I posted that one of my favorite shrubs had been savagely pruned down to just the base. You can see that post here.
When I was at the garden last Sunday, I was pleased to see that it had grown back and was nice and full and surprisingly, showing a few blooms. This is a guayacan bush and it usually blooms during the month of May. I was surprised to see a few blooms on it in August especially after the extreme heat we endured during July.
I noticed that all the prickly pear cactus at the garden last Sunday were simply overloaded with fruit. Native peoples harvested the fruit to make wine, juice and sweets.
Even today you can still find prickly pear cactus candy for sale. You find it mostly in souvenir shops but it's still around.
For anyone who still makes candy or syrups from prickly pear fruit, it looks like this year will be a good harvest.
Besides all the bird sightings from last Sunday, here are a few of the little critters I encountered on my walk. This rabbit thought he was hiding under a shrub but I spotted him.
This squirrel scampered across the trail in front of me and then stopped for a snack on the other side. Those mesquite seed pods must be pretty tasty.
Finally, this little desert spiny lizard stopped by for a quick visit. It seems like these fellows are always happy to pose for a photo or two.
The lovebirds I featured yesterday weren't the only birds I enjoyed watching. There were several birds at the fountain. This photo made me laugh. Doesn't it look like that little bird is saying "hey, you're splashing water all over me".
This tiny little hummingbird stopped by for a quick drink.
The seeds on these flowers must be very tasty. Lots of birds were jumping from bloom to bloom. This handsome goldfinch stopped long enough to pose for a photo.
I mentioned yesterday that when I was at the garden last Sunday, I had many encounters with the different wildlife that inhabit the area. One of those encounters was with a group of peach-faced lovebirds who were very busy eating all the seeds on the these flowers. These two seem to have spotted my camera and were kind enough to give me a smile.
Here is something we humans can't do, eat while hanging upside down.
As usual, these birds were so much fun to watch. They really are quite the characters.
We had a big change in weather this last weekend. It was cloudy with temperatures in the 80's so I decided to do an early morning walk at the Desert Botanical Garden Sunday morning. It was a bit humid but, it was perfect walking weather.
We are getting a bit of the remnants of the hurricane that hit California so badly. We just didn't get the heavy rain. We only saw a few sprinkles here and there.
I climbed the high trail so I could catch the sunrise. I was hoping for some spectacular color but this was the best I got.
It was so much fun to be out walking in my favorite place once again. All the animals and birds were out and about so I was able to get lots and lots of great photos. The desert critters almost seemed happy to see some people around.
I found this colorful mural on the side of a house converted to a pizza restaurant. I didn't see a signature but I do like the wild patterns in this one.
Right across the street is another building with something similar painted on the side. I'm guessing it might be the work of the same artist.
Taking part in Monday Murals.
Way back in 2007, my friends Julie & Dave introduced me to Crystal Cove State Park on the Newport Coast in California. At that time, it was just in the beginning phase of the restoration and preservation of a tiny beach village where a settlement of people lived in rustic cottages built in the 1920's and 1930's. I took the photo above on that first visit in 2007. I found the old rusted mailbox sitting on the porch of one of the cottages and I thought it had a certain historic charm.
When I returned to the spot in 2013, the old rusty mailbox had been replaced by this new one painted with depictions of the area.
In 2014, the new mailbox was still being used and still sitting on the same porch.
I photographed it again in 2015 when I could see that the rust that had started at the back of the mailbox was now creeping over the top of it.
The 2018 photo above shows the the mailbox was still there in spite of the progression of the rust.
I took the photo to the right just last week when I was in California. That mailbox is still there and in exactly the same spot but it's starting to look similar to the one I photographed all those years ago. If you live by the sea, a little rust is inevitable.
That historic charm that caught my eye in 2007 is still working its magic all these years later.
