late November

I've been thinking about seasons and landscapes. 

Saguaros are everywhere in the Tucson area, common as hemlock here in the northeast. Those arms make them seem lifelike, friendly, welcoming.

This one, (which seems to be dying) reminded me of the Straw Man from Wizard of Oz.

Birds nest in holes in their bodies. Their night-blooming flowers, white and yellow, appear in the spring, and their ruby red fruit is edible.

In New Zealand it is spring. Here it is leafless and bitter cold. I read Polar Star, which was fascinating. A fish processing factory on a ship in the Bering Sea. Truly bitter. I will never look at cat food the same way.

We're going to the Catskills for Thanksgiving, and I'm hoping for snow to soften the starkness of November. A roaring fire, icicles. I spend too much time inside in the winter, looking out (or down at my book).

It's deer hunting season, which I used to hate, until I thought about the slow starvation of deer through the long winters (which happens when there are too many). Actually, I still hate it, just a little less.

A year ago we adopted Aji and Masa. They had been sheltering under a porch. Now it seems like they've always been here.

houses, Barrio Viejo, Tucson

Ten days back in the cool sensible northeast, and it's just a memory--brilliant heat and colors, the strangeness of cactus, the proliferation of taquerias. The sense of space--I could drive north into the Navajo Nation, the Grand Canyon, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana; or east into New Mexico and Texas--big open places that make New England seem charming and quaint, which is not a bad thing, just different.

big iron

Colorful adobe houses. Prickly pear cactus.

Walking across the bridge into Nogales, Mexico.

Saguaros

 Javelinas

Vistas

My favorite things from southern Arizona. I've drafted detailed posts on these subjects, and will surely get back to some of them, but for now a sense of how different it was, strange and wonderful--both desolate and welcoming. 

No picture of how hot (97 degrees in October) and dry (as someone, said, you don't need a towel when you get out of the shower).  The Javelinas and Saguaros, were everywhere (along with roadrunners and rattlesnakes) and so amusing. The border crossing was disturbing, but the best taco of the trip was from a cart in Nogales, Mexico. 

I'm off to green, cool, wet, upstate New York. 

Enjoy your weekend--

Jen

windows, Barrio Viejo

The Barrio Viejo (old neighborhood) in Tucson is filled with charming adobe houses painted the colors of Easter eggs and Jordan almonds. Tucson is only an hour's drive from Mexico, and that influence is everywhere--food, architecture, music, art, clothes... I was in heaven with a taqueria on every corner. People were very friendly too. I took a lot more pictures of the houses, and will post them another time.

I can't decide if I want a lime green house with pink trim, or a pink house with lime green trim. And a yellow door. (And if the house is pink, what shade?)

See a great slideshow of colorful towns here.

Tucson to Tumacacori

Goodbye cactus, canyons, taquerias, roadrunners, baby scorpion...
Back to cool, green, rain.
(More soon.)

no flowers in the house

I can't take part in Flowers in the House today,
because I left home, which looks like this,

this

this

and this

for a place where the things I might pick

 look like this

this

this

and this. 

But don't you miss it--the tales of Jane, Gus, Lucy and friends and flowers will make your day a good one.  

p.s. I am mostly internet-free this week, but will catch up with you when I'm back in the verdant northeast.