Last time at The Preserve

Yesterday was my last run at the Riparian Preserve for this visit to Phoenix.

Not as many flowers this year due to the dryness. Water levels in the ponds were up a little over the last time I was there 2 weeks ago before the rain.

The birds were wonderful! There were at least 15 species of water birds. Hundreds of Least Sandpipers and Northern Shovelers. Many snowy egrets, blue herons, mallards, coots, anhingas, geese and black necked stilts. Lots of perching birds including white crowned sparrows, mocking birds, great tailed grackles, doves, cactus wrens, and lesser goldfinches. I saw several Albert's Towhees and one hummingbird, probably Anna's. The air is filled with the sound of birds. It makes my heart happy to be in such a place.

Another wonderful thing I have not previously mentioned about Mesa is the large number of orange groves. They are mostly in the northeastern quadrant and are what remain of even more orchards in days gone by. When we get off the 202 and head south into Mesa, the fragrance of the blossoms just hits you in the face. It is lovely! They have been in full bloom recently. The Mesa orchard areas resemble the Santa Clara Valley in CA (Silicon Valley) as it must have been before development overwhelmed the apricot orchards. There are still a few orchards here and there, but in the first half of the 20th century, the valley was known as Valley of Heart's Delight. It must have been beautiful. I wish I had seen it then. Many we know there did. So this area of Mesa reminds me of the Valley.

Sadly we leave here tomorrow. It has been a wonderful visit with good friends and our wonderful family both here and those who visited. We never get to do everything we want, but we did work in a lot!

On to LA.


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Hike at Pinnacle Peak

Today we did a hike with Jan, Steve and Mary (last two are Gary's siblings; Jan is Steve's wife). Lovely day at Pinnacle Peak Park. Boy oh boy did I feel this hike. It's been way too long since I did this much vertical. Sore legs tonight, in spite of runs and walks recently. Vertical does make a difference!
We had a lovely lunch after the hike at DC Ranch, a residential area and shops not far from Pinnacle Peak. Then we said our goodbyes to all, as we are leaving on Friday. Great to be here with such good friends and relatives! We had a great time.
Pinnacle Peak

View from the trail

Steve, Jan, Gary, Mary

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Two MIM events

We have been at the Musical Instrument Museum two additional times.

The first was a wonderful concert at the MIM Music Theater with the Amelia Piano Trio - violin, cello and piano. They performed Piano Trio No. 1 in G Minor by Rachmaninoff, Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor by Shostakovich, and Trio in E minor, Op 90, "Dumky" by Dvorak. All were wonderful, especially the Dvorak which was spectacular. This group was formed in 1999 and they have performed in many prominent venues like Carnegie Hall. They are all professors of music at the U of Hartford and Connecticut College. We thought the music hall was very good. The whole complex is beautiful and well designed.

Then today we were so happy to be able to go to an event hosted by Minneapolis friends Margee and Will Bracken at MIM. The Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra had special guests Erin Keefe, Concertmaster, and Andrey Tchekmazov, cello, who did a short concert, Duo for Violin and Cello by Zoltán Kodály. Each also performed separately. It was wonderful!! We were so pleased to see several other Minneapolis people /Plymouth Church members, and met some other Minnesotans. We also heard from the Minneapolis architect about what they wanted to do with the building design and the exhibits. This instrument collection is the most comprehensive among the several other instrument museums. Exhibits cover countries worldwide rather than more limited places. The building evokes fluidity and harmony.

The MN Orchestra faces the same problems that many orchestras do everywhere. The old financial models and the recession have caused deficits. But they as others are trying to find new ways of financing and operating, and are seeking new audiences.

Very lovely times at MIM!

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A visit to Taliesin West and ballgame

On Thursday, March 22, we began our day with my brother John and sister-in-law Nancy with a tour of Taliesin West.

After Frank Lloyd Wright married his third wife, he built Taliesin West in Scottsdale as a personal winter home, studio and training academy for aspiring young architects. Today it is no longer a home for any of his descendants, but is still a school for "apprentices", fully accredited as a college and post graduate school. The house is used for a wide variety of purposes including architectural classrooms, studios, and for performance. The apprentices live at Taliesin West and often build their own shelters in the nearby desert as part of their training. To view these shelters, you have to take a separate tour which we didn't do. But they are imaginative and interesting, as we were told.

Our tour was of the house and the immediately surrounding grounds. This house was built starting in 1937. Wright believed that a home should be an integral part of the environment, so materials are natural and local, and the design as unobtrusive as possible. As our wonderful tour guide said, it is a work in process because needs and uses change, and materials need to be repaired or even replaced, like the canvas roof coverings. Much of the home is now air conditioned.

It is a wonderful location with views of the valley below. It is a serene place and a timeless design from a man who changed the face of architecture in the US.

This photo is from the Web site.


So is this one. We weren't allowed to take any interior photos of the former living areas.


These are mine.





















In the evening we went to a Colorado Rockies baseball game at Salt River Fields. Rockies won handily over the SF Giants 7-0. I don't know what the Giants were doing that night in terms of goals for the game, but it wasn't to try to win! They were awful. But Spring Training is for all kinds of purposes, not just winning. They, maybe, were looking at the starting pitcher and several minor league players. Buster Posey and The Beard were not seen which was a disappointment.

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With John and Nancy

My brother, John, and my sister-in-law, Nancy, are here from Denver for a visit with us to the desert and to have some fun! Yesterday we went to the Desert Botanical Garden at Papago Park. It was a perfect day - absolutely clear skies and a perfect temperature.
We toured all the loops of this wonderful area of desert, enhanced because they do water when extreme dryness prevails. We believe, however, that the recent rains have helped all the areas to better wildflower and cactus bloom production.
Here are some photos from the day. Wonderful to be with John and Nancy.
Nancy, Gary, John

John and Nancy standing in front of the glass sculptures at the entrance.



John talking to a volunteer about his wind instruments




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After the rain and snow....

We went to a Cubs game at HoHoKam Stadium yesterday. It was not warm! Minneapolis was warmer than Phoenix! I snapped this photo looking northeast at the mountains after the snow. Look carefully in the background. Amazing to see this in March. The Arizona Snow Bowl up north received 56".

The Cubs lost 6-2 to the Texas Rangers. We left at the end of the 7th to go warm up at Starbucks!




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Wonderful time at John and Mary's

We had a lovely brunch at Mary (Gary's sister), and her husband John's house today. Gary's brother Steve and wife Jan, and our niece Denise and husband Patrick were also there.

Denise and Patrick live in the SF Bay Area and flew back this afternoon. Very nice to be with everyone! We had to take two photos to get everyone in.

It is raining right now here in Mesa. It is also cold - about 46 degrees! I see on Weather.com that it is currently 78 in Minneapolis. This is upside down. As we were driving back from John and Mary's, we could see snow on the Superstition Mountains to the east, not very far from where we are staying! I wonder if they played any Spring Training games today......






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New iPad

Gary just got his New iPad! Waited all morning for the FedEx truck to get here. The delivery guy said there were 2500 being delivered just today, just out of the Tempe location. That doesn't count what will be delivered tomorrow!

Oh joy, a new toy!










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Baseball Games 3 and 4

Tuesday we went to our third baseball game. We met friends Rich and Cammy to see the Los Angeles Angels vs the Arizona Cardinals at Salt River Fields. Beautiful - perfect weather, and Gary had secured another set of great seats in full shade which I just love, since it is in the 80s here. The Cardinals looked really bad again and did not score a single run against the Angels. Since this is Spring Training, one doesn't know what to think. That being said, they used Roster players for the early innings of the game, and they should be able to score a few runs! The Angeles looked really good.

After the game we came to our RV so Rich and Cammy could see our "digs", and then we went out for pizza. Really nice to be with these good friends.

Yesterday we went back to Salt River. We circled the field to see everything. This is a REALLY nice ballpark! We saw the Colorado Rockies vs the Chicago Cubs. The Rockies looked great! They won 7-5. We had so hoped to see Michael Cuddyer who was the former outfielder for the Twins, and who was traded away to the Rockies, much to many people's sadness in the Twin Cities. He was a team leader and a guy who would play any position and do anything to help his team. He was also a very good citizen of Minneapolis. So Rockies fans: You got a good one! We have two more Rockies games to see, so hopefully Michael will play.

This is Dinger, the official mascot of the Rockies. He visited our section.



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Hike at Desert Mountain

Just a couple more photos from Desert Mountain. My sister-in-law Jan, her friend Patti, and I did a beautiful loop trail that was recently opened within the property boundary. Lovely! The elevation there provides wonderful views of the valley. Not very many wildflowers this year due to the dryness.









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The house at Desert Mountain

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Bike ride

Gary and Steve off on a 35 mile bike ride. Oh, yes, there will be hills!!






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Morning at Desert Mountain

At Steve and Jan's house



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Location:N 107th Pl,Scottsdale,United States

Hike at Lost Dog Trail

We had a lovely hike at Lost Dog Trail today, an area in the McDowell Mountains (McDowell Mountain Regional Park) to the east of Scottsdale. We went with good friends Rich and Cammy from Minneapolis, who are here for two months. Cammy is in my walking group, they are Plymouth Church members and belong to several other groups we are also part of.
It was a perfect day, weather-wise. Lovely sunshine and low 70's. After the hike we went to their condo at Gainey Ranch for lunch. Really great to connect with them here. Cammy will be posting an additional photo on Facebook. We couldn't find a prop to place her camera for a time- delayed all group photo, so the photos are separate to get all of us.
Not many flowers this year. It has been VERY dry here - way below the normal amount of rain. But the cactus (correction: cactii) are always great. At 1700 - 2000 feet, we were at a level where there are saguaro and many others. The only thing in bloom was one ocotillo.

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Baseball Game 2

We went to our second Spring Training baseball game yesterday - at Camelback Ranch - Glendale. We saw the SF Giants vs the LA Dodgers. Giants easily won - Yea! (We left before the last inning.) Saw many starters, but by the seventh inning there were mostly non roster players. I actually like seeing the young guys out there. Yesterday there were several pitchers who were obviously making their Major League debuts. We could hear their families and friends cheering them on. High 5s in the Giants dugout several times following a newbie's successful inning. I will say that at this point the Giants look great!! Lots of talent in all positions. The bats are strong! I predict they will do well this year, again!

As we left the stadium we could see out west what appeared to be a huge dust cloud - the winds had really picked up. But it turned out to be the smoke from a very large brush fire near Buckeye to the west of Phoenix. The air quality was not very good yesterday. But the temps were perfect.

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First Baseball Game

Yesterday (Sunday), we went to our first Cactus League Spring Training game of the season. It was at the brand new (opened last year) Salt River Fields, shared by the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies. The stadium is wonderful - great training facilities that are totally separate for each team and beautiful field and stands.

We saw the Diamondbacks vs the SF Giants. No spring training game really means anything, but the Giants just killed the Diamondbacks 11-1. Both teams used many invitees (non roster players) who come to spring training every year, hoping for good things to happen for them. But we saw some starters, too.

By far the most interesting time during the game was the invasion of the stadium by a swarm of bees. The game was delayed by almost an hour as they flew around, mostly on our side, the first base side. Many people had to leave their seats. At one point the ground crews arrived in their golf carts. My sister-in-law said, "Oh good! Here come the Keystone Cops!" They were armed with one lemon which they squeezed on a shovel (no idea what that was for) and a blue cotton candy which they apparently thought might attract the bees away from the area. The bees weren't cooperating at all. They finally decided to gather together inside the first base dugout, and there they stayed until beyond the end of the game which finally got under way again. No idea what became of the bees. Presumably a bee keeper was called in later to get them out.

We had fun with Gary's brother, sister and their spouses!










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Heard Museum Indian Fair & Market

On Saturday we went to the 54th Annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market. When we heard a TV promo about it we did some further research and found out that this is a really big deal! It is a spectacular show of the very best Indian artists from around North America. There were artists from British Columbia, Central and Eastern Canada (no Inuit, though, that we saw), from upstate New York, from the mid West, and from all over the desert Southwest of many different tribes. As a juried show, we could see the results of the judging in all the various art categories.

The artists were such interesting people, and readily engaged shoppers in conversation, explaining their work and how they did it. I have been interested in Indian art for a long time. My mother was given about 5 superb Southwest Indian baskets by her uncle and aunt (my great). They toured the southwest in the early 1900's, and collected both baskets and pottery. I was given these treasures which are in our living room now.  (I have a few pieces of pottery as well. They, unfortunately, were damaged in the Loma Prieta earthquake when we lived in Los Altos in 1989. Gary pieced them back together after they crashed from our mantel to the hearth, so they are still somewhat together, but not like before.)

At this fair we didn't see very many baskets. I don't know quite what to think about that (maybe we just missed them), but there was lots of pottery, sculpture, painting, photos, jewelry, textiles including some fabulous rugs, leather goods and other miscellaneous art.

I was particularly intrigued with a jacket made by a woman from upstate New York. It was a Treaty Jacket. The story of the cloth is fascinating. I think the story is as follows: There was a treaty following the Revolutionary War, signed by the Grand Council of the Six (Indian) Nations and President George Washington, signed in Canandaigua, New York in 1794 - The Treaty of Canandaigua, aka The Pickering Treaty and the Calico Treaty. This treaty is still actively recognized by the U.S. and by the current Indian confederacy. The Six Nations in New York still receive calico cloth as payment under the treaty. Every tribal member who annually signs up to receive cloth gets 3 yards. Every year like clockwork, a representative of the US government arrives to deliver the cloth. It is just plain off-white fabric. The woman joked about this "fabulous payment" for the land that was ceded to the U.S. under the treaty. Nonetheless, she uses hers to create a jacket each year, trimmed in a wonderful blue border pattern and imprinted on the back with words from the treaty. It was already sold when we saw it. I am kicking myself that I didn't take a photo of it as it was still on display.

I bought a beautiful Navajo pendant of inlaid stones and a pair of sterling earrings - an anniversary present!! We saw many other items that we loved but sadly passed up (pricey!).

Regarding photos, Gary and I learned many years ago that we non Indians have to be very careful about taking photos of Indians, especially the Navajo, but maybe others as well. They believe that the photo steals some of their soul. So I respected that, except for this one, of these two women working on something behind one of the tents, which I took surreptitiously. The others are poached from the Art Fair Web site, so those are OK.

Fun loving Canadians

In our RV park we are pretty much surrounded by Canadians who are here annually and have gotten to know each other very well. This morning one of them is preparing to depart. The others have gathered for photos, and are now seated across from the departing couple, watching their preparations. They are hooting, teasing and giving the poor guy a really hard time, just watching for mistakes and trouble. Getting an RV ready for departure is many faceted - hoses rolled and stowed, connectors disconnected and stowed, slides drawn in, outdoor furniture stowed, the list goes on.

They are all having a great time!
Hope the departing pair are not going too far north just yet!!

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