Tucson Time

Winds are blowing and hot desert days are here. Snowbirds flee and gee, I must be a desert rat, because I revel in the reduced numbers on our dusty streets.

The heat makes me focus more, on little things. I watch the javelina taking it slower. A parade of them lumbered past us, up the trail adjoining our house, making their way to their daily stomping grounds. Our mother dove sits patiently on her newborns, who are quiet having just been fed.

I'll let my iPhone speak for me now. Please see more about my Tucson at my website's corral.

An Explorer's Butterfly on New Year's Eve

First pix taken by my new iPhone is an Australian blue tiger butterfly, which I found resting in the temporary aviary set up at the Tucson Botanical Garden. I read that the great navigator Captain James Cook saw masses of these butterflies in 1770 nearby the coastlands of Queensland. And here they are in Tucson.

Today we dismantle the Rooted in Place exhibit that Leigh and Jim installed (with Peggy's help) downtown. It was a good photographic show that focused on the importance of placemaking in our lives. As my family travels back to New York after one week of holiday good times here in Tucson, the concept of placemaking as a state of mind (and one that resides in the heart) takes on new meaning. I miss them already.

December 31 - It's a turning of the page. It's also our 36th anniversary. A day to look ahead to a good 2009. I raise my wine glass (and my iPhone, my journal and my camera) in a toast with blessings to us all.