My hometown. Been to the street fair many times. Everyone should see it sometime. Great photos and post.
Folks sip margaritas and beer,
smoke babyback ribs, gorge themselves
on sweet corn and watermelon,
clamoring for the yearly fireworks show,
patriotic bombs bursting in air
to celebrate the unalienable rights
to send aliens back where they came from
and to treat everyone as an illegal
just for breathing the air of liberty
in the land of the free and home of the brave.
Storm clouds build on the mountains,
gusts whipping through the valley
shaking ancient saguaro to the roots.
— Sonoran Monsoon Season by Audell Shelburne
(CLICK ON ANY OF THE IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW IN A SLIDESHOW FORMAT)
Tucson 4th Avenue Street Fair Snapshots (December 13, 2014) Images by kenne
I couldn’t resist reblogging. The photo of the path down the canyon is amazing.
Thirty plus of us started at the North Rim at 7a.m. The group consisted mostly of Federal Highway administrator friends of Dan, Dan, the Transportation Man. Pre-trip, I asked him about the weather. He said he’d never seen a cloud on his previous three hikes.
Within the first 500 meters, lightening danced around us, hail fell from the sky, and we saw a dead mule covered with a tarp. The hail turned to light rain and we enjoyed cloud cover off and on throughout the day. The Canyon vets said it was about 25 degrees cooler than normal. I may have never made it if it was 100+.
Hiking the canyon is an enigma, your spirit is lifted while your body is punished. I had my bike computer in my pocket, but its global positioning system was cutting in and out meaning the mileage was off, but the first half descent of 6,600′ seemed spot on. The toughest point…
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One of the most popular succulents to be used in desert landscaping is the Yucca known as Adam’s Needle, or Yucca Filamentosa.
I have a lovely in my front yard that in about one week has raised a huge stalk in the center. These plants don’t require more than the usual desert rains and have small barbs on their fleshy leaves – if you rake across one it is a bit like a saw and it will break the skin. At some point the stalk unwinds and blooms appear.
This excerpt taken from http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/398/adams-needle/
The best of the yuccas for low maintenance, drought resistant landscaping. Develops a dense rosette of dark green leaves with a distinctive blue cast. Flowers in summer with grand spires of fragrant snow white bells. Suited to containers. Evergreen.
Here is a photo of my current one; the spire must be over 10 foot tall.
First hand look at the process of branding and living on a ranch. Ranching is important to the Arizona economy.
When we return to the corrals, we set up our stations: Phil and his helper (whoever is going to be back there with him) set up their gates and pens; I make sure my supplies are ready for tying the legs and balls; Sheila and Kit prep the branding, cutting, tagging, and vaccinating tools.
The calves are of course the longest part of the day. The herds we process are about 75 pairs, which means 75 calves. As with all animals, it’s roughly 50% male and 50% female. They get processed on the calf table: a squeeze shoot with a head hole at one end, connected to one solid wall. The other wall is a door that swings open to allow the table (the solid wall) to flip horizontally so we can do everything we need to do to the calf at roughly waist-height.
The assembly line starts with the…
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Beautiful.
Panorama View of the White Mountains, Not Far from Show Low, Arizona — Image by kenne
You can cut the deck,
If you can show low, you win
And I will move on.
— kenne