The photos are mediocre but the sunset wasn’t. Excuse my dirty car and the power lines~from my front yard.
Here’s my patio flamingo…everyone needs a flamingo in their yard…he’s decorative and a windchime…
Today and tomorrow (November 1 and 2) are Los Dias de los Muertos. It’s not a holiday that is part of my heritage but it’s certainly part of Phoenix’ culture and I think it’s a fascinating celebration.
This is a Day of the Dead card I made a couple of years ago for a mailing. This year Halloween and Los Dias de los Muertos snuck up on me and I didn’t get anything created nor did I go to see any of the local ofrendas…yet. I didn’t even get any marigolds but I guess pomegranates (which we have in our yard) also have some vague significance to the holiday.
My cousin, who is more organized than me, sent the above card this year and the cookie last year. This is the poem inside her card.
If you celebrate the holiday in any way, Feliz Dia de los Muertos! It’s a happy holiday, not a sad one.
It’s really his second Halloween, this was last year.
What are you doing for Halloween? Tony’s band is playing at a private party so after the Trick or Treaters have come around, I’ll be heading up there.
I’ll try not to be obnoxious about it but as many of you are putting away your outdoor furniture, raking leaves, pulling out your down parkas, looking for your windshield scrapers, and generally gearing up for the long, icy winter, we in central Arizona are heading into several more months of gorgeous weather. Our “outdoor living areas” were looking tired so I tried to spruce them up a little today.
The geraniums will last until April or May.
And the petunias almost as long.
This guy will be around for another week or so.
These are all on our front porch now. The back patio may not be photo-worthy but I did work on it some today, too, and might have photos later. I spray-painted a rusty metal table and accessorized a little. It’s kind of a strange little patio but I like it.
I thought about buying this bench the other day but the guy talked me out of it by saying the grout and tile might get damaged if it gets hit by our sprinklers and the bench will get doused now and then when the wind is blowing.
So this is the one I selected instead while it was still at the nursery (which is in my last post).
And this is the front outdoor living area today.
I decided to go with elk’s advice and not put a cushion on the bench~let its bones show. We have a lot of cat’s claw, as you can see, but it looks really pretty when its yellow flowers bloom. Fall, winter, and spring~the best times of the year in Phoenix.
Got a new bench for the front porch so the plastique Adirondacks, which are actually very comfortable, are now on the back patio so I can read in peace without the neighbors coming over to bug me every time I want to sit outside for awhile. This bench is more comfy than it looks. I can’t decide if it needs a cushion. The bench seat is curved so I don’t know if a cushion would lay flat against it.
This morning’s view from the bench, love that flare.
This is the old view from the porch.
There was a tree for every mail truck. These trees are very old.
But tree #1 wasn’t doing too well. We kept getting the dead limbs trimmed off. This photo from earlier in the summer shows that it still was green although very sparse.
Even though we watered it frequently, the long hot summer took its toll. So a few days ago, we sadly did what needed to be done and put it out of its misery. It leaves kind of a gaping space in our yard that we’re not sure what to do with yet. It’s always sad when an old tree bites the dust.
And the reason I’m sitting around on the bench drinking coffee instead of going to work is because I have “flu-like symptoms.” I had the seasonal flu vaccine but not the H1N1 one yet because it hasn’t arrived. I work in a hospital so we have to stay home if we have these symptoms. I can’t go back to work until at least Thursday. I don’t feel that bad now other than the persistent, annoying cough.
There were 5 of us out yesterday in my 16 person office. I don’t usually get the flu so I was surprised that one of those was me…Take your echinacea. I didn’t.
Wow, I can’t believe I’ve been gone from my blog so long. It’s mostly because I’ve taken very few photos since returning to Phoenix almost 3 weeks ago. So it’s a good thing I still have a lot of midwest photos left.
This is the Morris Performing Arts Center in South Bend, built in 1921.
While it’s getting colder and colder in the midwest, it’s heating up again here in Phoenix~supposed to hit 100 again tomorrow. We had some nice fall days last week and I’m sure they’ll return soon. Meanwhile, I’m trying to spruce up our front porch and patio this weekend. And maybe take some photos of something…
Northern Indiana, southern Michigan…my mom driving, me shooting…almost 2 weeks ago.
These are the kinds of scenes that used to bore me no end when I was a child and we were driving to one of the other towns that my relatives lived in. My father would always say, “Look at these fields and farms, this is the breadbasket of the nation,” and I would roll my eyes and go back to my book or whatever else I was doing. Now I understand.
That’s a compass that you see on the middle of the windshield. That was the first thing my father used to put on a new car and this is the last car my parents bought before he died several years ago. My mother doesn’t drive very far so it’s still in pristine condition. I think it adds a little to the composition…
Love those barns, fields, and farmhouses…
My midwest photofest is almost at an end but I’ve been distracted since being back in AZ and haven’t used my camera once so I hope I get out shooting soon.
Phoenix has been my home for far longer than anywhere else I’ve lived but the town I consider my old hometown is where I went to high school and where my mother still lives.
Here’s what it’s known for…
The last one is pretty much a giveaway.
The University of Notre Dame, Studebakers, South Bend Chocolate, and that’s about it…South Bend, Indiana.
And because I have nowhere else to post these photos, here are some more photos of the above Studebaker, which was on display at an art fair in downtown South Bend.
I usually spend more time at Notre Dame, which is really beautiful, than I did this trip so that is the only photo I took there, unfortunately.
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
Albert Camus
So, there was one day out of the week that I was back in the midwest where the sky was blue and it was a very pretty blue with fluffy white clouds. We don’t get the fluffy white clouds all that often in AZ so it was a lovely sight.
Last Sunday, on this sunny day, my mom and I took a short drive to a beautiful Indiana state park, Potato Creek. I don’t know if all of their state parks are as well-maintained as this one but this one was gorgeous.
This park has a nice lake, Worster Lake, surrounded by deep woods. As beautiful as it was, I can only imagine how pretty it will be in another week or so.
Look at these trails!
Bonus lens flares…
You can see a glimpse of the lake over to the right of the woods on this one.
And look at these graceful trees~I have no idea what they are.
Here’s a peek at the lake.
And, okay, this following photo is blurry. I came across an area where there were quite a few dragonflies~something I never see in Arizona~but they would not light on anything and I couldn’t get them in focus. However, I like the pic anyway. Can you see the elusive dragonfly?
This trip makes me really want to see a riot of autumn colors and I hope we’ll be able to head up to northern Arizona in a couple weeks to see what it has to offer. Hard to believe it’s October now…
