Peek-a-boo from Stripey and Grady, semi-feral sister cats we have outside. They’re both very cute and funny, getting close to a year-and-a-half old. We can touch them a little bit, especially when they’re hungry. You can see that their ears are tipped so they can be identified as spayed cats.
These condos always intrigue me when I drive by them. Phoenix is not your typical big city; we don’t have a huge downtown area full of skyscrapers nor do we have a lot of apartments/condos in big multi-story buildings so this is not a common sight here. Residing in an 8-story dorm at Purdue University a few decades ago is the closest I’ve ever come to living this way. I understand there are many amenities and that a lot of people would rather live in a condo than a house, and these particular condos are not cheap, but I still find it fascinatingly strange to think of living in a building like this.
“In the heart of the historic central corridor, the best of mid-century chic meets the best of urban living. Landmark on Central offers an eclectic mix of modern and vintage flair with a 17-story tower of condominiums overlooking the skyline. Originally opened in 1963, the building has been grandly renovated to play up its architectural highlights including floor to ceiling windows opening onto panoramic balconies.” In fact, back in 1963, when this building, originally apartments, was built, it was the highest structure in Phoenix.
I always wonder if I enlarge photos like this if I will see something I wasn’t meant to see like in Blow-Up or Rear Window.
Hope so…
(Image courtesy mptvimages.com)
No, I’m not calling anyone a derogatory name 
. Here are a few more images from our ride on the Verde Canyon Railroad the other day. As I mentioned in my last post, the train leaves from Clarkdale, AZ, on a roundtrip to Perkinsville for a total of 40 miles. The train travels 12 mph and the trip takes 4 hours.
Clarkdale was founded in 1912 as a company smelter town by William A. Clark, for his United Verde copper mine in nearby Jerome, Arizona. Clarkdale was built to be one of the most modern mining towns in the world, including telephone, telegraph, electrical, sewer and spring water services, and was an early example of a planned community. The mine and smelter closed in 1953, and Clarkdale entered hard times. Clarkdale was bought and sold by several different companies. In 1957, Clarkdale was incorporated as a town (Wikipedia).
One of the first sights you see on the train ride is this immense slag heap, composed of mining and smelting cast-off, a remnant of those old mining days. There is an estimated 1/2 ounce of gold per ton in this 20.2 million ton pile of slag and a company called Searchlight Minerals is reprocessing it for gold and other metals. We saw the old mining buildings at the site, quite a few vehicles, and a sign, “Slag Recovery Project.”
Here we are coming up on the slag heap:
The slag is contained by corrugated metal sheets, which are now rusting away.
The heap was not the prettiest sight we saw but an interesting look into Arizona’s past when the 5 C’s of Arizona’s economy prevailed: Copper, Cattle, Cotton, Citrus and Climate.
How cool, I never tried this slideshow feature before! I didn’t even know it existed. These are images taken on Monday, 11/14, on the Verde Canyon Railroad. I took about 150 photos, deleted about 50 due to blur or boring-ness, and weeded this slideshow down to a mere 22.
If you’re ever in Arizona looking for a fun day trip, try this train ride. You get to see landscapes that you might not normally see and you might even see the bald eagles nesting. This time we did not see them but we have on previous rides. Nevertheless, it’s a very enjoyable 4 hour experience and we Phoenicians even got to see some autumn colors. You board the train at Clarkdale and travel to Perkinsville, population 9, where the engine is reversed and you head back to Clarkdale. You go over trestles, through a tunnel, see Indian ruins, mountains, the Verde Canyon, and have the option of sitting in the enclosed cars or spending time in the open-air cars (which is a lot more fun, in my opinion). It was a perfect fall day and we had a great time.
I’ll show you a few more photos from this trip at a later date.
Filed under: Art, Phoenix | Tags: Art, Downtown Phoenix, Flora, Global Community, Greater Good, imagine, Learning, Phoenix, Valley of the Sunflowers
Yellow! Well, not quite yet. Yes, this is another update on Valley of the Sunflowers, my favorite local project right now, in the heart of downtown Phoenix. You can see my September shots, when the field was being readied for planting, and my October shots, soon after the seeds were sown, and compare them with my November shots, the other day, right here.
Look! It’s a field of green.
See how tall some of them are already?
That’s Bioscience High School in the background where the students will be using the sunflower oil to make biodiesel fuel for their hybrid vehicle.
The sunflowers in this post are from across the street at Roosevelt Growhouse, a community garden. Kenny Barrett, a local artist who started the Growhouse, was the driving force behind Valley of the Sunflowers.
And soon there should be a lot of these at Valley of the Sunflowers:
*Oh, and unfortunately, their Kickstarter did not raise enough money so was not funded 
