September has arrived once again.  Not that it is much cooler here or anything.  It is still very humid and hot.  We are still having rains, clouds and lightning storms.  It is definitely cooler in the mornings lately.  This morning it is heavily overcast with gray low lying clouds.  I am still watering the outdoor plants and starting to think about when I will move some inside and which ones will be sacrificed to the winter.  

My Texas Sage finally bloomed.  In fact they are loaded with lovely little purple flowers.  The bees are going crazy for the nectar.  I even managed to get a photo of a big black and yellow bumble bee this morning.

On Monday, the Labor Day Holiday, we visited Biosphere 2 near Oracle, AZ.  It is about an hour and a half drive from our place.  It is called "Biosphere 2"  because the earth itself is Biosphere 1.  It is a gigantic green house that was built at a cost of  $1.5 million in the 1980's and early '90s.  It has several different ecosystems and was built to be self-sustaining.  You may have heard of the first real closed experiment they did from 1991 to 1993 when they sealed 8 people inside.  They had to maintain everything themselves, grow their own food, purify their own water and take care of goats chickens and other animals.  They had a diet of 1800 calories a day and had to suspend the experiment because they could not do all the work and survive on that amount of calories.  There was just too much work.  They were only able to grow enough coffee beans for each of them to have one cup of coffee once every three weeks. 

Now the Biosphere 2 is open to the public and is owned and maintained by the University of Arizona.  Scientists from all over the world use it to do experiments.  They are doing one called "LEO" right now that involves studying how water affects environments and the complex interactions with water, geology, ecology, the atmosphere etc.  

It is an interesting place but it kinda creeped me out.  I could just see some Hollywood director coming in there to make some kind of horror flick or zombie movie.  

Last evening we had the pleasure of visiting with a friend who drove all the way from North Dakota.  He went to high school with Steve and me about 39 years ago!  We got to meet his charming wife and had a wonderful dinner at the Cactus Rose Restaurant in Tucson.  We spent about 4 hours catching up on all the events in our lives since we parted all those years ago.  It is funny how everyone has similar experiences and equally funny and weird relatives in their families.  We really enjoyed their visit and hope to get together again next year, maybe take a cruise together.  Something to look forward to!

Good Morning!  Good Morning!  Some days you just wake up and feel like you are blessed to be alive!  This morning it is so gorgeous outside!  It just made me smile and Praise the Lord!  It is shiny and clean from the rain we had earlier in the week.  The sky is clear and blue, as blue can be!  It isn't too hot or too cold and there is a nice soft breeze blowing.  As I sat drinking my coffee on the front patio, I watched as two little hummers fought over the petunia blooms hanging overhead. I think they are the first hummingbirds I have seen this year.  They looked young and sleek.  I'm putting some pictures up of hummingbirds in previous years.  Since I stopped putting feeders out, we just haven't had as many.

I also wanted to post some pictures of the storms coming in that we had earlier this week.  It is finally getting green around here.  We must have gotten enough rain this week to liven up the grass and weeds.  The saguaro finally looks as if he is getting some girth back into his trunk too.  It has been green, like the Emerald Isle, in Sierra Vista for several weeks now.  We just haven't gotten as much rain.  My Texas Sage bushes that line the driveway haven't even bloomed this year.  The cactus bloomed in June I think and haven't done so since.  I have been watering my raised bed and my flowers daily.  I actually got some pretty good sized zucchini this year.  I would've gotten more tomatoes if the birds and bugs hadn't taken their tole.  It is really OK however, otherwise I would've had more than I knew what to do with.

In case you are wondering, the bees did fly away on their own.  I did not have to call anyone about them.  Thank the Lord for that and that no one got stung!

My girls and I are going into town today to the fabric store.  We'll be looking for fabric for one of the girl's kitchen windows and probably have lunch away from all the children.  We also want to check out all the fall decor at the "Home Goods" store.  We all love fall and look forward to cooler days, pumpkin patches and NO HUMIDITY!  It is a great day!  Enjoy it!

Our Monsoon has been in full swing lately.  We had major lightening and heavy rain in the middle of the night last night.  I woke up about midnight to shut down the computer and let Buddy into the Arizona Room.  Now that he is getting older, I don't like to make him stay out in the bad storms or extremely hot weather during the day.  I'm afraid he is getting spoiled and has learned a new trick.  He bullies his way into the house when the grandkids are running in and out.  I usually coax him outside again with a treat.  Boy, does he love that! LOL!  He must've done it about 10 times on Friday when the grands were here.  

Buddy has developed a few lumps and what looks like a big wart on one of his toes.  I am planning on taking him to the vet about those.  But he was extremely dirty and matted in places.  So yesterday we took him to Sierra Vista PetSmart and had him cleaned up by a professional groomer.  Wow!  What a difference!  Please note his tail in the pictures.  His tail was very matted and heavy.  The groomer said he actually wagged his tail as if to say how pleased he was when she cut off all that old dead hair!  He looks gorgeous now and I'm sure the vet won't yell at me about his dirty coat at least.

I got a new car when we got back from our Oregon trip.  My old car, a Mitsubishi Montero Sport, had 250,000 miles on it and had begun to overheat whenever I drove it anywhere.  I had that car for 10 years.  My new car is not a whole lot different.  I got the same color, silver.  I also got a V-6 engine and a third row seat, which I did not have in the Mitsubishi. It is a Kia Sorento.  I cannot believe all the computer stuff that is on the new cars.  My cell phone automatically connects to the BlueTooth system in the car.  There are buttons on the steering wheel so that I can call or answer a call without taking my hands off the steering wheel or trying to hold a phone to my ear!  It is amazing!  It also has a camera for backing up so you can watch what you are doing right on the dashboard instead of turning around backwards and straining your neck and back. Of course, force of habit keeps one turning and looking back anyway, and for safety.  The gas mileage is about the same as the old car, about 25 mpg.  But it is so smooth going up my hilly dirt road, not like the hold your dentures ride the old car had.

This morning dawned bright and sunny after the big storm last night.  I was puttering around the yard, watering the plants on the porch, checking for new tomatoes and zuccinni.  I walked around to the east side of the house and WHOA!  There was this huge blob hanging on one of the mesquite trees.  As I got closer , it turned out to be just what I expected, a huge swarming mass of BEES!  Yikes!  I told Steve he better not plan on doing any noisy outdoor work today and we told our daughter to be extremely quiet and cautious if she came up to the house by the path between the houses.  I can look out the computer room window and the hive is hanging right there!  We are hoping they will fly away, but if they don't I will have to call an exterminator.  Bees are nothing to mess with here in Arizona!  

My iris that has been growing all summer finally bloomed.  Boy was I surprised when the flowers were this sunshine yellow instead of purple!  Amazing!

Holy Cow!  July passed by without a word from me!  Shame on me!  Hope you all had a great 4th!

The end of July was our annual migration to Klamath Falls, Oregon.  We flew to Sacramento and then took a rental car the rest of the way.  It is about a 5 hour trip.  The weather was beautiful for the whole visit.  We took our youngest grandson, Logan with us.  We visited Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, Lava Beds National Monument in Tulelake, California and, of course, stopped to take pictures of the always awesome Mt. Shasta.

Logan loved the "Lava hole" as he called Lava Beds National Monument.  We hiked through a cave that was great fun for him and Grandpa but was a little tedious for me.  The path through the cave was not always smooth and I am not as agile as I once was so it took a little time.    Logan wanted to go in another cave, called Skull Cave, because it is a huge cavern.  There is ice at the bottom because it is so deep.  Grandpa and Uncle Paul took one look at the 75 steep steps to the bottom and decided it was time to turn back.  Poor Logan!  He came out with a pouty face and said, "You didn't make it fun, Grandpa!"  He wanted to go all the way to the bottom but he's only 4 after all.  He did not realize the effort it would take to make it back up.  We took him to the gift shop where he purchased a cute little bat finger puppet.  No more pouts!

Crater Lake is such a unique place and just as awe inspiring as Mt. Shasta.  There were still huge piles of snow up there but that did not stop the hoards of tourists.  I got so frustrated in their gift shop that I nearly ran out screaming and pulling my hair out!  A shout from Steve's mom brought me back to ground safely.  We left the park and found another restaurant and gift shop just outside the park where we had lunch and I managed to find t-shirts for all the grand kids.  

We had several family get-togethers while we were in Klamath.  It is always fun to see everyone and get reacquainted.  Everyone is a little grayer, a little chubbier and a lot wiser!  And all the young ones are just a blast, so wild and full of life.  Were we like that once?

We came home and the grand kids started school right away.  We have also been moving Sara and Logan into Shawna's house down the hill.  It has been a process because we can only really do any work or move stuff on weekends.  Sara and Logan have moved in but she still has a few things left at our place.  

It is almost weird to me to have the whole house to myself lately.  I gave the goats and the chickens away before we went to Oregon, so my outside chores are reduced.  I still feel as if I have something to do almost every minute and yet I don't feel that I have really accomplished anything.  How weird is that?  I have been cleaning and reorganizing rooms.  I have also gotten quite a few books read.  I am starting a new diet this week and plan on starting a new workout routine next week.  We'll see how far that goes. LOL!  It would be nice to lose about 20 pounds before our cruise in January.  I'll try to keep you posted on that.

It is only 9am.  It is already 98 degrees outside. The wind is not blowing ...yet.

Yesterday, being Monday, is my heavy work day.  Before 10 am, I had washed and hung 4 loads of laundry, fed and watered the animals, watered all the plants and washed all the dishes from our busy birthday weekend.  Oh yeah! And stripped the bed and put clean sheets on it.

 Our only granddaughter turned 5 years old on Saturday, my husband had a birthday on Monday and Father's Day was on Sunday.  We celebrated all those on Sunday.  Steve got a big new bar-be-que grill for his birthday so he bbq-ed pork chops for 11 people.  We also had coleslaw, potato salad, hot dogs for the kids, applesauce and two cakes, one for Eden and one for Steve.  Eden's cake was a rainbow layer cake with all different bright colors inside.  I made a pineapple upside-down cake for Steve, as that is his favorite and he almost never eats cake anyway.  Of course, Eden got so many gifts it looked like Christmas in June!  The theme this year seemed to be horses and mermaids.  Along with her horse quilt, she also got a horse pillow and a stuffed horse.  Her aunt got her a herd of "My Little Pony" horses that had long manes and tails and combs to style them.  She got a mermaid Barbie and an "Ariel" mermaid from the movie.  For the pool, she got new water wings and another mermaid doll with seahorses that swims! Ha!  What a haul!

We had a fire behind us and a fire in front on the border.  We watched the big air tanker fly back and forth from Parker Canyon Lake to the fire behind us all day yesterday.  The smoke seems less this morning.  I do not know if either fire is out or still going.  The weather people are saying we will get record high temps this week and then get "steamy" by the weekend.  This will be a precursor to thunderstorms on the weekend and perhaps, the start of the monsoon.  I am not looking forward to the "steamy" part, but I do like the monsoon storms.  We will have to start swimming in the mornings if we want to swim at all.  Afternoons will be full of lightening and heavy rains.

Our swallows on the front porch hatched the first batch of babies for this season.  As far as I can tell there are at least 3 little wide open mouths up there when the mamma comes by to feed them.  There are probably more.  They are tiny right now.  All you can see are big mouths and eyes.  The lizards are loving the dry hot weather and are everywhere. It is a good thing because if not for the birds and lizards, we would be overrun with bugs, bugs, and more bugs.  The crickets are abundant and obnoxious with their leg rubbing.  The tiny little red ants are virtually covering the yard and everything else.  I can hardly water the animals or the plants without getting some on me.  They are nasty little biters too.  If I am wearing a sundress, which I often do, I have taken to picking it up and walking, like the ladies used to do in the Old West. Sometimes the ants will still hitch a ride, but I usually notice if they are crawling up my feet and ankles.  Then I can stamp them off before I go inside.  If they get on the hem of my dress, I may be inside before I notice the buggers!  I've even gotten them on my arms from leaning on the fence as I fill up water buckets!  Yikes!

This week our #1 daughter and her family, including 3 of our grand kids, are moving to their very own first house in Tucson.  Steve is helping move their stuff.  I will help by keeping the kids while the move is made.  Then, our #2 daughter and her son are moving into the house being vacated by daughter #1.  Steve and I will be official "empty-nesters."  Whooo-hoo!  I have been looking forward to this but I am thinking that it is going to be rather weird at first.  I will be alone much of the day.  What will I do with all that time????  Don't worry!  I'm sure I will think of plenty! 

I have been working for several weeks on a quilt for my grand-daughter's 5th birthday, which is coming up this weekend.  I finally completed it this morning!  It is so satisfying to complete an artistic project.  I think it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!

My cat, Loki, seems to like it too.  He planted himself right in the middle as I was trying to take pictures.  Silly cat!

We will hit 102 degrees this afternoon.  I got the ironing done this morning too right after the quilt.  It is just too too hot here to do anything that takes any effort in the afternoons.  Tomorrow it is supposed to be even hotter, 105*!  Yikes!  I really don't mind so much.  I am thankful that we have air conditioning in the house, but I also know that we can survive without it as we did a couple of years ago.  And we have the pool.  I plan to use that this afternoon for awhile.  Gotta get my exercise in you know!

Due to several fires in our area, we have been having some spectacular sunrises and sunsets lately.  I tried to capture the sunrise the other day with the alpacas relaxing in the foreground.  It came out too dark to see the alpacas.  In the one that I posted you can see the dove sitting on the wire though.  Mornings are my favorite time of day.  It is nice and cool and quiet.  The birds are just coming alive and their songs and chirps are about the only sounds.  No new problems or news has yet to invade my consciousness.  Nothing to disrupt the feeling of peace and thankfulness.  And I can just thank the good Lord for small miracles.

Here it is June again!  Hot days and cool nights.  On Thursday last week we were inundated with heavy smoke from the fire just across the state line in New Mexico.  We could not see the Whetstone Mountains just in front of us.  It was like being back in southern California with all that  brownish white smog. It made for some spectacular sunsets.  Even the moon had a pinkish glow for a few nights. That lasted until about yesterday I would say.  Then our constant companion WIND picked up big time and blew much of the smoke away.  So as much as I often curse the wind, there are times when I am grateful for it too.

My tomato plants are getting bigger and are actually producing tomatoes.  It remains to be seen whether or not we will get to enjoy any of them.  There was a good sized one I was watching.  It was starting to turn reddish orange.  I reached around the leaves to see how big it really was and YUCK!  Half of the tomato was already pecked away!  Eaten by birds no doubt!  There are several fruits on each plant now.  I hope they aren't all eaten before they are ripe.  The squash are doing nicely and there are already a few jalepeno peppers on those plants.  I wonder if they will be hotter than the ones in the store.

My geraniums that I transplanted outside are finally blooming like crazy.  So are the petunias.  I also have a large bush in the backyard that I love.  I don't know what it is as it was there before I moved in.  I call it a butterfly bush because it is similar to those.  It's blooms are dark purple and cone shaped.

The saguaro in the front yard is shrinking from lack of rain as it always does this time of year.  One of its branches it also starting to bloom.  As I was taking pictures of the blooms, I noticed a bird at eye level inside the cactus trunk.  I took a picture of the hole, but the bird hid way down inside, too dark down there to get his picture.  

We have been swimming most every afternoon.  It is very refreshing after the temperature hits 100 degrees. I worry about fires and they are popping up all over the West.  We have to hang in there and be extra cautious until the monsoon comes in July, only a few weeks away.