The views from my new aerie

I'm moved & must say that the dotter did a great job on making my new digs as cheerful and colorful as possible. More on that later. Right now, I'm just being impressed with a totally new set of views, as I face the north, in contrast with my house with its east exposure. Admittedly there's nothing new about a view of the hotel/casino on the mesa. But I also look directly at what used to be called Prescott Heights, the low hills directly to the north (below) that prove our little city is, indeed, located in a small valley!

Most impressive: a splendid view of Granite Mountain overlooking the city. Not to mention the nearby Two Rock Mountain and Little Granite, below.

The zoom lens does a good job of bringing Bill Williams Mountain into view and I even get the tiptop of the San Francisco Peaks as a reward for looking carefully! Both are about 70-90 miles distant.

As for what's down below? The remnants of our recent big snow. I am on a neat hillside now!

And many, many thanks to everyone out there in the wide world who's visited Walking Prescott recently to see how I was doing. I think that I'm a lot better now and promise to blog on a more or less regular basis -- after all, looking forward to the photography, the posting -- and the friendship -- was one of my personal rehab goals, if not necessarily that of the physical therapists who worked me over...

Important mountains

So why do I call them important mountains? What distinguishes these big heaps of rocks from others in our vicinity? For starters, today's pictures are of important mountains to the north of town; I captured the images on Sunday as we headed to (and from) Chino Valley, which is reasonably flat and serves to highlight, for example, Bill Williams which is due north of SR 89 for much of its length. As you can see, this particular volcanic peak stands by itself. In fact, all my important mountains are notable for standing quite apart from their surround.

As do the Sullivan Buttes, to the NW of Chino Valley. As I recall my geologic map of the area, the buttes are neither granitic nor volcanic, but instead limestone. There's some fascinating real estate up in the middle of this formation, BTW.

Although Granite Mountain is not really free-standing, it is nonetheless outstanding because it is a couple of thousand feet higher than the nearest peak to the left, Little Granite. The view from SR89 is revealing as it shows the long tail of Granite that extends far to the north.

The glorious sight to the north, however, in all seasons is San Francisco Mountain -- known locally as The Peaks. By last Sunday, enough snow had fallen in the high country to outline the top. As an exercise, let your eyes follow the lines on the extreme east and west upward to sketch in what once was a much taller mountain, similar to Fuji. According to the US Geological Service, San Francisco Mountain is the only stratovolcano in the San Francisco volcanic field and was built by eruptions between about 1 and 0.4 million years ago. Since then, much of the mountain has been removed to create the “Inner Basin.” The missing material may have been removed quickly and explosively by an eruption similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington, or it may have been removed slowly and incrementally by a combination of large landslides, water erosion, and glacial scouring. If you want to track the weather at The Peaks, here's a webcam.

My favorite view of The Peaks is at the top of Willow Creek Road heading north; as you round a bend, suddenly the huge mountain looms. Zap. In your face. An exhilarating moment! And, yes, I'll get around to identifying the important mountains to the south one of these days. Real Soon Now.

Linkage: Choice links to flowers and green, growing plants are featured at this month's Berry-Go-Round, a botanical blog carnival. And just to show that there's a blog for about any subject you might imagine, you should go visit Cake Wrecks. That's right, a place to memorialize baking disasters.

Patterns from a Thanksgiving day dinner

Today, thanksgiving, was primarily a day of friendship. I enjoyed a comfortable, laid-back visit that did, not just incidentally, include an awesome feast. Our world out Williamson Valley way was alternately drizzly, misty and bathed in brief bursts of sun. Weather patterns. Patterns, too, on the land.

I don't often get the opportunity to look down on the circle of the leaf fall from an apricot tree. Any tree, for that matter.

Another tree almost ready for winter, stark against Granite Mountain. Odds on it's an aspen

The namesake rocks and boulders of the mountain were sometimes visible through the mists that clung to its top and sides.

Another pattern -- by accident. I was aiming for the mountain in the distance; my Canon was focusing on the screen nearby. I decided to make lemonade.

Far to the north, catching late afternoon sun, a canyon cutting up into the western edge of the Rim country.

Back in the house, next the wood burning stove, what I choose to call beetlewood -- a tree branch that has been tunneled beneath the bark by beetle larvae. The pattern looks somewhat like hieroglyphs! I hope that your Thanksgiving was as pleasant and relaxed as mine.