The action at Gurley & Grove

Something's going on over at formerly-Allison's. First, a portable fence, followed by the shovel ripping up all the paved parking space.

What comes next? Probably digging up the old gasoline tanks of this former filling station and then an interminable period of mitigation, which is to say, digging up and replacing or cleaning goodness knows how much fuel-soaked dirt.

And for what? Who's bothering to build business structures these days? I thought that the smart money just made do with the old, existing buildings and left the tanks in the ground for the next guy to deal with.

A Problem with Google Image? In a fit of vanity last night, I asked The Google's image department to fetch up pictures of my current favorite moth, the painted tiger moth (arachnis pictus). I was curious to see if my image appeared. No, it didn't. I discovered pictures of several similar moths -- and many of a popular bi-plane called the Tiger Moth (primarily models). On about page four of the images, pix from Walking Prescott appeared. All from the month of August, which is the month that the moth post appeared. And not one of 60 pictures from this blog had anything to do with a moth. Mr. Google -- you've got a problem.

...bearded with moss

Perhaps you recall the lines to Longfellow's Evangeline, this is the forest primeval ... bearded with moss. For some reason quite inexplicable, I needed to escape this evening. And so I returned to the swamplands of Louisiana, where I made a point of photographing the Spanish moss festooning the cypress and other deciduous trees.

I first met Spanish moss as a little girl, when the family moved from Arizona to Florida. Mom and the kids made the trip by train. Once across the Mississippi in New Orleans, we transferred to a different train, which left late in the evening. I awakened in the middle of the night, looked out the Pullman car window and was both astonished at and a little frightened of the draped trees like something from a horror movie. Of course, once we were settled, the moss quickly became one more everyday plant that disappeared by becoming commonplace.

Here's what I found out from the Terrebonne Parish website: Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is an air-feeding plant or epiphyte found mainly upon cypress, gum trees, oaks, elms, and pecan trees in South Louisiana and Florida. It is not a parasite and does not live off the trees upon which it grows, nor is it harmful to the trees. It has been noticed, however, that its presence on pecan trees tends to reduce the yield, owing, no doubt, to the fact that to some extent it shadows the buds of the fruit.

Further: Spanish moss is not propagated by seeds but by fragments or festoons. These fragments are carried from tree to tree by birds and the winds. Birds frequently use strands of moss in building their nests, and in this way distribute the festoons. Evergreen trees seldom have moss on them, for the green leaves tend to ward off the festoons carried by the winds or dropped by birds. In the fall and winter when the trees lose their leaves, fragments of moss attach themselves to the bark. A moss which springs from a festoon or fragment grows to a great length, often reaching 10 to 20 feet. In the early summer this plant produces a very small yellow flower, hardly visible to the naked eye. Moisture and dust from the air produce all the nourishment necessary to keep the plant alive and growing.

The statement above is actually wrong about seeds; a Good Ole Boy down in Georgia has a web site selling Spanish moss to gardeners and craftspeople. Around the entire USA apparently. He notes that if the Spanish moss you're trying to grow up in Minnesota or Maine gets hit by the frost, there will likely be tiny seeds throughout the festoons which will regrow when the sun warms things up again.

At one time, the "moss" industry supplied furniture manufacturers with upholstery stuffing. Not so these days of foam and other man-mades, but it's a beautiful plant to just watch as it swings in the breeze, sometimes quite wildly. And just by the way, although Evangeline was written about Cajun Louisiana, the pines and hemlock bearded with moss were actually back in Canadian Acadia, where the sad tale began. No Spanish moss for Longfellow though I had never realized it!

Good Googling: Have you ever tried The Google's alert service? Very useful, it is. I have asked the oracle to notify me whenever a blog post mentions Prescott. Today, I received this fascinating link to UFOs seen over our hometown. (Between you and me, I didn't find the video very convincing.) Another intriguing use of The Google is to track trends, based on the rise and fall of particular search terms. Turns out that a rise in searches related to flu symptoms actually precedes reports from the government's Center for Disease Control.

Visitors from The Google

The Google giveth: information , visitors. All it asks in return: information, images. And I am continually fascinated by what brings strangers to Walking Prescott, thanks to The Google. Herewith, a few examples of what is most often called for. I'm starting with pictures, since about two-three months ago, the number of image searches reported by Sitemeter shot way up; I'd guess that currently about 25% of visitors to the blog come as a result of an image search.

Right now, this picture from a post about the Lippizaner performance is the number one draw. Just incidentally, I have no idea what words or phrase were used to pull up this photograph.

Of course, a horse fits among Western themed images, such as these Hollywood weapons (above, below) from the Stembridge Collection which were up for auction when I saw the display. The fantasy pistols above were props on the "Wild Wild West" TV show, BTW.

Also from Hollywood: a stock model false front Western street, one of several featured here.

This photo, called "truck face", is another popular image. It was taken at last summer's antique and classic auto show out at Watson Lake Park.

People continue to be curious about this wee camper, also displayed at that show.

But why these patriotic -- or ironic -- shorts which were among many topical decorations on Memorial Day 2007? This picture, as well as those above, were all selected using the Google Image search. However, the blog also lands on site lists as a result of key word searches.


One that crops up regularly is in reference to Truly Nolen or his father, children and/or brothers. Never an inquiry about his company's little yellow cars with mouse ears.

And then there is my famous post about ant hills. This has turned into a perennial except in coldest winter, when surfers do not have gardening on their minds. Another subject that has proven to be interesting over time -- the Stembridge Collection (top of page). And I'm surprised at the folks showing up to find out about the lion killed earlier this month up near Ashfork. The word has spread, tho there was nothing in our local paper about the incident. I hope that The Google has also referred these people to Prescott Style, which is where I got the original info.

Note: So, if you're curious how I found about about these searches (and other visitors to my site), I subscribe to a service (free, of course) called Sitemeter, which catches all sorts of info about who visits a blog -- everything except for who they actually are -- one's anonymity is protected.

And here are a couple of cool sites. First is the Yavapai Open Space Alliance, promoter of local trails. Nice pictures of the in-city outback. And, in case you're aware that mining activity is booming in Arizona, here is the mining database of all databases.

Links of the Day: Variety

No pictures tonight. Instead, some of the varied links I've been collecting over the past several weeks. For instance, considering our elevation, how about high altitude baking. Admittedly, I don't bake these days so I can't vouch for the advice. I'm more likely to follow advice from this slug & snail fancier, partly because the subjects are more interesting photographically! Besides, one of the bloggers I read has a visiting slug named Barry. But perhaps you're not into Nature, red of claw etc.; in which case, you might like to know that Geoffrey Chaucer hath a blog. Closer to home, enjoy a different take on the southwest via the daily photo from Albuquerque. For that matter, locally we have blogs from the Smoki Museum, the Prescott Courier, and the YMCA. Now... if you still have time on your hands, you can play the game of identify that photo over at Google. It's a real time killer, as I've found; on the other hand, donating a little time to The Google's ID-the-image project is a small price to pay for all that free info.

353 and Counting...

Have I really produced that many entries on this blog? Apparently so. What brought this subject up was an exploration this afternoon at SiteMeter, which tells me all about my visitors except who they are. I get info on where they come from, who/what (if any one) recommended this site, what phrase they were looking for at The Google or other search engines, etc.

Believe it or not, 35 of the most recent 100 visitors were sent here by The Google. I'm sure many of them were very disappointed. Why would the Oracle that Knows All send someone to Walking Prescott for shops that sell pink street gliders for only 15 pounds or less ? I don't even know what a street glider is, much less where one would find a pink specimen. Why picture of tree parasite that looks like a green tomato. Huh? Oh, right -- the query wasn't assembled with quote marks and + or - in the right places. So the person looking for the scary exotic parasite was sent to my piece on everyday mistletoe. But what has fascinated me over time is which posts have drawn the most inquries.

I do enjoy this picture of the neighborhood Amber cat, who was defending her usurpation of Max-cat's favorite look-out post. In fact, I built a post around this picture and a couple of others with the same expression. Called it Angry Cats.You'd be quite surprised at how many people go to The Google to locate "angry cats." What on earth do they have in mind? But then, the cat is a popular subject with people. My post about Miss Kitty's Cat House, which is a very fine local rescue home for felines, is another of the top four most popular posts.

OK, I can understand the inquries about cats, I guess. But ant hills? Yep. The Google keeps sending them along. Yes, I did write about ant hills, tiny and huge. I find them fascinating.

And people remain concerned about the putative collapse of one of the "mittens" in Monument Valley. It turned out to be a hoax but I was among the people who were taken in by the original photos.

But take a look at this list of inquiries that landed here. I hate to think of all those disappointed folks who'll never return (unless The Google sends them on another wild goose chase.) *=reasonably good hits; ??=questionable)

* watters nursery
* prescott college dalke property
* unexpected nude
* "cats heaven"
?? over the counter anti-eye wrinkle cream
* city chicken picture
* monument valley left mitten collapse
* suncor yavapai ranch
* yavapai ranch fred ruskin
* small ant hill photo
* javelina footprints
* rent trolley prescott
?? sedona arizona state jobs
?? photos prescott arizona history
?? old world import car service prescott
* desert seed pods
?? old style katchinas
?? celtic crossing prescott
* talavera cat
* cardboard cookie
* gethuman500
* granite creek gold prescott
?? prescott rhino rock painting
?? rust free muscle cars
* flowering plants for prescott area (from Omaha, yet)
* jack silvernale, prescott
* "restless legs cream"
?? spar jasmine sold in florida
?? prescott arizona police blotter
?? how to get rid of arizona cypress stump
?? what is to munch walking
?? st.patrick's day dial a ride prescott arizona
?? st.patrick's day party in prescott
?? prescott arizona events st. patrick's day

Oh, yes, there were a couple of the usual seekers after porn, as well.