Landscaped Walls

Isn't that garage just great? Very Alpine. Especially such details as the painted-on shovel and rakes. And a window box, yet. You can see this scene as you drive (slowly) out Thumb Butte Road, by the way.

Here's a much simpler approach to landscaping one's walls -- the sunflowers cheer up an alley dwelling north of Gurley Street.

These painted walls made perfect sense for the floral business over on Marina. The florist has since moved to new quarters, but the elaborate decorations remain ...

wrapping around the side of the building where it can be difficult to separate the painted plants from those that have taken root. I suspect that there may be more man-mades hiding behind the weeds! One of these days a different type of business will move in and no doubt the painted landscaping will be gone forever.


There's yet another downtown business -- The Office on Cortez -- that has landscaped its facade. Just to be querulous, I do wonder how come desert plants.

Links of the Day

A week or so back, the Link of the Day led to a group of Prescott writers and their web pages. Today, I'm linking to a small handful of area writers who blog. For the reader, there's a big advantage to a blog vs. a web page: the blog is dynamic, with new material daily or weekly. So how about visiting a romance writer of Native American background down in Cottonwood ... an aspiring writer/radio actress with a view of Thumb Butte ... an 80-year-old free-lancer over in Sedona who offers pragmatic advice ... and a local marketing/ copywriting strategist.

One-Sided Trees

There you are, walking along, minding your own business and you happen to glance at the pines. Something's not quite right, but it's hard to pinpoint the problem. Then: aha! These trees are one-sided. You can see the trunk all the way from bottom to the top, without being interrupted by pesky branches.

Actually, of course, the trees above aren't completely one-sided. The utility company arborists did leave a little tuft at the top when they were trimming branches that might cause a power problem or outage.

Here's what those trees above would look like viewed from the side. Sorta like a bunch of windblown flags on a pole, all pointing in the same direction. This tree over on Rodeo Drive is visible from Miller Valley Road; the top picture is on Coronado.


It took two pictures to get from the base to the top of this lopsided Ponderosa on Beach Street.

The effect is very different when the tree is a filled-out, mature sycamore. I caught this curious vision approaching the Sharlot Hall grounds from Cortez Street. Again, I became aware that I was seeing a pale trunk and bare branches when I shouldn't be! Circling the tree, one gets the impression that the tree is leaning against the building.

Trees vs. power lines -- it's a catch-22, of course. The lines need to be clear of potentially damaging limbs; the choice is either to cut the trees down or lop them into one-sidedness. Underground lines would solve the problem, of course, but the trees would still have to be chopped in the meantime! You just can't win them all.

Link of the Day

Over ten years ago, my husband and I frequently explored a small piece of the Verde River canyon about a mile below the Sullivan Lake dam. An interesting spot: two long pools in the river, rugged canyon walls, a nearly impassable trek up river toward the dam, and splendid petroglyphs (including a repeated theme I called the pregnant elk.) We never got as far east as the confluence of Granite Creek with the river. Too bad; had we realized it, that lush spot is a state game and fish wildlife area open to the public. To find out more about the location, click here. I still have a bid in with friends to take me there one of these days!

Folk Music: Players & Pickers a'Plenty

Today was a perfect autumn day: slightly cool but sunny, with a slight breeze. I ventured out too late for the protest down on the Square, tho I certainly sympathize with the cause. To wit, keeping the county courts (and the weekday business they bring) in our very alive downtown area! Without that daily population influx, merchants and restaurant operators fear that the heart of Prescott could hollow out; it's happened in far too many small cities.

However, instead of that civic duty, I wandered over to the Sharlot Hall grounds for the music.

First taking the edge off my appetite with a H*U*G*E barbecue sandwich. Much better than the usual carnie fare.

What was the most impressive about this year's Folk Music Festival was not only the number of musicians (150+), but also the extent of casual guitar picking all about the grounds, in addition to the scheduled events. Music was literally everywhere.




Two booths (aside from the barbecue stand). One for KJAZ (the other NPR station up here in the mountains) plus a second promoting Irish music.

I'm sure the Irish connection is the reason that Sargon the illusionist was circulating among the various audiences.

Here's just one of the performing bands. What was surprising: the number of bass players lugging their huge instruments around.

At another venue, the band was assembled for a folk dance session.

Back in my younger folk music days, the instruments of choice were pretty limited: guitar and banjo (i.e., Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger and their many followers.) In my later years here in Prescott, the fiddle has taken its rightful place in the folk music ensemble.

Tho I have a special place in my heart for the 5-string banjo -- my late husband played a mean banjo (and was a loner, like this guy.) When one of the groups played a version of Pretty Polly, I'm afraid I did tear up.

I'd guess that the zydeco craze (long after my time) led to acceptance of the concertina into the folk music fold, although it had a long history in Central Europe and among the Gypsies.

The single most intriguing instrument that appeared today was a genuine hurdy-gurdy, whose new owner was still learning how to become a proper organ-grinder.

Link of the Day

Flickr it ain't, which is good. There's simply too much to look at on Flickr, unless you have a specific subject for a search. Splendid Pictures Around the Web is compiled by a gent named FitzDane in Singapore and he regularly posts collections of strange or beautiful or remarkable pictures. I'm almost never disappointed! Today it was fanciful surgical masks favored in polluted Asiatic cities.

Googling GrannyJ!

Really! The blog is being read by people who were sent here by The Google. It makes me feel like I've made the Big Time. On the other hand, there are the queries that land people here. Some are spot on, some are pretty strange.

For instance, one person was seeking Aspen creek train prescott AZ -- I presume the "train" was a typo for trail --and that the person found the link to the trail maps at right. Another wanted bumper crop of wild mushrooms rice county. Don't even know where Rice county is, tho I had a mushroom post about Yavapai county!

The periodic searches for Miss Kitty's cat house make sense, but I really wonder about those folks out there asking about angry cats. (Yes, I did do a post about snarling felines.) The search yielded 7,550,000 hits for angry and/or cats -- limiting the search with quote marks, i.e., "angry cats" cut the haul down to a mere 31,200. But I am still very, very curious about people's interest in the subject of angry cats -- this is a surprisingly regular draw!

Someone else was looking for Cut-Rite wax paper images and another, Kiss Me Kate AZ; I'll admit to having written about Cut-Rite and about Shakespeare's comly shrew. And I was really pleased that yet another person went looking for biker robot -- one of my favorite posts from early days of this blog.

Nevertheless, it is surprising that very few people know -- or perhaps bother -- to limit their searches using quote ("") marks around an exact phrase or + or - to insist upon hits that include/ exclude specific words. It would save a lot of wear and tear on The Google's servers. On the other hand, I certainly welcome every one of these explorers and hope that they become regulars!

Link of the Day

Event planning hereabouts was very bad last weekend. On Saturday, one had to choose between the airshow, the first Yavapai Cattlemen's barbecue/ cattle auction to be held in Prescott, and the grand opening of our updated library. Readers know that I opted for the airshow. However, today I discovered a Prescott blog new to me. What's more, Chickenbells, the author, did take a look (a critical one) at the new old library. She reports on changes, good and not-so-good at Foolsewoode. Take a look -- and read her other posts as well.

Shouting Timber! And Then Preparing Pasta

Isn't that stump impressive? The criss-crossing is to allow the anti-Siberian-Elm gunk to thoroughly penetrate to the roots, preventing new growth. My neighbor had the tree lopped because the leaves were thoroughly ravaged by insects, which is a common problem with the elm. Apparently this species is considered an invasive alien in Minnesota and in the Arizona mountains.

But to continue the story. Got to talking with Chris, the tree man, and we agreed that he would take out a handful of dead oak snags and my own Siberian elm (above) as well as saw off a bunch of dead branches.

Here my one mature Ponderosa gets a trim.

And a topping off for an oak snag that's turned into a fine support for ivy.

Just a beginning of the load of slash that Chris took to the dump; actually it took two trips to get it all. But his story doesn't begin and end with trees, a skill he learned from his dad.

He's also a chef who owned his own Italian restaurant back in Jersey. When he landed in Prescott at the beginning of the year, Chris called the local TV station and proposed a Prescott cooking show. He has a segment on Tanya Mock's AM Arizona twice a month. Next appearance, this coming Tuesday at 10:38, KAZ-TV (Channel 7 on Cable-One.)

His specialty -- easy to prepare dishes; he has little sympathy with foodies who are into complex preparation and says so. What's pasta with ezot, you ask? Basically, pasta heated in garlic olive oil mixed with an oven roasted blend of tomatoes, peppers, and onions.

Chris credits his back-to-basics cooking approach to his old-country Italian and Jewish background. If you have a tree proposition or otherwise need to contact him, write to him at moonrest@yahoo.com or call 778-7434.

Link of the Day

At my age, matters medical loom larger than ever. I went through a period of reading the handful of doctor blogs several years ago. Today, the numbers have shot way up and I don't have the time for that much depressing reading. However, there is one such blog that I return to, regularly -- Medpundit. It's written by a woman doctor, who has no patience with most of the over-blown, over-hyped "breakthroughs" that pepper our newspapers and TV news shows. She's a Catholic, so you might not agree with her positions on stem cell research and abortions, but she's a good read, nonetheless. Note: she tried to give up blogging (the time factor) -- but discovered she's addicted!

Rolling Hills Cemetery

Perhaps if the local cemeteries were closer to my home, I might have walked them. I did explore a couple of historic ones during my short stays up in Victoria BC, including an old Chinese site overlooking the Sound. But I've never been one who is really into burial grounds. To my surprise, it turns out my son-in-law is.

We discovered the desolate- looking, overgrown Rolling Hills cemetery as we parked on Ruger Drive for the big airshow Sunday. Later SIL queried The Google and turned up this background:

"The cemetery is a product of the Great Depression. In 1933 Lester Lee Ruffner saw the need for inexpensive burial plots and made land available to residents who could not afford burial plots elsewhere. Thus Rolling Hills was established and burial sites were sold for between $5.00 and $10.00. According to sources found, most burials occurred between 1933 and 1950. In Ruffner’s records burial #1 is that of Andre Kavacs with a burial date of 16 June 1933, and the cemetery was called Granite View. Shortly thereafter the name was changed to “Rolling Hills”. It appears the burials were segregated according to their race.


"In about 1956, Lester Ward “Budge” Ruffner deeded the cemetery land to the city of Prescott with the provision that there be no more burials unless in already purchased plots. An April 2, 1958 motion in the minutes of the city council prohibited further burials. At the present time (1993) a portion of the cemetery is on private ranch land owned by the James family. The cemetery was never surveyed or platted, so no one can be sure how many people are buried there."

All this according to rootsweb.com. Which doesn't mention that the Ruffner family owned the major local funeral home at the time.

And the SIL's research also turned up all the tombstone pics you could want at an Arizona gravestone site! If you are interested in old local cemeteries, see if you can locate the little Cedar Glade site up near Old 89 and Hell Canyon -- a nice back country outing!

Another is along Iron Springs Road as you approach Skull Valley. And, of course, the big historic Citizens Cemetery is just south of Sheldon Street near the Yavapai College entrance.

Link of the Day

Chasing out our current Indian summer, it looks like we're in line for some Weather for a change. which brings up the question of which weather site. My #1 choice is the Weather Underground, despite its cluttered appearance. Reason #1 (and most important) is down at the bottom of the page: 11 local weather stations, from Humbolt to Chino Valley. Most are affiliated with the meteorology department at ERAU. Reason # 2: a neat collection of Prescott weather pictures. Look in the left hand column near the top of the page. To keep track of Pacific hurricanes, go to the Mexico satellite at Weather.com.

Cicadas' Last Hurrah

It's already October and still we hear the song of the cicada. It's not nearly as piercing as earlier in the season, when the shrill noise could overwhelm that of a highly amped rock group. Especially hard on one's ears when trying to take close-up pictures of the fellows and all the bugs in the nearby trees begin their shout for ladies to fly over to get acquainted.


I tried to photograph the major phases of the life cycle -- but no dang luck finding females slitting small limbs to insert their eggs. Didn't find any such pictures on the web, when I went to The Google. However, the Arizona Ag Dept. describes the Life of the Cicada succinctly:

The cicadas spend most of their lives as immatures, feeding underground on the roots of trees or other perennials. The immatures move out of the soil during summer evenings, starting in June about Father's Day. They leave behind holes about one half inch in diameter. They crawl up nearby tree trunks, plants or buildings and cling there. If you watch, eventually the back of the nymph begins to split open and the adult winged cicada emerges. Homeowners often find the leftover skins attached to foundations or trees.

Cicada adults live three to four weeks. After mating, the female cuts open twigs with her saw-like egg-laying apparatus, and deposits her eggs in the slits. When the eggs hatch, the nymphs drop to the ground and burrow into the soil in search of food.

My husband and I were out walking just north of the Sharlot Hall grounds with a video camera many years ago and were lucky enough to catch egg laying action. This summer, I pawed through a number of smaller trees and limbs on several occasions, hoping to see the same. Caught the males vibrating their abdomens -- but not a lady in a carload. By the way, if the song of the cicada grabs your heart, you can listen at any season over at Nature Songs (the web site of Doug von Gaussig, the mayor of Clarkdale). Our 22 varieties of Arizona cycad usually spend 3-4 years underground, not the classic 7 or 17, just FYI.

Internationally, cicadas in their 2400 varieties have caught the imagination of people around the world from Biblical times to today. This site tells about Chinese cicada lore, while a modern offers his own web site in honor of the insect.

Later Note: Would you believe a cicada blog? Or cicada T-shirt? In this modern hyper-specialized, linked world, of course you would! I just found them.

Link of the Day

Mike B is the associate pastor of a church in PV; he also takes excellent pictures which he posts regularly at his photoblog. I've been trying to locate as many local and Northern Arizona bloggers as I can; as I find them, I'll post their addresses so you can visit them.

Link of the Day

One of my daily visits is to BoingBoing. The little icon of a farm boy bouncing on his pogo stick symbolizes a big (I mean, really, really B*I*G) blog of "wonderful things" (meaning quirky) on the web. A birthday cake with a gun on top. Easter eggs hand decorated in the style of the World of Warcraft. Recipes for food that can be made from ingredients in a McDonald's kitchen. Lots of strange stuff, some techie posts, plus a certain amount of left-libertarian politics. It's great fun, but does eat up time, so be prepared.

Farewell to Summer Wildflower Bouquet

Summer went out with a floral flourish! I've been collecting pictures for the past four weeks during which we had good rains; now the world is quickly drying out. At Prescott elevations (we have several), flowers go to seed quickly and dry out, even before our first frost.

Now for all the IDs. Up top is a nice stand of Wright's beeflower, a member of the sunflower clan, if you can believe it!


Here is a Wrights mingling with local purple asters that have blossomed profusely this summer.


If you've been lucky (and ventured into shady or moist places), you might have spotted pretty little bright blue flowers. Name: blue dayflower, related to the common spiderwort (below). Curiously enough, I've seen one heckuva lot more dayflowers than spiderwort around Prescott and environs. Just as well -- we have only a couple of other true blue wildflowers.



I've checked all my field guides -- and still haven't found out what this little yellow buttercup- looking flower might be. Can you help me?


A common late summer plant: the Arizona cudweed. The name sure sounds suggestive.


The white aster blooms far more abundantly than its purple cousin. One reason is that it spreads rapidly via stolens (underground stems) unlike the purple, which depends upon seeds. Both asters are perennials.


Hardly spectacular, this brickella is nonetheless widespread in the Prescott area in the late summer. Another composite, like the sunflower.


The yarrow is beloved by herbalists for various concoctions and is the source of millefoil tea. It -- and the blossoms that follow -- are all opportunistic plants that bloom whenever there's been enough water. Most have already bloomed at least once this year. (Note: sorry if anybody was misled; I mistakenly identified the plant as mullein...I stand corrected! Good Wikepedia article here.)


The wild geranium likes water and shade; our local variety isn't quite as large as those found up in the Flagstaff area. Another re-bloomer is fleabane, below.



Curious: although there are many species of nightshade and similar plants that grow in upland Arizona, this buffalo burr is the only one I've seen in my wanderings near the center of town.


Rocky Mountain 4 o'clock adds glossy green leaves and bright magenta flowers to surprisingly dry locations. If you are ever tempted to transplant one of these beauties, don't. I tried it. I failed. About one foot down, the four o'clock grows a huge, many branched tuber firmly anchored in the bedrock. Besides, it's fairly easy to start from seed.


Finally -- can there possibly be a more photogenic flower in the Arizona highlands than the prickly poppy! My late husband, who was an excellent, artistic photographer, couldn't resist any prickly poppy he met. Having taken a couple of shots myself, I can understand the temptation. A true poppy, this plant contains a wealth of alkaloids. And believe in that "prickly" moniker -- handle with tongs!

Link of the Day

Back to the hometown to meet some local authors. Specifically, published members of Professional Writers of Prescott (which does really, really invite serious unpublished writers to join). You can meet 26 of 'em on this page and link to their novels, memoirs and entertainments.