A Happy, Happy New Year to One and All!!!

Brunch at Cuppers

The day wasn't quite so cold. Evidence above, the first thing that friend Georgene & I noticed upon arriving at Cuppers, the well established coffee house over on Cortez Street.

I suspect that it also has the longest menu of any. Quiche, home-baked goodies of all sorts, sandwiches. Etc.

And features. Wi-fi, of course. Since I couldn't get around town if I had to carry a laptop, my favorite feature is the busy bulletin board.

Three rooms to handle the bustle of customers that started arriving noonish. I had wondered how Cuppers was handling all those people, since we were holding down one table of the four in the entry room and a guru/acolyte combo was holding down the second. That's when I had the presence of mind to ask where all the people were sitting. Doh!

Since the house brags of being a good 30 years older than any Whiskey Row business, finding this handsome rolltop desk in room #3 was not too surprising. Specific date for the house: 1872, BTW.

Eclectic is the word for Cuppers. Not just its customer mix, but its decor. All posters in the entry room feature airplanes and flight. Table tops vary all over the lot. One covered with postcards from customers...

...a proper coffee table for two...

...and a table made from an old panel door. Quite obviously a one-of-a-kind establishment, unlike the big players. My kind of place.

B&Bs in the boondocks

Me, I've never stayed at a B&B; I know that the dotter swears by them. However, if I were ever to pick such a place to spend a little time, I think I might consider either of two that are located near outback areas that my husband and I loved.

Pictured above is the Verde headwaters, Stillman Lake it's called these days. It was just this year that I learned that not only is there a real estate development on the south side, but there is also the Little Thumb Butte B&B. And, going far south of town, toward the Walnut Grove world along the Hassayampa, you'll find the Gold Bar Ranch B&B. Both feature horses, of course, and much more! But the locations alone would recommend either.

Note: it's short shrift for the blog tonight -- I took the day off and spent it reading a complete novel. Back to the Real World tomorrow.

A return to Dead Things

Oh, I have even more pictures from my visit to Dead Things, the wondrous curio shop down in Yarnell. But this post is dedicated to various animal manifestations, primarily bones. After all, what Hollywood cliche says "the dangers of the American West" better than the shot of bleached bones.

However, if you're collecting at higher elevations, you are quite as likely to happen across an antler or, if lucky, a matched pair. Elk, deer, bighorn sheep, and, in the case above, pronghorn.

More antlers. Note that not all dead things at Dead Things are strictly for decor: birdhouses in the foreground.

And how about dead things which died long, long, long ago? Fossils also fit into the market niche.

However, the contents of this box return us to our desert west focus...

...as does this round-up of assorted skulls...

and this cliche of all Arizona cliches!

Ending on a reminder that there are less romantic animals in the West. BTW, here's a previous visit to Dead Things.

Good Granite

When I first saw the bright, taxi-yellow truck, I didn't read it and I wondered where it was going to take that mud colored glass. And why. Then I got a closer look.

Gorgeous stuff. That truck can drive right up to my house and the men can start doing my counters right this instant! As my friend and I figured it, the truck was sitting there on Gurley Street to advertise the shop's wares during this slow time for construction.

More slices for your admiration, tho friend and I wonder just what the "rain forest viewing room" is all about! I had always associated granites with mountainous states, not jungles.

I should mention the lecture from the stepson, who pointed out that one should calculate the total cost of kitchen counters, not just the material. When he built a new house, he did those calculations, figuring that the labor was just as expensive for the cheapest melamine. He went with the granite. Speaking of which, if you want to see a splendid public loo with walls, floors and ceilings paved with granite, hop over to the Prescott College Crossroads Center. The story of why is here.

Still More Local Bloggers: Ric & Debbi are moving into town from Arcosanti, blogging along the way; they also have some interesting area pix at Flickr. And, if you get a chance, you should meander over to the One Acre Wood to read about Samantha, the bassett bitch who could care less about motherhood.

Grandfathered!

Walk down the alleys of older sections of town. You'll see structures that, I'll bet, would never get past the building/zoning cops. They certainly date from earlier days, when people were happy just to have a barn or a shed to protect ... whatever. As a result, they've no doubt been grandfathered and can stand as long as they can stand. Unless you try to improve them.

That's usually a mistake. Change catches the eye of zoning watchdogs and a big hurrah is the likely result. So the old barns and garages and sheds remain, often unpainted, for me to photograph. Makes me happy.

Then there's this beauty left over from the past. On Lincoln, near Whipple. Painted proudly so that a passer by can't miss it. As for me, I wonder what is stored behind all those doors. I have oodles of Stuff that need a home, I do. Maybe we could reach an arrangement....

Valley of the lights

What a wonderful Christmas holiday! Another unexpected adventure -- a trip through the Valley of Lights over in PV. Invited by the same lady who did Christmas Eve. I had hoped to pay a visit with the dotter and GD, but Mom's illness, unfortunately, clobbered those best laid plans.

You'll have to bear with me -- I was shooting from a car (stopped, however, for most pictures), it was night and I had no tripod, so some photos, such as the classic toy soldier above, are composed of multiples of multiple lights!

The snowflakes through the front windshield worked very nicely. They were the upper part of a light tunnel above the roadway (below). In the distance, a Santa, reclining in the islands after a long night.

Yes, there were many traditional Christmas scenes, such as the visitation of the angel Gabriel to the three wise men.

But most were on the wrong side of the car, like this smear of poinsettas and candles.

So my best pictures were of the quirkier scenes rendered in lights. Such as Snoopy as the Red Baron -- and, in the background, the Energizer Bunny. As well as the dozer (below), which moved the "M" in Merry from one side to the other.

Plenty of wild west pictures. The old town, above, and a stagecoach, below.

Scenes from a rodeo, natch.

Even a desert coyote baying at the moon. The entire production is sponsored by the Prescott Valley Chamber of Commerce, with members sponsoring individual displays that range from a Cinderella castle with coach to a huge peace-on-earth dove and a Statue of Liberty. Lights are on from 6 p.m. to midnight through December 30.

Caring Animals

Meet Annie. This stout, aging Australian patrols the hallways at Samaritan Village Care Center and often sticks her nose in one of the resident's rooms for a little visit and an ear scratch.

These guys are there to watch when one sits in the lobby. They eat, they play, they peck, they groom one another and themselves.

Animals such as these provide a wonderful, life-affirming presence. I know how much Mom has wisted for a pet -- a cat or a bird -- since she's lived in retirement housing. If only I had known -- one place, the Peridot, does set aside a section for residents who want to keep pets.

A Merry Christmas to One and All!

My heart was more than a little heavy when I put Mom's Christmas angel on my front door today -- she must have been made over 40 years ago and has graced Mom's door forever, it seems. But I had two wonderful, quite unexpected gifts.

You may recall that I lusted after this strange cat creature that I met at the Brinkmeyer House bazaar. A knock at the door yesterday morning: there was a neighbor I occasionally see while out walking. He held a gift bag and explained that his wife (who worked at the bazaar) thought that I should have the cat! There he/she now sits, in my kitchen.

And tonight, I was part of a lovely family dinner, thanks to a taxi driver/dispatcher with whom I regularly ride. All I can say is how kind and thoughtful people can be. My friends and family, certainly they are great folk, each and every one -- what would I do without them. But what made this Christmas even more special were the surprises. Wow!

Temper, temper!

As everybody knows, among my collections is a fine batch of bumper stickers. But I especially liked this one. A true bah! humbug! for the Christmas season. Of course, the dotter had to tailgate in order for me to get any kind of a picture. But we refused to the follow orders of this particular white Toyota. We just went scumming along.