The left-handed gun

Before he left for bayou country, Sson hung several paintings, prints and other pictures to make new home feel more like my home. Here's one of my favorites -- and its story, at least as much as I know. When we moved into Prescott from Wilhoit in the mid 80s, we had plenty of room, and large white expanses of wall. Time to think about art. At that time, there was a gallery in the St. Michael Alley two doors down from Ernie's Hotel California. A young artist guy showed up who needed fast money to finance his more serious work. He had whipped out several hand-colored wood block prints with a western theme (always a best seller in Arizona.) The catch was that the prints were based upon Hollywood studio b&w publicity photos. This particular picture was a promotion for The Left-Handed Gun, a major production about Billy the Kid, with Paul Newman playing The Kid. And, yes, though I generally don't buy into the self-conscious Western Art meme, I had to have this print. I leave it to you to figure out which of the guys is Newman.

An unexpected visitor

And, so just why does the Sson show up at my new abode with a watering container from my former potted garden? Turns out that when I looked into the jug, there at the bottom was probably the first skink -- and likely the first lizard of any sort -- to show up in this particular assisted living apartment.

No, he didn't move in with me. Sson courteously removed said lizard back to the plot of dirt where he -- and several fellows -- were uncovered. Do note that there are two other reptilian critters in addition to the highly polished, photogenic skinks in the picture below.

Don't know if these (above, below) pix are of my visitor or one of his/her brothers. However, being as I now live on the second floor, I doubt if I'll be visited by such lizards as these in the foreseeable future. Until the Sson's next visit, that is.

Error message just in from the Sson!!!

I doofed on my semi-hazy ID of that lizard I had done brought over to you
the other day!

Actually, NO SKINK was he at all, but rather an ALLIGATOR LIZARD!

Looked it up today whence you posted it on your blog...

Most likely, it be the so-called "Arizona alligator lizard" or "Madrean
Alligator Lizard".

It's formal "scientific" name is Elgaria kingii.

According to at least one semi-official site (Anapsid.org), Elgaria was
formerly called Gerrhontus- oh, how we do love our names and occasional
changing thereof in biology...

Please jump on to your blog and tell all that the ol' Sson biologist has
corrected himself!

The "Skink" has wonderfully transformed into an alligator!

B&W -- almost

It's only natural and to be expected that after my paean to color, my next major photo op would turn out to be nearly black and white. Oh, all right, grey-green and white, mostly. You see, we are enjoying the fruits of a proper El Nino winter, which means periodic snow storms. Which should result in wonderful early spring wild flowers down in the desert elevations. If you peer closely, you'll see a touch of brown (the scrub branches) in the picture above -- and, of course, the yellow shout of heavy earth moving equipment below.

The decorative schist along the driveway came closest to the real black and white that I claimed in the title. The wormy looking snow below was the result of a tree that was busy shrugging off its snow load.

Above: a tree shadowed the stones here; below, one day later, much of the white stuff has melted away.

The clearing sky lends a slight blue tinge to the upper corner of this screen scene.

Color!

In dreams, I occasionally dip my hands into a bucket filled with color to experience the sensation of pure color -- all manner of colors. Which is to say that I love red and I love purple and blue and yellow and green and pink and, Miss Kate of the Uintas, certainly orange. The more colors, the happier I am.

The dotter kept this in mind when she organized my new apartment. And then, as frosting on this particular cake, she -- never a tulip person -- persuaded a supermarket florist to sell her a mixed lot, not because of their form but because of the bright colors. This stunning bouquet was sitting on my new little dining table when I arrived at my new home. Isn't that orange rimmed with yellow a beauty?

After I finished with the flower photography, the Sson, who'd just arrived, couldn't resist further exploration of the tulips, above and below.

Those strips of color at the back of the futon are just some of the pillow cases in my collection. You should see them in combination with my red or the black bed sheets.

More from Her Maj: Now that I'm home with my very own, comfy computer to play with, I thought I should check back with S. Weasel, author of the wonderful "Her Maj is Watching" artwork. Lo and behold, I found this! No wonder I'm feeling better.

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...

Sprung, computer on its way, etc.

OmegaMom here with the latest.

GrannyJ is now safely ensconced in her new assisted living apartment as of yesterday afternoon. Her phone (and associated DSL line) is due to be moved today, and her Mac Guru is supposed to pick up the computer, back it up, and set it up at her new place today or tomorrow. At which point, she will need to go through her innumerable mail messages--some important, some not--read the new comments which I haven't had time to print out and take over to her, and post her Very Big Thanks and Very Big Love for all her commenters who have followed this saga.

"Walking" Prescott is still a bit much for her, but WalkingPrescott isn't. She says she has enough sorted and grouped photos for two years of good blog posts, and I know that her new home has lots of photo opportunities, too. At the beginning of her illness, she was exhausted and down and feeling like she couldn't do the blog any more, but as she has gotten better and better, the urge to sit at the computer has been growing.

My brother is arriving today, and I am leaving on Sunday, heading back to less sunny climes. I hope that in the next few days, mom will start writing her own blog posts again!

Her Maj is watching

S. Weasel is a commercial artist with a bizarre sense of humor. When she recently moved to the south of England, she took her own brand of expletive-laced libertarianism with her. But more to my point, her poster art:


You see, when you feel starved for O2, the inclination is to hunch up and lean forward. Instead, one should always remember:

Her Maj is watching!

Sit up straight and breathe deeply. It works! I just have to remember Her Maj!

Woohoo! My Camera's Well!

Hi! GrannyJ here (channeled by OmegaMom). Briefly. Breathlessly. With a few pix of the workout chamber.


Big emphasis: Getting folks walking again. Ms. Lower Body in charge.


Ms. Upper Body offers a collection of grown-up toys that really work you out.


Other miscellaneous equippage:



A place to practice living-at-home skills. All presided over by this beautiful quilt.

(Tag-on by OmegaMom: The nursing home is talking about springing GrannyJ next Wednesday--she's just doing too well, too quickly! So the sudden push is on to find an assisted living place for GrannyJ. Having her ask for her camera, and say she had an idea for a blog post, was music to my ears, believe me.)

Better! And birthday!

GrannyJ is safely ensconced at the Good Samaritan nursing home. They are making her do physical therapy for two hours every morning, and the end result is that she is doing better. She had a Burst O' Energy this evening while I was visiting, and actually walked around her room on her own without me flailing the imaginary whip and chivvying her along. The best part? When she was done, she checked her blood oxygen level, and it was still over 90%.

The lesson here, we think, is that old cliche: Use it or lose it. They're making her use it, and thus she is finding it again.

Of course, this is an up-again, down-again process, and will probably take weeks. But it made me happy (oh, yes!), made her happy (oh, yes!), and I thought all her readers would like to know.

Additionally, GrannyJ's birthday is on Monday! So if you would like to leave her birthday greetings in the comments, I will be sure to print them all out and take them with me to read to her when I visit on Monday.

Quick update

This is OmegaMom; I've posted an update on GrannyJ on my blog for those who are concerned.

Update

Hi, all--this is OmegaMom, GrannyJ's daughter. She wanted me to write a post to let you all know what's going on.

She's not doing very well, and I am here at her house to help her out. Looks like she'll need to go into the hospital/nursing home for a while to get her back up to par, see if evaluations show that there's anything that can be done. But right now she's in a fairly bad way.

She wants you all to know that the blog is the most fun she's had in years, and that she loved doing it. She doubts that she'll be able to keep it up--she certainly can't go out and take new pictures, and she has too little energy to put together posts from her stash of existing pictures. But the blog has been a source of joy for her for the past few years, something that she has truly enjoyed putting together and sharing with her readers, and she has loved the interaction with every one of you.

Take care.

Who's afraid of the big bad mask?

One of my favorite stops among the Whiskey Row shops is the Sun West Gallery. Not for Cap-A Art, but for interesting folk arts, primarily from countries south of our border. In addition to colorful Zapotec rugs and assorted carved critters, the gallery also features many masks.

I don't know that I'd like to wake up in the middle of the night to see most of the creatures that are depicted. On the other hand, if the scary faces are confined to the computer screen (which I don't see in the middle of the night), all is A-OK.

You can enjoy these guys from Guatemala for their colors and designs, even if you don't want to meet one on a dark road or in the jungle.

Nor are the "people" particularly the sort that one would care to sit with in a local coffee shop.

Yes, I'd allow this Mexican sun-as-mask in my bedroom. Colorful as well as cheery in countenance. From Angelina's, BTW.

This particular mask has a family history and thus earns a spot on my kitchen wall. One year my Mom dressed up for Halloween as the Cat's Meow; I made the mask, though it really, really needs the ears Mom wore to complete the illusion.