THE VALLEY OF THE MOON!

Friday, the Camera Club held their annual "Mystery Trip". No one but the coordinator knows where we are going -- it's a "locked in the vault" secret. So everyone that is signed up to go on the trip meets at the Camera Club at the appointed hour. Each car is given a map, but still not told what we are going to see. Arriving at the appointed destination is our first clue as to where we are:

About 50 people attended the "Mystery Trip", and we all waited patiently to see what was going to happen.

And then along came Angus!! He's a gnome with an Irish accent and all.

He explains that "The Valley of the Moon" is a unique area built in the 1920's by George Phar Legler and a number of people who shared his dream. It's purpose is to appeal to the magical imagination of children and of bringing mental and spiritual relaxation for visitors to the site.

Bob looked on with interest???

I put a lot of pictures in because you just can't understand the strangeness of this place unless you see for yourself.

This is Carl. He was the instigator of this whole "Mystery Trip".

It was just one strange thing after another!

We got to go into the rabbit hole. The picture below is looking out a window in the rabbit hole.

This is a lady squeezing out the last part of the rabbit hole. Some people turned around as it was quite a contortion at the end.

Just another of the strange creatures at "The Valley of the Moon".

We had a very interesting afternoon, but like Bob said as we were leaving, "Been there done that."

TRIP TO DEGRAZIA GALLERY

Yesterday, Bob and I went to Tucson with the Camera Club to visit the DeGrazia Gallery. Ted DeGrazia was a beloved Tucson artist famous for his paintings of native American children. Mr. DeGrazia designed and supervised the construction of his gallery in the 1960's. Part of his legend, before his death in 1982, was his protest against inheritance tax on works of art. He rode on horseback to the Superstition Mountains near Phoenix and set 100 of his paintings on fire. One room in the gallery portrays his life. The entrance to the gallery.

A room in the gallery is set up as if he were there still painting.

His paintings are on everything, even on the walls of some of the adobe outbuildings.

The floor leading to this bench is made of dead saguaro pieces. They are cut and polished and laid in the floor.

Bob enjoying the scenery.

What would a gallery in Tucson be with out the cactus garden.

This path was behind the gallery and had benches and fountains.

This was a stone tree that DeGrazia built. Coins are placed on the rocks, much like throwing coins in a fountain.

A close up!

Bob and I in front of one of DeGrazia's bigger paintings.

It was a fun day.

MUCH NEEDED RAIN AND YES, SNOW!!

We finally received much needed rain in the valley and snow in the mountains. It has been so dry since we had a nonsoon last summer instead of a monsoon. We walked this morning and I took pictures as we have not seen this much snow in the mountains since we moved here. We received quite a bit of rain here in the valley as evidenced by this sand trap on the golf course.

This is the first time either of us has seen the Santa Cruz River run this fast with water from bank to bank.

Lots of snow in Madera Canyon.

Snow's quite pretty when you don't have to shovel it.

Even Elephant Head had a bit of snow.

We loved the rain. It makes everything look clean and smells so good, but now we're ready for it to warm up!

COUPLE OF BUSY DAYS!

Someone asked if I would be on the beautification committee for our subdivision -- at the time I thought how hard can it be; well I found out because beautification comes with a LOT of hard work. Our first project was to move the small gravel in a designated area so that we could have loads of dirt dumped to make berms and then put the gravel over the berms and eventually plant cacti and such on said berms. The committee designated Tuesday, January 19, for our first work day having no clue that it would be cloudy and rainy (we haven't had rain for months). So we volunteers braved the rain, wind and thank God no snow to do our part in beautifying The Springs. Phyllis, Juanita and myself were the "brave" women helping. I say brave because it was COLD! I had everyone gather together for a group picture.

Bob and this gentleman were in deep discussion about the best way to move rocks (I guess)!

What was suppose to be a 3 hour project turned into an all day project and let me tell you we were exhausted by the time we got home that afternoon. The planting will commence on February 19. Oh, yea! Today, Wednesday the 20th, a group of women from The Springs got together and went to Amado for lunch at the Stockman's Grill. Below are a few pictures.

And then a group picture.

We had a nice day and the weather cooperated with us for this picture.

Yesterday, January 13, Bob and I went with Linda and Jim to Santa Grutrudis Lane to find the Rufous-backed Robin. We didn't get to see him, but we saw a number of other birds which were feeding at a Pyracantha bush along the lane. A female Northern Cardinal

A Crissal Thrasher, which was a life bird for me!

A male Northern Cardinal

A female Phainopepla

A Sage Thrasher

Cedar Waxwing. Notice the little bit of red on his wingtip , Bob says this is why they are called waxwings, and notice the yellow on the end of his tail! They are very handsome birds.

We saw a number of other birds, but these were the ones I could get close enough to get pictures. We had another great day of birding!