Left in Tucson

It has been raining here for 2-1/2 days… finally cleared up around 10 AM this morning.  The snow you see is the peak of Mt. Lemmon, about 16 miles due north of the house, rising above a smaller mountain in front of it.  It is a 25 mile drive up to the peak from the base of the Santa Catalina range (taking you past Windy Point – prev. set of pix), and the top of the mountain is over 9000 feet above sea level and more than 6500 feet above the city of Tucson… so, you are looking at a mountain that is over a mile high.   These are the Rincon mountains, directly to the east of the house, the highest peak being Mica Mountain, which is about 16 miles away, and is only about 6000 feet above the city.

Tucson, AZ is a town full of creative types.  This particular Christmas display caught my eye, and I just had to share it.  It appears that Santa has opted for a new sleigh this year and a new mode of transport while his reindeer have taken a much needed vacation in the Caribbean.

Thinking of you at this blessed time of year. When you are stressing over that turkey, just ask yourself what would Julia Child do?

It is a perfect time of year to hike in the desert!  Here are recent pics taken on one of our afternoon walks through Saguaro National Park East, along the Mica Mountain View Trail.  Mica Mountain is the highest point in the Rincon Mountain Range.  Can you find the Antelope Jackrabbit in these pics?

  Our newest neighbors For the last  week, Jim has been having to refill one of our 3 hummingbird feeders every day rather than every other day or so.  This one in particular hangs from a hook Jim rigged under the overhang of our backyard covered patio.  The feeder placed in a direct line of view from both our living room window and the back door.  We can watch hummingbirds come and go as they sip Jim's customized  blend of sugar and water, and sometimes a little something extra, like cranberry juice, Coke or Welch's grape juice.  The hummingbirds have become quite used to our comings and goings as well, and they no longer vanish as soon we come out the door, lounge on the patio or use the backyard in typical human fashion.   Jim finally came to the conclusion that the only way that feeder was showing up empty every morning was that bats must be using the feeder at night.  So, last night, we waited until after dark for any sign of evening visitors to our strategically-place

I just returned from Sprouts Farmer's Market here in Tucson, AZ.  They have been selling green chiles from Hatch, NM for the last week!  For anyone who is not familiar with Hatch green chiles , just trust the natives here in the southwest, when they tell you they are The Best green chiles.  I bought a few of the mild ones, but you can also get medium hot and hot chiles.  They are perfect for roasting.  The simplest way to roast green chiles is to place them on a cookie sheet in the oven. Just wash them, dry them.  Don't cut or seed them!  Place them in a single layer on a cookie sheet.  You can line the cookie sheet with aluminum foil, but I use parchment paper.  Set the oven to low broil.  Watch them carefully, every 5 minutes turn them with tongs, and roast until they are completely black.  It should take about 15 minutes. Place them in a bowl with a damp dish towel or paper towel over the top for about 20 minutes until they cool.  This will help loosen the skins.

>  Interesting Arizona Facts > > 1. Arizona has 3,928 mountain peaks and summits—more mountains than > > any one of the other Mountain States (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, > > Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming). > > > > 2. All New England, plus the state of Pennsylvania would fit inside Arizona. > > > > 3. Arizona became the 48th state and last of the contiguous states on > > February 14, 1912 . > > > > 4. Arizona’s disparate climate can yield both the highest temperature > > across the nation and the lowest temperature across the nation in the > > same day. > > > > 5. There are more wilderness areas in Arizona than in the entire > > Midwest. Arizona alone has 90 wilderness areas, while the Midwest has > > 50. > > > > 6. Arizona has 26 peaks that are more than 10,000 feet in elevation. > > > > 7. Arizona has the largest contiguous stan

  Image of Sicily   This is my paraphrase from something I discovered while reading "Midnight in Sicily," by Peter Robb. When visiting southern Italy and Naples in particular, the author came to the conclusion that coffee is a "Neapolitan drug."  The sugar that Neapolitans put into their coffee with such care may in fact be tied to the "cult of coffee" throughout southern Italy. Naples was one of Europe's first and biggest importers of sugar.  According to Fernand Breudel in his book, "The Mediterranean,"  in the single year of 1625, when sugar was barely known in the rest of Europe, Naples imported "the "unbelievable quantity" of 15 hundred tons of sugar.  In the same year, Naples also imported 15 hundred tons of honey.  This huge consumption was recorded 50 years after coffee first arrived form the East.  The Venetians first imported coffee in 1580 from Constantinople, where it had arrived 30 years earlier from

Life’s lessons come in strange forms. As cognizant, sentient beings, we, unlike probably all other creatures, have the ability to define our lives through our experiences.   I believe that when we avoid unpleasant things, and seek personal comfort in experiences which only represent pleasure and safety, that we envelop ourselves with a cocoon of numbness, reducing our lives to an ever-diminishing zone of comfort that ultimately imprisons, and collapses upon us, as we continuously tip-toe almost up to, but never quite over, the boundary of that comfort zone.   Sometimes those lessons appear in the form of helpless little birds flopping in the road. None of us can escape our ultimate destinations.   If we stay cognizant of that fact, it can give value and meaning to our lives.   As we race against the clock to meet deadlines, be first at the opening of the Christmas sales, muscle our way through rush hour traffic, and put our name on the list at the deli counter, cognizanc

Sparrow Rehab Thursday, 7/12/2012, as I was heading out to get our mail from our curbside mailbox, a noticed a little sparrow fluttering on the ground by the front wheel of my car, which was parked a few feet away from the mailbox in the shade of our two olive trees.  I called, Jim, a.k.a Doc Doolittle, to check out this little guy who seemed to be having difficulty staying in flight.  Every time he tried to fly, he fell over on his side and crash landed on the ground.  After several attempts, Jim was able to scoop him up and bring him into our tiny Tucson backyard and patio to take a closer look at this adolescent English Sparrow.  You see, over the course of 5 years, Jim has succeeded into turning our tiny backyard into a bonafiable wildlife habitat.  Along with a family of hummingbirds who frequent two hummingbird feeders, there are also sparrows, doves, thrashers, woodpeckers, and a resident hawk who keeps a watchful eye, from a nearby Ponderosa Pine, of all the comings and g

It's mid-July, and Figaro has started to produce a whopping crop of figs.  I have got to keep one step ahead of the birds in order to get the sweetest, ripest figs.  Time to pull out my collection of the best Fig recipes. Check out the link below for my favorite.  Th Bayou Woman has the best recipe for Fig Preserves.  It's simple, easy, and everyone will love it!  There are a few more recipes on this site for July 2011. Delightful! Fig Preserves Recipe

I finally got around to creating an album from all the wonderful photos collected from my Sicilian Adventure.  Click below for a peak. My Soul of Sicily Tour Photo Album of Faves

America in 1776 Good to remember our roots. Cheers!

From the sky center atop Mt. Lemmon, Tucson AZ

The future is in the past. The re-emergence of the artisan is everywhere you look these days. We talk about a bifurcated world between those with high-tech skills and those with old-world talents. We need to pay more attention to how these two worlds are actually evolving and integrating. How many artisans have you bought from or interacted with recently? Some examples: Jewelry makers, micrro-brewers, farmers' markets, your favorite food truck, etc.        Blacksmiths Forge A New, Artisanal Future                 How do your skills and talents stack up in a future economy made up of artisans? 

Soul of Sicily - Cooking Tour, April 27-May 5,  2012 I chose to memorialize my 60th Birthday with a trip to Sicily, a gastronomical adventure through Sicily and the surrounding area. My NJ friends, Mary and Patty made the experience all the more memorable.  Escorted by our very knowledgeable and extremely patient guide, Renee, along with famed chef, sommelier and restauranteur, Pino,we gained entre into the operations of some of the best artisanal purveyors of Sicilian wines, cheese, meats, fish, breads, pastries, pastas; and sea salt, too. When not eating or cooking, we also took in some of the most interesting sites in the local area. On our second day in Sicily, with Pino as our guide and Renee as our translator, our first stop was, to see one of the most intact Greek temples to be found in Sicily in its classical surroundings.  In the 5th Century BC, Sicily passed from the Greeks, then to the Romans, with lots of influence and trade with North Africa, Tunisia. Then

Went to listen to Dr. Weil speak to a group of mostly over 60-year olds about debunked medical treatments. I think Dr. Weil is such a sensible guy and a facinating speaker.  I have been trying to get Jim to make an appointment at his renouned Integrative Medicine Center here in Tucson.  It was back in 1996 when I was developing business opportunities for AT&T's newly launched Internet consumer service, WorldNet, that I first discovered Dr. Weil and his online site. I would never have imagined that some day I would be living in Tucson where Dr. Weil has his headquarters.  Very cool.  This was my first time hearing him speak, in person.  Dr. Weil gave a number of examples of medical treatments from the past that were thought to be therapeutic at the time and later discovered to be useless or in other cases, dangerous.  He listed using uranium stones pressed against your kidneys to improve kidney function, X-rays for everything,including shrinking the thalmus gland in young child

If you haven't been to the Wine Depot , in Tucson at Grant and Alvernon, you owe it to yourself to visit the place for one of their weekend wine tastings.  They recenlty extended their wine tastings to include afternoons on Fridays and Sundays as well as Saturdays!  What a real treat to taste and enjoy the best of German wines from some very judiciously selected boutique wineries representing all the very best wine regions of Germany.  Frank, the proprietor, and Cyler who overseas the retail end of things are a wealth of knowledge when it comes to wine and German wines in particular.  Try a few of their recommendations.  I promise you that your taste buds will be well rewarded.   Cheers!

The days are warming up and daylight is sticking around longer, so Figaro our backyard fig tree is starting to sprout new leaves and tiny bumps are starting to appear as a new crop of figs begins to form on its branches. I gave Figaro a bit of a haircut back in February, which now I think I should have done a few weeks earlier in late January.   I hope I have not  compromised this year's fig crop. I also sprinkled a cup of a locally concocted special soil fertilizer mixture specifically for our desert soil composition.  Then top dressed the area under the tree with a one inch layer of fresh garden soil.   The fertilizer is something I learned about from a local fellow Master Gardener.  The owner of a small garden center/nursery on Pima Ave. used to make this stuff and bag it up for customers.  I think I might have gotten my first and last bag of the secret mix.  A few weeks ago, a drove by and found the place cleaned out of all plants and trees.  It looked like the property had

Spring has sprung here in the Tucson desert!  Birds are chirping, wildflowers are blooming.   This is my favorite time of year in Tucson.   Wherever you walk, drive or bike you can smell the sweet fragrances of acacia tree blooms, creosote bushes in full flower, and the blooming grapefruit, orange and lemons trees that almost everyone has in their backyards.   View from Catalina State Park to Oro Valley Check out that peanut balanced on a rock.  There is a bee hiding in that thistle flower.  Can you find it?  Ocotillo in bloom  Yellow desert poppies, blue desert lupines More yellow desert poppies.

e Food Network competition show "Chopped" - in which four chefs cook mystery ingredients into dishes - stopped by Tucson earlier this month, filming mostly at Old Tucson Studios and closing the business to the public during filming. Food Network spokesperson Lauren Mueller said the show shot multiple episodes that will air sometime this summer. "The publicity value for Tucson and Old Tucson will be great when it airs," said Shelli Hall, director of the Tucson Film Office, via email. Read more: http://azstarnet.com/news/local/the-scoop-food-network-s-chopped-films-at-old-tucson/article_fc563c6d-c654-594d-a705-affb11515929.html#ixzz1qMV4nhNG

As I begin to prepare for my upcoming trip to Sicily, here's a recipe for making that most delightful of Italian beverages:  Limoncello!   If you live in Tucson and are lucky enough to own a home with a large old lemon tree in your yard, why not try a new approach to preserving all that lemon juice?

This afternoon was such a lovely spring day in Tucson.  A perfect opportunity to share one of the very special treasures of Tucson with a new friend from Wisconsin in town to visit her brother who is an east side neighbor of ours.  What follows are photos of San Xavier Mission , "The White Dove," that I snapped.  Not too bad for my Blackberry phone camera.    Yes, the sky was really that blue and that clear.      

An Internet hero to conservatives One less voice crying in the wilderness, taking our leaders to task.

Tucson mail processing center to close - Tucson News Now I really don't understand how closing this facility will increase efficiency and save money? How much will it cost to sort additional mail in Phoenix and transport it to Tucson? What about lost productivity of the mail recipients who will now get their mail a day later? Would love to know how the bean counters came up with this one.

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Visit Tucson Now!

On Saturday, January 22, 2012 Tucson's Hotel Congress ,  was the sight of the annual re-enactment of the day in 1934 when John Dillinger and his gang were captured at the Hotel in Downtown Tucson.  This first photo is a photo taken from the new roof top restaurant and bar patio across from the Congress Hotel.  Crowds viewing the re-enactment can be seen in the background.  The long white building is the restored train station and Maynard's  Kitchen and Restaurant. The photo below shows the display of Dillinger's collection of guns confiscated during the capture. The trunk on which the pistols lie was graciously carried out of the Hotel by one of Tucson's firemen during a Hotel fire. It was only later, that the fireman recognized the owner of the trunk as a member of Dillinger's gang from a Wanted poster.    The trunk and weapons are part of a display at the Downtown Tucson History Museum. Two of Dillnger's collection of shotguns. The front

This morning, I met Mike Folkerth for coffee at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant off I-10 in Tucson. I had emailed him about getting a few extra copies of his book, " The Biggest Lie Ever Believed ," and here I was meeting him in person to chat about his amazingly clear-sighted explanation of how our country, our world has gotten itself into this current economic mess. It was only an hour, and how I wish we could have talked for the rest of the day. If you Google Michael Folkerth, you will find his collection of very interesting observations on life in these here United States.  I have lived in Tucson almost 5 years and always marvel at the number of remarkable people I continue to meet.

Shea Butter, Bill Moyers is back on TV and the Web, AZ 100th Birthday on Valentine's Day, the Big 60 this year, Sicily - Cooking and Eating, Presidential Election, does anybody really care? Obama, Romney, Cain, et. al.  The lousy economy slogs forward, jobs, jobs, jobs, where are the jobs? Foreclosures, Fannie Mae, Freddi Mac, banks win, you lose.  Social media everywhere, QRs, tablets, e-readers, mobile everything, Foursquare, Groupon, Living Social, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, does the majority really care?  Guns and Ammo:  the new currency.  Extreme weather, drought, global warming, 18 feet of snow in Alaska, CHINA, GREECE, IRELAND, GERMANY, EGYPT, SYRIA, LIBYA, IRAN, YEMEN, IRAN, IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, RUSSIA, Ten Years in Guantanamo,Wiki-Leaks, does the majority really care? Where is Tiger Woods?  Lady Gaga vs. Madonna, is there really a contest?  Nicki Minaj - overnight sensation, media desperation. And the beat goes on. 

New Year's Day 2012 dawned sunny and warm, reaching 75 degrees by mid-day, here in Tucson, AZ.  Sunday Morning, New Year's Day got off to a great start with breakfast at our favorite local hangout, Jethro's Little Cafe , on the east side of T-town.  It's the kind of place where everyone knows your name.  Being a holiday, meant that Greg, the owner, would be serving Eggs Benedict as the breakfast special of day.  If you are as much of a fan of Eggs Benedict, as we are, you know that the caliber of the Hollandaise sauce is all important.  And Greg's is the hands down best we have had - in Tucson or anywhere else.  Alas, Eggs Benedict only appears on the Specials menu for holiday weekends.  So, we won't be enjoying Eggs Benedict again until Valentine's Day.  Hmmmmm, maybe I can convince Greg to make Eggs Benedict for Jim's and my birthdays later this month.