Oh, my goodness! (That’s OMG, isn’t it?) We’re enjoying our spring-into-summer seasons in Clarkston, WA, where we spent a lovely spring last year. This spring was chillier and rainier, but you get what you get, and now it’s summer. How time flies! It’s been so long since I posted anything I thought I’d share some winter-into-spring musings along with some photos of sights around the part of Arizona where we’ve stayed the last four winters. (I’ll share some of our more current experiences and pic’s from this area very soon.) For those who checked the earlier blog & photos about our kitty experiences, we're kitty-less as Eartha didn't work out. Oh, well. Onwards and upwards or whatever.
When we're at Eagle View RV Resort at Fort McDowell, AZ, on the Yavapai Nation Reservation, we’re in the Sonoran desert away from lots of buildings and walls common in that area, but close enough to everything you can imagine with the town of Fountain Hills a few minutes away and Scottsdale only a few minutes further. If it gets too hot we can hop in the car for a trip to a higher, cooler elevation. We were fortunate enough to get the best site in the resort for the last three years, and when we step out our door we see Four Peaks (part of a nearby mountain range) to the East, framed between a couple of scrappy trees. That view and others are part of the draw to the area. Some people come for the gambling at the casino owned by this tribe, but we prefer the mountains and all the great sightseeing and day-trip offerings, even though we’re mostly homebodies. Cross the road and you can take a nice walk in the desert but not get lost. This year southern Arizona was quite a bit wetter and cooler than normal with unusual amounts of rain that moved across the country as nasty storms that many of you experienced. When it rained, the mountains would be frosted with snow and we’d wake up to frost on the car, inspiration for many pictures. The Verde River, out of sight but right behind us, flowed much higher than usual. Daytime temps remained comfortable, although too chilly for me to sit outside and bird watch and read.
Being sunny (most of the time) Arizona, swimming pools beckon those who don’t mind the chilly winter air or are willing to stay in the heat. Ellen Meloy wrote in The Anthropology of Turquoise that she always wished her father would stop at motels with swimming pools, which didn’t happen, whenever they were on a summer vacation. I remember one summer trip when we didn’t have to beg our dad to do that; he enjoyed a dip as much as my sister and I did that year. At any rate, I couldn’t help but laugh at a motel sign across from the RV dealership where we had some work done. The sign lit as dusk was settling like a cloak, a shapely woman taking the plunge to a pool that no longer exists. She’d make a small splash, then start her exercise again, burning non-existent calories lighting that sign until well after I stopped watching. With all the big chain motels along the highways, you rarely see that kind of advertisement.
While we were away from Eagle View last summer, the tribe removed almost all the shrubbery behind our RV (and the other RV spaces along our row) and paved the space with pink gravel. All the rocks and wildflowers were covered over, very strange to come home to such different scenery. They decided to take this action because of “Heidi’s snakes”… the huge rattlesnakes we saw last January. My sister, Bobbe, brought them to my attention behind and between our rigs, two huge guys doing a twisty kind of dance and then thumping to the ground, only to begin again. I took off for the office to have Sandy call for the “snake patrol” (two firemen arriving in their big red engine and armed with a long pole and a tub with screw-on lid) while Gary started taking pictures. The snake patrol remarked they’d never picked up any snakes that large, never in late January, never had more than one at a time much less three… the third hiding in the scrubby shrubbery, waiting for the guys to decide which was the king of the pit; thus we should play the lottery if we thought we’d ever enjoy that sight again. Anyway, the cleaned up area has its good points and not-so-good ones as well. It was nice to take chairs behind the RV for shade when the afternoons got too hot and the shade shifts. Dog walkers liked the area not available to them earlier, although cleanup didn’t always happen. Some folks thought that area was now an off-road drive having been a rocky, scrubby area that no one would have thought of as a trail to anywhere. (They have to enter the area between RVs and exit near us or vice versa. There’s no vehicular entrance, nor anything that resembles one.) One guy was racing his little black car along the fence, looking for what I don’t know. One plump, aging couple drove their truck back and forth looking for eagles. Really. They never saw them; you’ve just gotta get out of the truck and sit back a while (or stand at the fence) to watch the fishing expeditions as the bald eagles sweep up and down the river. The birds don’t just fly by and pose because we want them to do that!
Shortly before we left AZ in April, I was trimming my grass with scissors (won’t let the Yavapai spray my “wild flowers”) and came upon a baby rattlesnake curled against a big rock. I backed away before it woke up, hidden by the grass as it had been. When I returned to my garden after raking and removing the clipped grass, it had moved on… perhaps to a different part of my rock-pile of a garden, perhaps to a different neighborhood I hoped. It came out again when I was watering my flower pot garden, so the snake patrol was called again, and the one little snake reluctantly left the neighborhood in the big canister. Not quite as exciting as the previous year, but there's never a dull moment! It’ll be interesting to see what changes the tribe makes while we’re gone compared to last summer’s changes. It’s for sure I won’t be moving rocks to decorate our space once I bring a few potted plants home!
Going from the wet winter to a glorious spring, we enjoyed the beauty of the blooming desert as a result of all the moisture. Spring ’08 was similar and we were here longer, taking pictures as if our lives depended on them. Watching flower buds develop and open has always been fascinating, and there was no disappointment with all the new flowers we’d never seen. We enjoyed seeing various lizards, feeding hummingbirds and other feathered friends, although not as many as before… perhaps because of less cover? The hawks circled regularly, especially when Eagle View had a lot dog show visitors; the small ones left outside looked very inviting to those hawks! We didn’t witness any dog snatchings, but heard stories.
We were able to enjoy the strenuous hill walks in Fountain Hills after Gary’s ankle healed enough to tackle more than the level ground at the RV park. This year the hikes were easier for me than before, yay! and the views from the ridge where you can look to Four Peaks, Mount Ord and off to the Superstitions in one direction and other mountains beyond the town to the other, well, everyone should be so fortunate. We enjoyed visiting the botanic gardens in Phoenix as well as to Boyce Thompson Arboretum, always well worth the day trip. As before at Eagle View, we had time to renew old acquaintances and meet new people, share moon-rises with them (including a blue moon), read, bead, sew, go to car shows, enjoy music and so on. It’s a good lifestyle. We hope you enjoy the photo albums. Share with others if you like.
The photo albums:
Winter Musings: http://picasaweb.google.com/NotesOnWings/WinterMusings
Spring in the Sonoran Desert: http://picasaweb.google.com/NotesOnWings/SpringInTheSonoranDesert
Remember to visit http://cdbaby.com/cd/GaryWingerd if you want a copy of Gary’s CD or to get one for a friend. His music is also available through iTunes, amazon.com, and many other places on the internet.
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