Growing with gratitude for life's challenges
Today’s a day of putting away and making sure that all lose things are secured – we head out tomorrow, all 61′ of us. As usual, I am having mixed feelings. For most of my life I dreamed of getting out of the mid-sized Ontario town where I grew up. I wanted to see the […]
Read More
I envy the people who dedicate their lives to nature and spend their days immersed in the beauty of places such as Boyce Thompson Arboretum. Located on Hwy 60, next to the old mining town of Superior, AZ, this is a lovely way to spend the day. Naturally, we came to see the birds. Ric, […]
Read More
For some reason, I associate Sedona with healing, although I cannot bring to mind any particular legend. Driving through the town, there are numerous crystal, psychic, and other New Age shops, which suggests my suspicions are true. “There are four vortexes…” our Pink Jeep tour guide starts to tell me. “…vortices,” Ric corrects. “The plural […]
Read More
“The one thing you have to do, if you go to Sedona, is take a Pink Jeep tour,” a friend told us, so I looked it up. “I don’t know,” I told Ric. “This looks pretty intimidating.” “Well, it’s up to you.” The Broken Arrow tour, Pink Adventure’s most popular excursion looked out of the […]
Read More
Well, okay, maybe lurking is too sinister a word, but truly the situation was both exciting and disconcerting. I’d heard rumours as we passed others on the trail; it was all the talk of Water Ranch the day we there. Something was in the women’s washroom. Now the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch in Gilbert, […]
Read More
I promised myself that this time I wouldn’t just take pictures of birds. The Water Ranch at Gilbert is so beautifully laid out with seven ponds surrounded by walkways and lush foliage, that I thought the groundskeepers should be honoured too, but when we arrived, having parked in the library lot at the side of […]
Read More
“Birding won’t be the same in Arizona,” Ric warned me as we pulled away from Texas. He’s right in the sense that we don’t have experts to turn to, but there just as many interesting and diverse species to be seen. Our first morning here, I awoke to what sounded like someone swinging on a […]
Read More
We’ve come back to Coon’s Bluff in hopes of seeing the wild horses. The day is crystal blue, without a cloud in the sky. My heart is heavy. I woke up in the middle of the night, with the lines of a poem running through my head. Without turning on the light, I reached for […]
Read More
Arizona is host to up to 15 species of hummingbirds per year, and at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, we managed to see quite a variety. I mentioned in the last post that a Black-chinned hummingbird greeted us upon arrival, and I did manage to get a picture, but the light was not favourable, […]
Read More
“Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix have mobility scooters on a first come first serve basis!” I told Ric excitedly. I’d been itching to get out again and see more countryside, but my body and his knees have been protesting. The gardens open at 8:00 a.m. and we are forty-five minutes away, so we set an […]
Read More
One Woman's Quest II 