I'm glad to live near the Grand Canyon. The North Rim has 1/10 of the South Rim's visitors (and fewer tourons), and it's much cooler. Another favorite place is the part of New Mexico that Georgia O'Keeffe loved. She said the Pedernal was her private mountain because "God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it." The Chiricahua Mountains southeast of Tucson are a great place for birding. So is our yard, which hummingbirds love. I'm very fond of the male broad-billed hummingbird's blue gorget. This Vimeo channel shows a 2020 nest on our porch. Clips # 27, 24, and 13 are especially interesting IMO. Our yard is also lucky to host a Sonoran Desert tortoise (named Tank); he came from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's adoption program.
I love everything about food - raising it, cooking it, eating it, even washing dishes. For example, I studied paella for a few years, and now I grill it quite often. I like learning how to make things from scratch. Olives from our own trees, kimchi, yogurt, granola, and nocino are some current favorites. Weirdly, I also enjoy the challenges of gardening in Southern Arizona - too much sun and too little water. In recent years, I'm finding that straw bales hold more moisture and stay cooler than our regular soil. Related to this, I volunteered at Mission Garden from 2015 through 2024 This resource is one of many reflections of Tucson's designation as the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the US.
I've raised 11 puppies for Canine Companions (CC) and Guide Dogs for the Blind. Three CC dogs are pictured here: Hershey, Nell, and Roxy. Raisers can start puppies when they're only eight weeks old. Hershey came to us then, and she stayed with us till we turned her in to CC. Nell lived with a raiser in Phoenix, and then moved to a prison where inmates worked with her for several months before she came to our home in Tucson. Nell was our first co-raise with inmates in CC's prison puppy raising program. I'm now co-raising Roxy with inmates at a Tucson-area prison. These dogs have blessed our lives, as well as those of the people who get them later either as working dogs or beloved pets.