Pow wow

Today started out pretty ordinary...we went up to southern Tucson to a swap meet but it was pretty dead today...not many vendors there so we cut it short.

We wanted to get some pictures of the San Xavier Mission but every time we went to Tucson, we'd forgotten to bring the camera...today we had it! Tom drove out that way after the swap meet ...pretty soon we saw signs about a pow wow today, so we went. It was really interesting. Lots of native food vendors, native arts and crafts, and lots of dancing.

I'm not going to write much here this time, but will post lots of pictures. The ceremonial costumes were fabulous...I can't imagine how much time they took to bead. The kids were adorable...it was a wonderful lesson in culture and tradition...just amazing. Enjoy the pictures!

We're heading out tomorrow...not sure yet where we're going, but we're thinking of Monument Valley. Guess we'll know tomorrow night where we are!

Trust...

This little shop has and interesting sign on the door.

Thought I'd post it to show that we do have some honorable and trusting people left in the world.

While I was there several people bought pots and followed the directions as posted. Think about whether this could work in your town... trust is a fragile thing...glad to see it's alive and well in Tubac!

Artsy Fartsy...

Some of you know I've been taking art classes while on this trip and I thought I’d best show some of the results. I’ve got a ton more paintings, but I thought these might be interesting to you. The paintings actually look a little bit better than the photos of them...the light in the fifth wheel isn't the best for photography, but at least you'll get an idea of what they look like. I've still got lots to learn about the world of art!

The first one, of the old car is under glass so has some reflections that I couldn’t eliminate when taking a picture. I liked it because it shows the Route 66 sign and also the cactus, so is reminiscent of Arizona. It was one that I did in my watercolour class here in Tubac. It was fun to do because I was able to wet the paper, then drop the colour in on the car and on the cactus, then watch all the colours blend.

The second painting was from a photo that I took myself when I was home in November. I went for a walk on a frosty morning and one of the gardens near the road had some poppies on their last legs. The painting turned out ok, though I’d like to re-do it now that I’ve learned a bit more. I worked this one so hard that I wore through a layer of the paper in one spot. Again, it was fun to do because of the green wash on the side. There are five layers or more of colour in that wash.

The third picture is a coloured pencil drawing on dark pastel paper of an old sailor…no, he wasn’t one I was drinking with when I got my tattoo!!! ...he just had an interesting face and the brightest blue eyes I’ve ever seen. Anyway, that drawing was done during one of the two hour craft sessions they have here at the rv park…you take whatever you want to do and play. Lots of women are knitting or quilting…I took my pencils. The picture turned out pretty good…I wasn’t sure how to do the beard, but thought I’d best leave it with just the indication of hair before I overdid it.

Ah…Rat-Man. Tom doesn’t like this picture because of what it depicts… others I’ve shown it to don’t like it either, but I do. This old guy was done from a picture in a magazine and the story was about how people become attached to their pets…he happened to have a rat for a pet. This is also done in coloured pencil on matt board (the kind of board you matt a picture with).

The next painting is watercolour of the cactus at night and was an experiment. I took some frisket (gooey stuff that you paint on the paper to hold the white then rub it off after you’re done painting) and dropped it in the sky part of the painting so sort of indicate stars. Then I went full force and used some unusually bright colours (unusual for me anyway). The painting sort of turned out unrealistic, but that’s ok…it’s fun to do something different.

Last is the painting I did yesterday from another picture I took of a succulent plant in Tubac the other day. I still see areas that I want to refine on this painting. It’s a work in progress. The biggest challenge sometimes is knowing when to stop…I’ve messed up several paintings by going too far with them, but I only want to refine the stem on the shoot coming up in the middle. I did that part near the end of class and didn’t have time to wait on paint drying to finish it entirely. I don’t think we’ve got any big plans for today so maybe I can get it finished.

I thought I’d throw in a picture of of the flag we fly. It's a combination of Canadian and American and is the only one I've seen like that. We like it and have had comments from lots of others about it. It's a bit of a conversation piece.

And of course Oso. This was taken when we climbed up to the top of the Mesa near Sedona where we found the Indian ruins. He was scared when it came to climbing down the rocks…he didn’t like the height of some of the boulders we were climbing on so just took up residence at the top of the hill and refused to come down till we went up and walked him down. He was scared to look over the edge at the Grand Canyon too….sheesh…never heard of a dog scared of heights…what a baby!!!

Tucson and Mexico

After Sedona, we high-tailed it for Tucson where we left Oso at a kennel then flew out to Cancun for a couple weeks in the tropical sunshine. We were close to Playa del Carmen and so went down there to shop and wander the stores. We walked out onto the beach and ordered some drinks…a bucket of beer and two margaritas later we managed to make our way back to the shopping district. Now Tom will tell you that I was hanging out with a bunch of sailors, we all got drunk and got tattoos. That’s a lie. There were no sailors. The rest of the story is pretty well true though. I did get a tattoo of a dragonfly on my calf and I was a little tipsy after the bucket of beer. Well, no matter how I got it, bottom line is that I like it and that’s what matters.

Friends Bonnie and Alstan were in Playa the same time we were and we met up with them and had a few drinks and dinner. It was good to see them…Bonnie gave me a very good shopping tip that Tom and I are both grateful for. Thanks Bonnie!

Brenda & Kevin & Rachel and Marc & Jess were able to fly down for part of that stay and we had a lot of fun with them. Rachel is a water-baby, wanting to go to the swimming pool all the time. Luckily we had a small cement pool on our deck and when we weren’t at the big pool, she could play in that one. I managed to catch a cold while down there, so didn’t go snorkeling with Marc and Jess, but Tom did. He had a disposable underwater camera and took some great pictures of sea turtles and fish. Even got one of a barracuda (from far away…don’t know why he didn’t get closer!!!) We had a great time with the kids. It would be awesome to have all the kids come down with us some day…don’t know how on earth we’d coordinate that with all of their schedules though.

Unlike the last time we flew with US Airways, we weren’t bumped off of our flights so didn’t get any free flight credits…too bad. We were hopeful when we saw that there were many planes delayed due to weather on the east coast, but we made it home without too much trouble.

After getting Oso, we came south to a little town called Tubac. It is very close to the Mexican border and border patrol cars are all over. There is a check-point between our RV park and Tubac, so have to go through that every time we go to town. Guess they are looking for illegals coming into the country or for drug smugglers. We were told this is some sort of corridor for people to travel north from Nogales and get into the country illegally. Anyway we don’t have any problems at the checkpoints and traffic moves pretty quickly through them.

Tubac is a very artsy, fartsy town. It is made up primarily of art galleries and sales shops. It’s fun to wander around town and check out the various styles of painting or other artwork. Some I don’t quite understand however. At the Art Centre, there was a showing of watercolour paintings. Some were absolutely fabulous. The one that won best of show however was a painting about four feet by 10 feet that hung vertically without any framing. It had images of watermelons, electrical cords and outlets, and what looked like wallpaper painted on the paper. On the bottom of the painting hung a half-dozen paper mache watermelons. The price on this work of art was $15000. Hmmmmmm… I wonder where one would hang such a thing.

I found a place that was holding classes and signed up for one. The instructor, Barbara Borgwardt, is a fabulous artist and a very patient teacher. I actually produced something that was good enough to frame. I’m going to take one more class with her, then hopefully a week long class with Betty Carr, another art instructor who does wonderful watercolours. I’m so excited about this opportunity. I’m hoping while we’re at Spray Lake again this Summer, I can do more artwork and maybe I’ll know a bit better how to do watercolours.

Gary, Tom’s brother, and Judy came to see us yesterday. They are heading home now after being in Yuma for about a month. We had a nice visit with them in the afternoon and then went over to the complex here and played a couple games of pool. The restaurant is open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so we had a good, homecooked meal as well. We've also found a good restaurant called the "Cow Palace". Sounds weird, but it's one of those places where the food is so good that the locals go after church on Sundays and bikers and snow birds frequent.

I’m not sure what today will bring. We’ve been talking about going up into the mountains here to a place called Madera Canyon. It’s supposed to be a beautiful spot…maybe we’ll do that today. There’s also a swap meet in Tucson that Tom was checking out on the internet….maybe we’ll do that. I’ll try to stay more current with the blog…I’ve found it’s hard to remember all that we’ve done and seen unless I write weekly….not that I’m getting old and forgetful or anything!

Arizona 2012 - Grand Canyon

We took a day and drove up from Sedona to the Grand Canyon. It was cold and there was a bit of snow around, but was a beautiful day to see the canyon. There are these places where you can walk right out to the end of the point and have nothing but canyon dropping hundreds of feet on either side. They are fenced with a plexi or wooden fencing, so there isn’t too much risk of falling, but Oso didn’t know that. He went running up to the edge, poked his nose over and backed away quickly. He would NOT go near the edge the rest of the day. Wonder if he remembers falling off Gordie’s deck when he was little.

The Grand Canyon was amazing. We've been to the North Rim before...this was the South Rim. I took tons of pictures, and actually got to sit and draw for a bit while Tom took the dog on a nice long walk. The sign about using caution near the edge sounds a bit redundant, but the warden was telling us that they expect, from past experience, about six deaths a year from people falling into the canyon. Most of them are young guys who think they can get way out on the edge and show off.

I wish it was easier to upload pictures, or that I could load more on the blog... This little squirrel seemed quite comfortable spending his day on the edge of the canyon looking out into it. He posed quite nicely for me! The ravens let me get nice and close too. Wouldn't it be something to have wings and be able to fly out over the canyon.

The campground we were in was called Lo Lo Mai. It was a really pretty rural spot in a place called Page Springs about 8 miles from Sedona. The people there loved dogs and so Oso was a natural fit into their pack. They’d go running down to the creek, then play in the red dirt until they all looked like red mud puppies. Oso got a couple of outdoor showers just to clean the red off him…he didn’t like those so well!

We had talked to the owners of the campground and they said that if we climbed the hill on the other side of the road we could find some ruins on the top of the mesa. It was about a thousand feed up but didn’t look like too bad of a climb. I said it didn’t “look” like too bad of a climb. It actually turned out to be a lot steeper than it looked. Anyway, we managed to make it to the top with a few stumbles and rest stops. We thought the ruins were likely something pretty insignificant since all the ones we’d seen had been turned into National Monuments. Wrong…they were very, very cool. There were about 20 rooms in the dwelling that were clearly defined though the walls of the buildings had mostly fallen down to leave just piles of rocks between them. These were totally un-excavated ruins. You can see one of the old walls in the picture with Tom in it.

Wandering through one could imagine what day to day life must have been like. On one side of the dwelling there were several little piles of obsidian chips. We figured maybe this was where the men sat and made their arrow heads. On the other side of the mesa, were pot shards…thousands of them…perhaps this was where they stored pots of grain or water…I imagined the Indian women spending time together here creating the pots they used…maybe my anthropologist daughter can give me some hints. See if you can identify all the pot shards in this picture....there are hundreds of them, some big, some little. There was a 360 degree view from the mesa with water close by, so I can see why they chose this place to settle…it was a really awesome experience. The climb down the hill was less than awesome…Tom found the shortest route down (the steepest of course) and you can see from the picture, I had to find my own way when his way was too steep. I managed to fall, bruise a rib and scrape myself up pretty good on the rocks and cactus. I did survive though…tough old broad that I am!