Winter...

Corona de Tucson

January 12, 2025 

January was off and running with some really nice weather.  For about a week and a half, we enjoyed temps with highs in the low 70s - high 60s and lows in the 40s.  It was perfect Arizona winter weather for enjoying outside.  Add in blue skies, clouds, and no wind and you will usually find us in the glider in the backyard with the warm sunshine at our backs.   

Sunrise this time of year is around 7:15.  It's the time of year Joe and I can sleep a little later and thank goodness Lucy is in total agreement with the plan. 

Sunset this time of year is around 5:30 and perfect for a short walk with Lucy.  We are still working on walking with a leash and go for a couple of walks everyday.  Progress is slow, but we have hope! 

The biggest excitement at the oasis was having our home painted. We spent an afternoon moving plants and outdoor furniture...

We are very happy and have nothing but great praise for William Hernandez, owner of Arizona PRO 1 Painting, and his 2 employees who were efficient, steady, and did an awesome job. They arrived on Thursday (1/4) to pressure wash everything and returned on Friday (1/5) to do two coats of paint and a sealer.   They were polite to us and each other, worked together like a synchronized dance, and doubled checked to make sure we were happy and pleased with the job they did.  

William is liscened and bonded and guarantees his work for 5 years.  After 5 years he said we would notice the color fading...the paint is still good, but the heat and sunlight fades the color.

We kept the body and the trim the same color, but changed the front door to an English Forest green.   

We won't paint every 5 years, but the fresh paint sure makes a huge difference.  

 Wednesday the weather changed...it was so windy (the air quality was awful) we could hardly see to get to the grocery store.  The mountains disappeared behind a haze of sand and dust.  And though the photo doesn't show it, driving was a bit of a struggle.  

I am always keenly aware that Desert Valley Fever (often misdiagnosed as pneumonia) is caused by a fungus that grows in the desert soil.  It causes infection in the lungs when inhaled and humans and pups can get it. Lucy only goes out to potty and we cover our noses.   

The temps dropped, the clouds rolled in and we actually had snow flurries. 

There has been a freeze warning since Wednesday which continues through Monday I think.  It actually looks like winter outside.

The patio reminds me of a nursery and the torch cacti in the yard are covered with black yard bags. 

The other three shelf unit is on the back wall filled with flowers and cacti too. 

The birds have been busy at the feeders...

the cardinal visits at dawn and dusk...

and this sweet little Costa's spends it's day perched out of the wind.

And who can ignore the first full moon of 2025 ?  

January's full moon is the Wolf Moon.  We haven't heard any wolves, but, the coyotes have been howling up a storm the past few nights.  

Joe and I actually like the weather change and a new season for awhile.  Home is cozy and warm and we are so happy to be here.  

I love the way the sunshine fills the kitchen this time of year.

Lucy is just like Dover was...she will find a small spot of sunshine for a nap if we aren't napping.

And this week we added tiny pieces of frozen bananas with the frozen blueberries for a treat. She is growing like a weed and weighed in at 11.6 pounds last Friday.  

Back on the east coast, Felix and Edith had snow on Friday that turned to ice overnight in South Carolina.

Felix discovers very quickly that ice isn't so great for snow angels !

But it is great for riding down the hill in a saucer.

 Edith rode down the steep hill all by herself in the video that this picture was taken from.  

And further north in North Carolina, Jill and Bill woke up to a beautiful snow on Saturday.  Their home and barn made for gorgeous photos.  

  

Until next time, a blast from the past...

Ronnie and Joe at La Jolla in January 2016...so many wonderful memories!

HAPPY TRAILS!

And Just Like That, It's 2025

Corona de Tucson

January 1, 2025

Christmas...

Christmas week just flew by.  At the top of the list was baking sugar cookie Christmas trees for Santa. Santa likes all kinds of cookies, but these are his favorite and this year Santa helped decorate them. Jamie and Andra came over on Christmas Eve to spend the night. We enjoyed our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. 

Homemade lasagna, salad and toasted buttered bread was simple and yummy.

 

Ozzie and Lucy were joined at the hip!  

Christmas morning was perfect to watch the sunrise and enjoy coffee by the fire.

Sahuarita Lake Park...

Friday we were off for a big adventure...Lucy's first big adventure ! We haven't taken Lucy anywhere except to the vets.  That's not much fun and now that the vaccines are done (and we were advised to wait a couple of weeks after she had them) we can take Lucy to some fun places.  

About 15 miles from home is Sahuarita Lake Park.  It's a manmade lake stocked with fish that is surrounded by a 15- acre city park. There is a walking path around the lake, benches and covered picnic tables.  

 And the best part...lots of grassy areas !

The path around the lake is a mile.  Lucy walked the entire path...and everyone we met said "What a happy little puppy!" She was so happy...chasing leaves,  crunching leaves and enjoying the warm sunshine and beautiful day.  

Spa Day...

Saturday was another big day for Lucy...she had her first spa day!  She loves a bath, lets me brush her and even brush her teeth.  But I was not sure how the clippers for her fur and nails would be and thank goodness, we were given a good report when we picked her up.

Lucy's favorite new treat this week is frozen blueberries...

New Year's Eve...

The Hotel Congress, then called the Congress Hotel formally opened in Nov.of 1918.

Hotel Congress was once again our choice for brunch on New Year's Eve.  

This time I chose a Cast Iron Baked Eggs dish...two poached eggs, ham, leeks, gruyere cheese, cream, and herbs served with breakfast potatoes and sourdough toast and fresh orange juice over ice...so yummy! 

I always enjoy going there!  And every time we go, I Iearn something new.  

The headlines in the 1918 Arizona Daily Star newspaper read...

"New Congress Hotel is Open; Has 100 Rooms; Grill on First Floor"

A peek inside the tap room...the original first floor grill with it's own street entrance and served lunch to the public from 11:00 to 12:00 daily. 

"Tucson's "war bride" hotel, the Congress - the only building of major proportions built in Tucson during the war period- has opened". "The hotel has 100 elegantly furnished rooms, all of them outside ones, single en suite, and has 75 bathrooms, tub and shower." "It has a telephone in every room, steam heat, and elevator." 

Lobby Entrance...in the 1918 article, the original Congress Hotel was heralded at the time as the Southwest's first "flatiron" hotel because of the triangular shape of the building and plot of land upon which it sits. 

In 1985, new owners hired friends, designers, and artists to help run the hotel and gave them "room" to experiment to see what would work to draw in both tourists and locals.  It is definitely a work of art...and absolutely beautiful. 

 

All the light fixtures were made by resident artists who would stay at the hotel.

City walks are always on the fun list of things to do.  Out destination this time was the The Children's Museum and anything and everything in between.  On the way, we passed by the Scottish Right Cathedral.  

The Cathedral was dedicated in 1916.  In 1979, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing building to the Armory Park Historic Residential District (That sounds like a mother walk!). 

 

The stage inside this beautiful Neoclassical Revival style structure (which was reported to have cost $150,000) was constructed and furnished at the time of dedication.  The stage machinery, the many painted backdrops, and the flying system are still in use today.  The building also included a 3-manual, 22-rank organ which was upgraded in 1937 by its original designer 

We stopped at the WWII memorial...

and took note of several other bits of history.

1914

The Willard Hotel was built in 1904.  The name was changed to Pueblo Hotel in 1944 and the "diving girl" was added in 1951.  That makes us the same age! She was meticulously restored in 2012.  The building underwent major restoration in the early 1990s and the pool was filled in. 

The Ronstadt Transit Center...
Linda Ronstadt was born in Tucson. Her granddad created wagon wheels and ironworks for the region. In the early 1900s, his shop built streetcars pulled by mules for the Tucson Street Railway...the first public transportation in Tucson. 

You might remember that our last walk in the city was to the Pima County Library.  What is interesting to note is that The Children's Museum building was once the Pima County Library.   In 1898, Andrew Carnegie donated $25,000 for a new library to be built in Tucson with the stipulation that the city fund the books and maintenance.  He also stipulated that should the library move, the building could only be used by another nonprofit.  The original building was built in 1901 and two wings added in 1938.

The Children's Museum opened in the historic Carnegie Library building in 1991.

The building was added to the National Register of Historical Buildings in 1976.

. 

Outside there is a veggie garden, music garden, and a butterfly garden along with water activities and a science cart for hands-on science experiments.  

 

One more thing to note...the Bufano Bench is a 22-foot marble arched bench you see when you walk up to the museum.

The bench was sculpted by Beniamino Bufano and placed at the entrance in 1920.  It reads...
"To the memory of those pioneers of Arizona who have given their lives that we might live in peace and unafraid in this sunkissed borderland."
It is believed to be Tucson's oldest piece of public art.

Back at the oasis, it's been a lazy few days.  

The skies matched my violas early one evening...

Lucy helped replant some flowers...

A hawk sighting on the wall...

Lucy's first puzzle...

Sunset from the kitchen window...

And just like that, it's 2025 !  Wishing all our family and friends a Happy New Year.  

Until next time,

One of the murals at Sahaurita Lake Park

HAPPY TRAILS !