Photo Challenge ~"Red"~072511

This is a Mexican bird of paradise bush which I found over in Arizona this past weekend. We also have them here in our desert and I have a few in my yard, but mine are all the yellow variety. Photo Challenge for July 25, 2011. To see this challenge, go to: http://pullingmymaskoff.blogspot.com/

Deep Canyon views and road etiquette

I headed up the highway early Thursday morning. It was another crisp, clear morning here in the desert, so I stopped to take a few photos. That's a Budweiser truck in the bottom one and I realized as I was snapping pictures, that I sure didn't want to be behind him all the way up the curvy mountain road, so I hopped into my car and sped off! Phew! NOBODY likes to be behind a large delivery truck or a hay truck. Although, I'll say that most hay trucks do pull over and allow cars to move ahead of them. There are only a certain amount of turnouts on this mountain road and I ALWAYS pull over to allow other cars (even idiots) to pass, and believe me, I've seen some cars speed up and down that highway. And, unfortunately, I've seen too many accidents.

Another fire~This one over 2,000 acres

...sigh...yes...fire season has arrived. This is the 3rd fire in 3 days and this one has already burned over 2,500 acres. It's in San Diego county, just southeast of where I board my horses by about 35 miles. As I left the ranch yesterday, I could see the smoke. Hubby and I left for Arizona yesterday afternoon and we could see the smoke drifting over the California border, into Arizona. We decided to get a change of scenery and since the big comic convention is in San Diego this weekend, there were NO hotels from San Diego to Los Angeles, so we are traveling the other direction. Here's a link to the San Diego Union about the fire: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/22/fire-burns-400-acres-east-warner-springs/

FIRE!!!

I heard on our local news that there was a fire yesterday afternoon up on Highway 74. It was at Spring Crest, on the part of Highway 74 across from some lovely mountain cabins. I had completely forgotten about it until I drove by it this morning. I pulled over and drove along the road. BLM fire crews were still there, keeping an eye on things. It smelled AWFUL. The beautiful mesquite trees were burned. Apparently the fire crews responded in record-breaking time and controlled the fire to just 10 acres. Then, I heard on the news this afternoon that another fire broke out further down the road, in Anza, in a residential area. No buildings burned, but several were threatened. All of our mountains are on "high" fire alert. The humidity here today was 4%. Yes. 4%...that's REALLY DRY. While it was 109 degrees, any time you have relative humidity that low, it's easy to cool down. I always keep a bandana with me in my car and I always wet it when I'm done working with my horses. I wipe off my face, neck, and arms, and head home, nice and cool. It's when we get the summer monsoons (one is heading our way next week) that it becomes REALLY uncomfortable. I waved to the crew that was still on site this afternoon...those guys do a super job! And, mountain people greatly appreciate their work and efforts to control fires. THANK YOU, firefighters!

July monsoon~Nature Notes~072011

We've only had a few days of monsoon weather here this summer and it really wasn't a monsoon. Technically our monsoon weather is tropical and comes up from Mexico. What we had here in July was an Atlantic Ocean storm, an eastern ocean storm. No tropical storms yet and we usually have them by now in July. I know because our daughter's birthday is July 25 and in 1979, our home was flooded during one such summer storm. She was a year old and I was pregnant with our son. My husband was in Los Angeles for business at the time, and I awoke at midnight to the sound of water running through the house. I grabbed my baby, my purse, the bills (I know...) and our German Shepherd and stumbled out to my VW van and drove out of the flooded areas, only to become stranded on a bridge. Fortunately, a fire truck came by and we spent the night at one of the fireman's home (yes...the dog, too). My Siamese cat wisely crawled to the top of our roof, out of harm's way. I did manage, before I left, to "swim" across the street and wake up our elderly neighbor, who profusely thanked me, as he was a heavy sleeper. I also awoke our neighbors on the other side, who were able to save their house full of antiques. Phew..the things you can do when you are 28!!! For YEARS after that, every time it rained, I ran around the house and picked up my shoes and other items on the floor! (much to my husband's annoyance!) Once your house is flooded (we lost all our couches, chairs, bed, and carpeting, and some clothes), you never really recover. We got a SBA loan and replaced everything, but I'm always on edge when the summer monsoon storms come rumbling in...So I await the monsoon season. OOPS! Hurricane on the way...see link: http://news.yahoo.com/hurricane-dora-reaches-cat-4-strength-off-mexico-002141603.html To visit Nature Notes, please go to: http://ramblingwoods.com/

archives~Santa Rosa Visitor Center~spring

I was going through my archives because I haven't taken any new photos of Deep Canyon or the mountains near it since...June! Hubby also cleaned off my laptop desktop where I was storing my photos (thus making my laptop run EXTREMELY SLOW) and he put them all on a portable hard drive. But, now I have to sort through them to find photos, and believe me, there are a LOT of photos to go through! I've labeled them all by subject and date, but still...(sigh...) Anyway, I found these from March, 2009...springtime in the desert! Temps will be 110 here today, then slip back to 107 and 106 for the rest of the week...oh, how I miss spring!

Deep Canyon in February~That's My World~071911

I looked out my living room window back in February of this year and I could tell it was snowing up in Deep Canyon, so up I went! :-) Hey, how often does it snow? Besides, I love to drive up Deep Canyon when it's snowing...it's so quiet! There were only a couple of cars on the road that day and I enjoyed the solitude! I started my drive at the bottom of Highway 74, where it was raining. Then, all was silent and white stuff was hitting my windshield. Pretty soon, the road I had just traveled was covered with snow. It didn't take long...only about 15 minutes! What a beautiful transformation of my world! That's My World for July 19, 2011...it's going to be 109 here today, so I'm REALLY enjoying these pics! To see other worlds, please go to: http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/