Daily News

Every morning and every evening, I look at several different news sources online.  I try to keep abreast of news nearby and around the globe, particularly with Claire and her family living in the Middle East, and because of our stock portfolio, which includes both domestic and international companies.  My daily standards are:  www.nytimes.com, www.washingtonpost.com, www.wsj.com, www.bloomberg.com, www.politico.com, www.thehill.com, www.azcentral.com, www.azstarnet.com, www.cnn.com, and www.huffingtonpost.com.  I enjoy www.designmom.com at least once a week.  The author is a blogger with six young children, making lots of money blogging, so their family moved to France for a year.  I love reading about their adventures and her projects.  I look at www.pinterest.com when thinking about my own projects.  I read www.dailybeast.com a couple times a week for the latest news and pop culture.  When planning or thinking about a trip, I read reviews and forums about places, accomodations, and local travel at www.tripadvisor.com before making any travel reservations.  There is so much information out there!  Getting the news from a printed newspaper and nightly news seems like bare bones snippets as compared 

to the information available online. 

Happy Anniversary, Audrey and Dan!

Today is Audrey and Dan's fifth wedding anniversary.  Audrey and Dan have been blessed with the birth of Lauren Campbell just five months ago.  They have much to celebrate!

Congratulations Audrey and Dan!

 

Life is Good!

Papa and I set a quarter mile of t-posts today on a piece of property I've owned for several years.  We accomplished all we hoped and will have help over the weekend, to string the barbed wire.  As we were driving home, I thought about the various things I do and how I'm just as comfortable doing manual labor, like setting t-posts, laying a stone wall, washing windows... as I am visiting the Louvre or the Picasso Museum in Paris, shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue, and entertaining all kinds of people in our home.  I am so grateful for the variety of life experiences I've had, a terrific husband whose had an interesting career and now we share an interesting and active retirement.  Life is good!

365 Grateful Project

I found this on Designmom.com: 
"A few years ago, I was feeling really down for no good reason.  I asked advice of a wise nun who told me the secret to happiness: reflection and gratitude. The nun asked me to write something down every day that I was grateful for.

“It really surprised me how quickly I began to notice things that I otherwise would have missed. I remember sitting on my bed one night and realizing that the little moments I was thinking through were really special and if I had not taken the time to notice them they would be lost forever.
It shocked me how much I had missed so I started to take the project seriously. I got a beautiful album and ordered enough polaroid film to see me through a year! (and lucky I did!) Taking one photo every day for a year of something I was grateful for really re-programmed my brain. I couldn’t believe how much gratitude affected my life. Seeing and celebrating the good in my life affected not only the way I felt spiritually and physically but it improved my relationships with others too."

What a challenge! Write something down every day that you are grateful for.

I am grateful for our grandchildren... Toby, Greta, Emerson, Colby, Lauren, Emily, Sarah.

Welcome Colby!

Colby Douglas was born at 8:45 p.m. in Amman, Jordan, to Claire and David.  He weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz. and is 20.5" long.  He is adorable!  Welcome to our family, Colby!

Final Sign of Spring

The final sign that spring has arrived on the ranch is when the mesquite have leafed out.  That happened over the past week.  The freshly leafed out mesquite trees in our front yard are fluffy, green, and pretty.  

Bananagrams

Audrey and Dan bought a Bananagrams game a couple of years ago on their way to a ranch visit. They left the game with Papa and me and we are still enjoying it.  We play Bananagrams two or three nights a week, usually a couple of games per night.  Each player races against each other to build crossword grids and use all their letter tiles. There's no turn-taking.  It's a simple race to the finish. 

Quail Follow Up

A week ago, I wrote about the mother quail in our backyard in Tucson.  When we arrived 

at our house on Friday afternoon, there were lots of feathers and bird remains on our patio table.  

We think a larger animal devoured the poor Mama quail.  The quail eggs were still under the bush near the gate.  When we looked on Saturday morning, the eggs were gone.  We are sad that a whole bird family met their demise in our back yard.  There was another quail in a tree in front of the 

house that I was lucky to photograph.  The top knot makes them adorable birds!

More Cactus Flowers

Cactus flowers speak for themselves.  Delicate and oh...so beautiful!

Majestic Saguaros

We spent the weekend in Tucson and were treated to saguaros loaded with buds and in full bloom.  The saguaro is the quintessential symbol of the Arizona desert.  We are fortunate to have 

so many saguaros in our Tucson neighborhood.  They are quite majestic.

Day Spent at Schilling

I keep a "Ranch To Do" list and had several items at Schilling on the list.  Schilling is about 3.5 miles from our house and is the site of the original ranch homestead.  The best wells on the ranch are at Schilling, with water running on the surface year round.  The old fences around Schilling have up to nine strands of wire in places.  Stacked rock covers the bases of two of the wells and lines the creek bed.  Schilling is a beautiful place on the ranch.

Papa and I spent several hours at Schilling this week.  Papa took a saw and cut several hackberry trees.  I rolled old pipe and tidied up around a pair of steel water tanks.  Just as we were getting ready to head home, at least a hundred cows were walking toward a drinker on the hill, single file, to get their afternoon drink of water.  The cows are fat and happy. 

Banana Yucca

We have thousands of banana yuccas growing on the ranch.  About five years ago, I transplanted a couple on either side of the entrance to our home.  One of them is full with bloom. 

Bouquet of Tulips

The bouquet of tulips on our table have been particularly pretty this week.  Tulips scream spring!

Old Photos

I spent some time yesterday looking through a box of old photos. 

I came across a couple of my brother and myself, when we were very young.

Speeding Ticket

A month ago, on a trip to Tucson, I was pulled over and given a speeding ticket.  The policeman was driving a motorcycle and clearly had an attitude.  I was driving my red Hummer, covered in mud as we had just had rain at the ranch.  My Hummer stood out in city traffic like a sore thumb.  I was traveling at the same speed as everyone else, not passing everything in sight, but I was singled out.  In receiving the ticket, I was given a choice:  pay a fine of $250, go to driving school online or in person, or plead my case before a judge.

I chose online driving school.  I checked recommended driving schools online and chose one.  I went through the process, paying with my credit card, scanning and emailing a copy of my ticket and my driver's license, and then waited for confirmation that I could begin.  I got through the first "chapter" quickly, and then the system would not allow me to go on.  I tried a couple of different things, then called the driving school's 800 number.  Their system had gone down and wouldn't be back up for at least 12 hours!  At that point I wanted to finish driving school, so I wouldn't have to spend another day dealing with it, so I called and cancelled my enrollment.  I asked for the name of the phone assistant, in case there was an issue with my cancellation.  I thought I didn't understand her, so I asked her to spell her name.  T-A-R-A-N-T-J-U-L-I-A.  Who names their kid Tarantjulia?

I quickly regrouped and signed up with another online driving school.  Four hours later, I successfully completed the program and they assured me online and via phone that they would process my paperwork and send to Tucson Municipal Court.  Today would have been my court date.  I'm hopeful that the online driving school held up their end of our bargain and submitted whatever was necessary to Tucson Municipal Court, so I'm not a fugitive!

Update:  The driving school submitted all required documents and my case was dismissed.  Hooray!

Sunsets after Storms

We are fortunate to have big views from our home on the ranch.  From our living room, we see the sun set every night.  Sunsets after storms are especially colorful.

Saturday Morning in the Clouds

We woke up on this Saturday morning with big dark clouds that have enveloped us.  The clouds are thicker as I write this, so that our visibility has been cut to a few hundred feet.  We've had sleet, rain, and now it's snowing.  We love this moisture! 

Pictographs vs. Petroglyphs

Living in the southwest, we are fortunate to see rock art more often than those living in 

other parts of the country.  We have petroglyphs and pictographs on the ranch.  Petroglyphs are images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading.  Pictographs are images drawn or painted on a rock face. 

Petroglyphs on rocks in Saguaro National Monument

Pictograph at Canyon de Chelly

Along the Road

Papa has done some roadwork this week.  I hiked along the road to Red Rock Canyon. 

Desert Evening Primrose

A couple of weeks ago, I hiked down to the Rock House in the early morning and saw a plant covered with big white flowers.  Yesterday morning, I went for a hike, armed with my camera, and was lucky to find open flowers on the Desert Evening Primrose.  Delicate and beautiful!

Gambel's Quail Eggs

There is a Gambel's Quail nest near our back gate, at the Tucson house.  I startled the mother quail, when I opened the gate a couple of days ago.  She was so flustered that she flew up and into 

our dining room window.  Her behavior caused us to look under the bush where she was hiding.  Voila!  A nest full of eggs.  I hope she is able to protect the eggs until ready for hatching, 

as Gambel's Quail babies are the cutest ever.

Biscotti Party

On Saturday, Papa and I went to Phoenix for a biscotti party at Mary's house.  

Regina, the owner/chef from Sweet Italiano, led us through the process of making biscotti.  

She topped it off by serving the biscotti we made, with espresso.  Yum!