The Reading Tree

This interesting metal sculpture can be found at the Oro Valley Library (Oro Valley is a town in northwest Tucson Metro). The tree grows out of a large book which is about 12 feet wide.

The mountains in the background are the west face of the Santa Catalinas which border Tucson (you see the south face in most of my pictures). The book does indeed have text, good words, good advice...

"The more you read, the more you know;

the more you know, the more you grow"

"The smarter you grow, the stronger your voice;

when speaking your mind, or making your choice"

Really nice design. The leaves catch the light nicely. And somewhat to my surprise, when I first walked up to the sculpture two real birds flew out of it!

[Links -- I recently discovered another Tucson area blog that has some great pictures of the Tucson area. I recommend taking a few minutes to check out the blog Sabino Canyon.]

a monitor for your monitor...

This is a life-sized Komodo Dragon seen wandering the grounds of the Tucson Botanical Gardens today. It was hand carved out of a single Teak tree log, and would be perhaps six or seven feet long if its tail were stretched out. It is on loan to the Gardens by Zee's Gallery.

Seems right at home here. Probably enjoying the Tucson heat.

The carved crosshatching really gives it a realistic lizard-like skin appearance. When I first saw it, I thought it might have been made out of fine wire mesh instead of wood.

This wood, of course, be a tailing attempt by an artist seeking to teak out a living in the cold-blooded and highly komodotized art market... ;^)

lion around, flying around...

Scott Avenue in downtown Tucson has recently been redone as part of a streetscape project which narrowed the roadway, expanded the pedestrian sidewalks, improved street lighting, and put in new landscaping. As often occurs with vegetation / landscape changes, the variety of species visiting the new habitat changes. This is the first time I can recall seeing a griffin downtown, let alone a 12 foot tall one!

I think they did a really nice job with the streetscape here. The griffin was made by local artist Joe O'Connell. Its nice to see continued positive changes occurring in downtown Tucson.

Gambel's Quail

wowsa, I've really fallen behind in blog posts over the last few weeks. One of those periods of time where other life challenges have had to take priority for a bit...

Tucson has been having some really nice, albeit unusual, weather the last few few days. Our temperature is above normal by about 10 degrees, and we are getting clouds and some very light rain at times. The kind of weather usually not seen until July when the heavy thunderstorms arrive from the south. Great morning/evening patio weather!

The picture above is a Gambel's Quail traversing my backyard wall this morning.