unexpected

Walking past this traffic light in Prescott (NE corner Gurley & McCormick), I blinked twice thinking I had a small hare in my eye...

Sure enough, someone had painted a very small rabbit at the base of this pole. I was impressed with the subtleties of this art, not unlike passing a barely noticed real rabbit when out hiking.

We could all use more hidden art like this in our communities.

Why do rabbits see us and bolt?

If you click to enlarge the above picture, you will find a real insect hiding itself among the disruptive background of the rabbit fur.

Creek Dragon & Tree of Life

Just north of the Gurley Street bridge, along the Granite Creek trail in Prescott, AZ, are two incredible wood carvings carved out of cottonwood stumps by artist Jeff Grabish. The Creek Dragon above is really incredible! I'm guessing roughly 8-10 feet tall? Seemed quite at home in the lush creek setting.

Just a few paces further north is the Tree of Life, also by Jeff Grabish. Be sure to click on the pictures to see the incredible details of these carvings! Nicely done Jeff! It was great to see carved wood art outside like this.

Bluegrass on green grass

I got a chance to drop by the Prescott Bluegrass Festival this weekend while visiting my mother. The downtown courthouse plaza was a really nice venue for this event with plenty of shady grass.

My favorite part was listening to musicians jamming in informal groups away from the main stage and headliners. Really great music.

The crowd above was on the north side of the courthouse listening to the headliner groups playing on the main stage. Great musicians here too, but I liked the "unplugged" sounds of the informal pickup groups on the other side of the courthouse.

I took a bunch of snaps of other objects of interest while in Prescott. I'll be posting them over the next few days... Stay tuned for the incredible Granite Creek Dragon!

Dia De San Juan Fiesta

I went down to the Dia De San Juan fiesta tonight near downtown Tucson at the Santa Cruz river (usually dry these days). The fiesta celebrates St. John's birthday, the patron saint of water, and continues the tradition of celebrating the beginning of Tucson’s summer rains.

It was a fun cultural event consisting of a charreada (Mexican rodeo), a procession, mariachis, folklorico dancers, food, music, and dancing.

Here are a few snaps...

Nope, I didn't set this shot up on purpose, it just turned out to have all those elements in it.

These young ladies were part of a group of seven riding side-saddle and performing some interesting patterns and maneuvers on their horses. Lighting was low, so I wasn't able to get many good shots.

My favorite part was when they entered the arena area one at a time galloping in full speed and then halting the horse abruptly -- it almost looked like they would roll over backwards... All the more impressive done side-saddle.

so you think you can dance?

I've heard of jumping cacti before, but dancing? Spotted on the side of Tumamoc Hill yesterday, dancing to MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" music... Certainly has enough spine to stand up to the judge's comments.

Cloud Computing

I did a little balancing in Photoshop of one of my Tuesday Tumamoc Hill sunset pictures which really brought out the clouds nicely. Nice enough to do banner duty for my blog for a while.

Towering Diversity

This is a quick collection of snaps taken yesterday evening of the many different types of communications antennae found on the top of Tumamoc Hill. Tumamoc Hill is immediately west of downtown Tucson and offers great views of Tucson and the surrounding area.

I was really intrigued by the design of this stack of three antennae made out of curved pieces. Very alien looking. Any communications engineers out there that know what this type of antenna is used for?

Tumamoc Hill

I hiked up Tumamoc Hill on the west side of Tucson this evening for the first time and enjoyed a really nice sunset. Those two things sticking up into the picture are the tops of saguaros bearing fruit. Nice evening.

Looking east from Tumamoc hill down on downtown Tucson.

Weird Plants

I stopped by the member's preview this afternoon of Tucson Botanical Gardens Weird Plant Sale being held Saturday from 8 to 12. Lots of area plant growers selling interesting plants.

I really liked this one. Looks like a bunch of small jade slabs arranged in a sculpture. Someone else beat me to it but was kind enough to hold it up for a picture. Its a Haworthia truncata (if you follow the link you will see one that looks like a pre-chopped bell pepper!). This plant somehow reminded me of the flagstone sculpture found in the Prescott's Yavapai College Sculpture Garden.

Cool orange glow effect from the orange spines on this one.

bent spines produce a weird look compared to the more common surgically straight needles found on our native prickly pear cacti

The one on the right looks like it could have grow on the floor of a dark, damp cave

plants sometime dream of flying... or crawling...

a nice collection of different types of living rocks

These are the two that decided to hitch a ride home with me. The one on the right produces some odd looking red flowers that hummingbirds will like. The one on the left is a Senecio vitalis and the one on the right is a Pedilanthus macrocarpus. Or you can call them Fred & Wanda.