There’s something about visiting the zoo. You can’t help but wonder who’s being more closely scrutinized, the animals or the humans. Let’s begin our tour at the pelican beauty parlor. Nothing like preening with a whole crowd watching. Not that this pelican cares… If you’re a giant iguana, you can pretty well forget about having…
Just got back from visiting family in Waterbury, Vermont. October in the state of Vermont means one thing: Fall Foliage. The aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene was very much in evidence, but it didn’t stop the annual party thrown by the trees. Let’s start our fall foliage tour at the Waterbury Public Library… The library…
This past Tuesday, the 2011 monsoon season busted loose with its last hurrah. Which prompted a photographic frenzy around here. First stop on the frenetic home front picture tour: The garden. Is it raining out there? Yes!!! I’m looking forward to the day when the seedlings (which are still too small to see in the…
I’ll start this post with yet another lament about Tucson’s 2011 monsoon season. It’s been a real hit-and-miss sort of thing. Take, for example, this approaching storm. Looks like it’s going to dump buckets of rain at my place, right? It didn’t. But Tucson’s South Side got almost three inches of rain. So much for…
For the past week, Tucson’s weather has done a pretty convincing imitation of the Pacific Northwest. We’ve had nearly 2.5″ of rain. As I write this, thunderstorms are moving into the area. Many of our recent storms have started slowly. Subtly. You don’t think that much will come from them. Take, for example, this dampening…
Well, the monsoons have been with us for more than a month, and count me as unimpressed. I was hoping for giant storms with lots of rain, loud thunder, and bright lightning. And I’m still hoping. So far, our rainfall has been scanty, and the sound and light shows have been lackluster. In the meantime,…
In my previous post, I offered a tour of Tucson’s new Fifth Avenue Greenway. This post is about a nearby neighborhood that’s suffering from a severe case of greenway envy. Let’s set the stage by talking about the weather – again. As noted in recent posts, Tucson is experiencing its summer monsoon season. Which means…
Looks like our monsoons have taken a vacation. Other than brief sprinkles, we haven’t had rain in almost a week. So, with thunderstorms not threatening Tucson’s Tuesday evening, I decided to ramble around the neighborhood. First point of interest was the new Fifth Avenue Greenway, which has transformed the look of this alley between Waverly…
As if a rollicking good Independence Day storm wasn’t enough. The weather provided additional fireworks on the 5th of July. Just like Independence Day, yesterday’s tempest was a late afternoon special. It started with a ferocious wind and clouds that turned everything dark and ominous… The rain came down, and yes, I’ve said this already,…
The summer monsoon storms have busted back into southern Arizona. The festivities started late last week with a couple of after-dark storms that were loud and rowdy enough to deprive anyone of a good night’s sleep. Not that our July 4th afternoon storm was quiet and understated. Far from it. When it came to noise…
Do you live on one of those streets where there seems to be no speed limit? So do I. And, sorry to say, those speed tables further up the street don’t seem to help at all. The speeders slow down enough to go over them without wrecking their suspensions, then it’s off to the races…
Back in early February, a hard freeze hit Tucson and southern Arizona. Daytime highs just made it into the forties, and the nighttime lows were in the teens. The extreme cold was quite rough on the local plant life. Frozen prickly pear cactus dropped their pads or fell over. And our hardy mesquites made like…
My previous Cyclovia Tucson post focused on notion that streets aren’t just for cars. People traveling under their own power also have a place. This post will cover one of the greatest benefits of self-powered travel: An enhanced ability to see and hear what surrounds you. With this thought in mind, let’s look at the…
Here in Tucson, we have been experiencing a weather spell that would be better suited for northern climes. We’re talking daytime highs that barely make it past the 40-degree mark. And the nighttime lows? Well below freezing. A couple of mornings ago, the wind chill made the air feel like it was four degrees above…
Like much of the rest of the eastern United States, Pennsylvania just got walloped by another big snowstorm. According to family reports, thick hats, heavy jackets, waterproof boots, snow shovels and plows are now the height of fashion. And will be for some time. Although my Westtown, Pennsylvania family and friends may find it hard…
One of the most memorable features of a southeastern Pennsylvania winter is that it’s highly variable. You can be deep in snow and shivering in sub-freezing temperatures, and then the weather warms up to the point where the hats and jackets are unnecessary. Such was my recent trip to the Land of Winter Variability. Not…
My recent trip to southeastern Pennsylvania featured no-problem air travel and foul weather that didn’t materialize until after I was on the ground. What the weather forecasters billed as a blizzard turned out to be underwhelming. We didn’t even get half a foot of snow. After the weather cleared, it was time to go exploring….
Eastern Pennsylvania’s Christmas weekend blizzard came in with a vengeance. The bitterly cold winds and driving snow got my attention in a hurry. I had to go outside and investigate. First lesson: Avoid looking north into the wind, because it bites. Hard… This was a lesson that our family’s super-smart border collie mix took to…
I just got back from visiting family in eastern Pennsylvania. Arrived there just ahead of a blizzard that was racing up from the South. The following photos show the calm before the storm. The approaching blizzard wasn’t about to affect the behavior of these affectionate trees… But the decorated for Christmas sled would soon get…
While outsiders think that Arizona is nothing but dry, barren desert, we residents know better. This state has a surprising amount of biodiversity. Take, for example, our riparian areas. Here’s an impressive stand of cottonwoods growing near the banks of the Hassayampa River, which doesn’t flow during dry seasons like the one we’re having now…….
A severe thunderstorm dumped almost an inch of rain here yesterday. To be quite honest, I didn’t think this storm would do much of anything. Oh, yes, it started out with a lot of wind, which brought the term “blowhard” to my mind. And then the wind picked up. I started to wonder if my…