Well, it’s December, and the Christmas shopping season is hopping. Time to join several hundred thousand of your best friends on Fourth Avenue for Tucson’s Winter Street Fair. Along with several dozen other Watershed Management Group volunteers, I worked the edge of the fair. My job was to prevent people from leaving with open containers…
Was riding across the Snake Bridge, which is just east of Downtown Tucson. This is a bicycle and pedestrian bridge over Broadway Boulevard, and the outside skin has a snake pattern. The southern entrance has a rattler that goes off whenever someone approaches. The juxtaposition of the Snake Bridge, the traffic below, and my venerable…
Last month, I was walking along Congress Street in Downtown Tucson. It was a Monday night, not much happening, and I spotted this lone bike outside the Rialto Theatre. No acts performing at the Rialto, so that didn’t explain why the bike was there. It almost seemed as if it was forgotten, but it was…
If you’re a bike-tographer like I am, El Tour de Tucson draws you like a magnet. This annual event goes around the perimeter of Tucson and attracts cyclists from all over the world. I didn’t ride in this year’s El Tour, but I went Downtown to photograph the finishers. And to indulge in some artsiness……
Tucson’s annual All Souls Procession turned 20 this year. It started in 1990 as a ritualistic performance by artist Susan Johnson, who was grieving her father’s death. All Souls now attracts more than 20,000 people to a memorial march/street performance on the streets of Downtown Tucson. Here are five glimpses of this year’s event. Before…
How about a nice, warm bowl of chili for a good cause? And, better yet, cooked and served with a smile by local firefighters? At last Friday’s Tucson Firefighters Chili Cookoff, thousands of gallons of the good stuff were available. Firefighters from various departments set up booths to sell dollar-a-bowl chili, with the proceeds going…
Since we’ve had a warm, dry fall here in Tucson, it’s been a good time for outdoor projects. My latest was getting the mortar and stucco repaired on my house’s exterior walls. Then it was time to freshen up the paint. Here’s Kurt (from Creative Kurt Painting) getting my studio windows taped… With all the…
My front yard was graced (if you want to call it that) by a crumbling brick retaining wall. The wall had no seep holes, which meant that it was gradually being weakened by moisture. Time to tear down the wall. I wanted replace the old wall with something more attractive. Since I’m a member of…
This photo’s a true blast from the past. I took it back in 1981, while I was bicycling around the United States. While heading down the California coast, I stopped for an overnight in a state park south of Big Sur. The park offered many things to explore, including giant redwoods that I couldn’t begin…
This one’s from a late July 2008 visit to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Great time to be there and see the persimmons ripening…
Tucson Meet Yourself marked its 36th anniversary this past weekend. This annual festival bills itself as “a celebration of authentic cultural foods and the living traditional arts of Southern Arizona’s folk and ethnic communities.” Because of the emphasis on food, the festival has also earned the moniker “Tucson Eat Yourself.” Since my digestive system was…
Tucson, AZ – Martha Retallick, local photographer, community activist, and volunteer, just launched a stock photo website for ad agencies, photo editors, businesses, and organizations. BicycleStockImages.com features photos of the bike culture, including bicycle racing, bicycle touring, utilitarian cycling, and artistic close-ups of bicycles, bike tools, and bike parts. A practitioner of “bike-tography,” Retallick, who…
I just returned from another Homecoming weekend at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. And, just as during my student days, I got to experience Ann Arbor’s weather in all its glory. In other words, if you like variety in your cloud cover, Ann Arbor is your kind of place. It seemed as if…
I’ve been blogging about the weekly Meet Me at Maynards Social Run/Walk through Downtown Tucson since it started back in April. The event has grown quite a bit, and if you haven’t tried it yet, you should. If for no other reason than to enjoy some live music in Downtown Tucson. Entertainment at the start…
Every year on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Habitat for Humanity Tucson begins construction on several homes, building them from the ground up, to not only memorialize the victims, but to celebrate hope, community and the American dream at its annual Building Freedom Day. This past Friday was Habitat Tucson’s eighth annual Building Freedom…
My recent visit to Vermont included an afternoon in Montpelier, the state capital. It’s more like a small town than anything else. Population’s just over 8,000, which makes Montpelier the smallest capital city in the United States. My Montpelier afternoon centered on the Vermont State House, where my Aunt Jean is a volunteer tour guide……
I just returned from visiting family in northern Vermont. While there, I attended U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ health care reform town hall in the tiny (pop. 600) town of Peacham, VT. The event attracted around 600 people to the Peacham Congregational Church… Since there have been disruptions at similar events held elsewhere, the security presence…
On the lighting front, we’re getting to an interesting part of the year. Tucson’s days are getting shorter, but we’re not seeing the weak twilight of the winter months. In the hour before sunset, the sun’s still showing strong light while casting long shadows. Here’s a bicycling example…
The Marist College building used to house a Catholic boys school. After 1968, the Diocese of Tucson used it for office space. These days? Well, let’s just say that it’s just sitting there. What’s worse, the Marist College building is in danger of collapse. There is exterior bracing, not shown in this photo, but no one…
Although I’m a big fan of renewable energy, I’m not thrilled with the price tag. Take solar power, for example. The equipment and installation costs of a household photovoltaic system can run well into the five figures. Or higher. Yes, I know that there are rebates and tax credits, but you still have to front…
When I bought this property in November 2004, it had no landscaping. There was crushed rock in the front yard and a formidable infestation of Bermuda grass in the back yard. I’ve done most of the landscaping work myself. This includes the landscape design, planting, weeding, and other maintenance tasks. To learn how to do…