kaleidoscope

One of our stops, while visiting Jerome last week, was to a really great shop called Nellie Blye. It was filled with kaleidoscopes and crystals and lots of sparkly things. We all had a really great time looking through all the different kaleidoscopes. The way they make light and colors fragment and form into new shapes, is really quite fascinating. They had really big ones to sit on a table and really tiny ones that you can wear on a necklace. We were captivated for quite some time.

As we were just about to end our tour of the shop one of the employees taught us a little trick. She said you can take your phone camera or digital camera and hold the lens up against the eyepiece of the kaleidoscope. Let it focus and snap a picture.

How cool is that?

And then we took some of each other. Rachel.
My sister Karen and myself.
Leah.
Rachel again.
And that is when the shop employee had us hooked. Both my sister and I had to purchase one to take home. And that is when the fun began.

Leah got creative and showed the kaleidoscope in her hand and what you can see through the tiny eye hole.
And then, this is what you see when you hold it close to the pink flower and snap another picture.
Here is another before picture.
And now through the kaleidoscope.
It is very addicting as you will see. This one is through Leah's window with one of her heart shaped crystals and the palm trees in the background.
You guessed it... piano keys.
Fruit bowl with apples and little clementines.
Chuck's painting of the other woman.
Part of an antique lamp.
The bottles on Leah's windowsill. There are paper flowers in the bottles...here they look like butterflies.
And some of our favorite shots... the palm trees.
Someone's very own little island. Look really close and it almost looks like sharks swimming in the "water".
And then the palm trees at sunset.
As you can see, we spent a lot of time playing with our new kaleidoscopes.
I suggest you pick up a kaleidoscope and take a peek.

You'll be glad you did.

Just be sure you have a little time on your hands, because you will have a hard time putting it down. Seriously.

note: photo credits again go to Leah, Rachel, my sister Karen and myself.

jerome

It's been a little quiet here on the blog this past week. My sister and brother-in-law were here visiting and we were a little busy...not keeping quiet. We explored some new things that we had not done before. One of which was taking a drive to Jerome. Interesting, eclectic and puzzling are a few words that come to mind to describe this town.

It is called "America's Most Vertical City" and "The largest Ghost Town in America". The name for the most vertical city is obvious as you wind your way into town. It is located at the top of Cleopatra Hill and was once known as the "wickedest town in the west". We can believe that.

Jerome was a copper mining camp once bringing in 3 million pounds of copper per month. At its peak, in the 1920's, the population was 15,000. Today it is just 450. From their web site they describe those 450 people as " artists, craft people, musicians, writers, hermits, bed & breakfast owners, museum caretakers, gift shop proprietors and fallen down building owners".

Four disastrous fires destroyed many large structures of the town in the early days. Most of it was re-built but there is evidence of some buildings that never were. The 30 degree incline of the mountain actually caused some buildings to slide down the slope. One of which was the jail that ended up on the opposite side of the road from where it originally stood. That fact made us wonder if it is really safe to live there.
There were stairs that were pretty steep taking you from one street level to the next. We only climbed them once.
In between buildings were alleyways that were pretty interesting. This one had a locked gate that said "enjoy our garden from here". The more you looked, the more you saw. There was a garden hose meandering it's way through all this stuff which gave you the impression that some watering is done, thus making us believe that it really was a "garden".
They say there is a "crib district" that was a street for the ladies of the night. I'm not sure if we actually saw that street or not, as it seemed that the whole town might have been in that "district".
It looks like at some point over the years they were ready to fight crime.
The streets were narrow and the buildings truly were built straight up. No room to even spread the electrical lines out a bit.
Some were a little more fancy than others.
This vintage bus either belongs to a musician, artist or the couple we saw earlier in the week at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. Funny thing...we saw him this day too, walking around Jerome. I do have a picture of him that I should have put here. I'll show you it another time.
This may have been one of the burned out buildings, or something that just didn't survive over the years. But, add an old outhouse and a couple of toilets and people will throw their pennies down hoping to make a whole-in-one. Sure, it cost us a few cents!
Actually, the fencing around it made for a great photo.
We drove up to the area that is the ghost town. It is just up the hill from the main town. It was a cluster of old small shacks that we decided not to tour. We just stayed in the car and drove through. Mostly, there were hundreds of old cars, busses, trucks, tractors, and any other vehicle you can think of just sitting around. Ranging from really old to just old. We joked that they were all the vehicles of the people that parked and decided to get out of their cars and tour the ghost town. "You go in and you never get out". I'm glad we decided to keep driving!
Another old building along one of the main streets that didn't quite make it. Great for a photo though.
Even the manholes were worth a photo.
The whole town was interesting and we were fascinated by its buildings and general landscape. It is a place that we will visit again, perhaps taking in the museum and maybe even the ghost town tour.

If we do tour the ghost town... I hope we can get our car out of the parking lot!

note: photo credits go to Rachel, my sister Karen and myself.

onionman

I spotted this little guy at the grocery store recently. Even though there was a little sprinkling of snow... when you don't have the real thing, you just have to get creative.

Oh onionman... you make me feel like shedding a tear.

a little bird told you

I haven't put away my Christmas decorations... because I'm not tired of looking at them yet.

When you have a cute little pine cone tree that your daughter made in pre-school (1998), why would you want to pack it away until next year? Maybe I won't. Maybe I will leave it out for a long time because it's little paint and glitter tipped edges remind us of all the snowy days we used to have this time of year. I sat it on the windowsill, above the sink, next to the little blue bird we found in the garden shed when we moved here.

Old life. New life. Just a little reminder.

i've got your back

I have a brother-in-law that lives in Texas. (Actually I have four in Texas, one in Colorado and one in California. That's a lot of brothers-in-law!) But today, I'm just writing about this one in particular, Mark. He's a happy guy. The first to laugh at a joke. Mostly his own. The guy with a big heart for other's (and a healthy one thanks to his doctors). And the guy who likes to tease and pull pranks on anyone he can.

His daughter, my niece, fondly recalls all the times that she would leave the house for school in the morning, only to later find a clothespin clipped to the back of her shirt or jacket. A little reminder that her Dad loved her and would be thinking of her while she was at school! So, while our family was together for the holidays, it was open season for him to show his love. It started with just one or two clothespins on an unsuspecting person. Then, I think almost everyone fell victim to being "clipped". So, it was only natural that the ultimate prankster finally got pranked himself.

While an intense game of dominoes was going on...someone clipped the first pin on him. And that is all it took to get the party started!
One clip after the next. Every time they walked by, they added another clip. And the cameras came out. And we were giggling. And he was oblivious, at first.
Then the kids got creative. Piggy backed the pins. And even decorated them! At some point his keen instincts told him that something was up, but he had no idea that he was beginning to look like a porcupine. It was hilarious. When he finally got to see just how many were on his shirt he was pretty surprised. We all got a big laugh out of it.
And of course, this went on each day. Someone would walk by and we would see that they had been pinned. After that, no one was safe. And he kept it up, clothespin after clothespin.

Later in the week, we went to tour the famous Dr. Pepper museum in Waco. Dr. Pepper is a big thing in Texas. When you first get there and pay your admission fee, they give you a little sticker to put on the front of your shirt showing you paid. We all toured the museum with our "I'm a Pepper" sticker on our shirts. The museum was pretty interesting and I think the crowd favorite was watching some of the old commercials. Go ahead, sing the jingle... you know you want to. The Dr. Pepper floats at the old soda fountain counter were pretty good too.

Later, after we were all back at my nieces, someone decided to put their sticker on Mark's back. And since there are a lot of followers in this family...we all had to give him a little love-pat-on the-back.
At one point he thought that someone had put a clothespin on him. He shook the back of his shirt to be sure and asked Leah if we were clipping them on him. "You wouldn't do that to me again would you?" he asked. With big innocent eyes she said, "nooo...don't worry Uncle Mark, I've got your back." As she gave him her own little love-pat.

"I'm a pepper, he's a pepper, wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?"

Mark.We do apologize for letting you go to the grocery store with stickers on your back. We're sorry. Kind of.

snow kidding... it's cold!

While we were away for a few days last week we got word that it had snowed. We live a bit north of Phoenix where the elevation is slightly higher. We have heard that it has been known to snow, but it is pretty rare. And, so is seeing gila monsters. Why wouldn't it do something unusual like snowing, to add to our list of things that "don't normally happen", within this first year (plus one week) of living here in sunny Arizona?

Do you want to see what freezing temperatures and snow do to a yard and plants when you are not home? When something out of the ordinary happens and you are not there to cover things up? We have seen a lot of white sheets draped over plants in other peoples yards and clay pots tipped upside down on the tips of some of the cactus to protect them.

But no white cloths here. They were left to fend for themselves. Brrr.

This is how I feel sometimes.
This cactus was just having it's winter "bloom".
And this one had some pretty flowers on it.
The hibiscus were blooming. Now they are not.
Oh boy.
We are just not accustom to plants and bushes even looking one bit green and alive in the winter. So, most of this looks like it really should when fall/winter come around. I just don't know if these are the kinds of plants that will come back to life in the spring. Or when ever.
Because fall/ winter/ spring/summer, it is still all rather confusing.
Sorry plants. I hope you are strong enough to make a full recovery.

twenty eleven

2011

Two thousand eleven.

No matter how you write it or how you say it, it is going to be hard to get used to. In fact, after eleven years, I still have a hard time remembering the whole two thousand something.

In the month of December, Leah decided that even though she wouldn't see snow for Christmas in Arizona, she would pay tribute to Colorado. She cut a bunch of paper snowflakes and hung them from the ceiling in her room. They lightly spin and dance with any movement of air. It is quite pretty and it was a good remembrance of all the snowfalls we used to see. And, she's pretty good with the scissors I might add.

We spent last week in Texas with family. We had a great time celebrating a late Christmas and ringing in the New Year. Well, not so much ringing as... kazooing. Auld Lang Syne is something to hear and see with a bunch of men with kazoos at midnight! I won't be posting that video. Or should I? There was a lot of delicious food, thanks to my niece. Yummy cookies that Grandma made. Musical entertainment by the very talented husband of my niece. And some good hugs and lots of laughs from the under-the-age-of-ten group. It was a great time and we enjoyed it all.

Rachel had traveled to Wyoming for a basketball tournament and nearly didn't make it out because of a big snowstorm. The temperature bottomed at minus twenty seven (with the wind chill) which was enough to freeze these Arizona girls!

And, oddly enough, while we were gone, it snowed here in Phoenix! Leah got a photo text from a friend showing the snow up here in our neighborhoods. What? The big five year snow in Phoenix and we missed it!

At least we still have the scissor snowflakes in Leah's room.

post edit:

So... if anyone read this post today, before I was informed of my mathematical and calendar error...oops. If you know me well, you know that numbers are not my thing. If you don't know me well...my secret is revealed. It may be that I had the Mayan end of the world year on my brain because my mathematically gifted children have been talking about it lately.

The correction has been made. Thank you for alerting me.