I want some coffee!

  Like all the Fall/Winter/Spring seasons that have preceded this one, it's also the season of the Snowbird.  Junco- the real snowbird according to the National Audubon Society Unlike the photo above a snowbird can also be a critter that takes flight in the fall and doesn't land until late spring flowers are on the trees and bushes. Their wings are their RV. Or maybe just a car with overnight lodging at a motel or a relatives house.  Before the USA pissed all over the Canadians with our politics they were frequent winter visitors here in SKP Saguaro Co-op and in Benson. Dunno about this year but those Canadian dollars were (are?) an important percentage of the annual budget for this park.  The reality is I've launched into something I'm not qualified to address since Economics was my worst subject in college. Mmm... actually that's not true. My worst grade was in Business Law. So apparently my son had his genetics-cards stacked against him when he chose to become ...

A rainbow! Inferred proof we had a little bit of wet stuff. Benson got some rain! Not monsoons yet... that doesn't happen till early July. It's been months but it finally happened. And today was perhaps the 3rd time this month of March 2025 that it has happened. The poor old weather gauge feature for measuring rainfall is apparently plugged with tumble weeds or maybe a bird's nest and refuses to give us a reading. But I know wet concrete when I see it so I don't need a rain gauge for confirmation! Conveniently the landscaping crew had made a pass thru a couple days ago and took out some weeds and about 5+ unwanted yucca plants. All prettied-up for this photo-op.

  Freight cars moving thru the San Pedro Valley toward he Dragoon Mountains East of Benson Benson, Arizona has been home base since December, 2010. More specifically the RV park named SKP Sagauaro Co-op on the Southeast side of town. The San Pedro Valley - and the San Pedro River that gives it it's name - runs from Mexico to a location just East of Saguaro National Park. It is perhaps 135 miles from the border to its terminus to the north of Benson. The San Pedro River runs thru the valley and is kind of special: it's the only North-flowing river in the US originating in Mexico. Not a lot going on here other than winter RV tourists... that's when the local population swells from 5,000 to about 10,000. There are ranches and small farms in the valley; they make gun powder and explosives just to the South of Benson at Apache Powder; there's some mining; significantly there is Fort Huachuca to the Southwest in Sierra Vista; and there's the railroad.  Southeast of Benso...

The Admiral and I checked out Santa Fe, NM in about Sep 2003. We liked it, found a house and bought it, returned to San Francisco, packed everything, sold her house, then moved to Santa Fe in Dec 2003.  I had reason to be reminded of that time in Santa Fe in a WhatsApp conversation with a friend who is traveling way-far South of the USA in the most Southern part of Chile. I saw a photo on Michael's blog of a restaurant owner (below) wearing a unique vest. The owner's vest caught my eye immediately. That little vignette centers around what I take to be a vest assembled from hand woven wool fabric triggered a recollection of times gone by. Over 20 years earlier... The Admiral has been a knitter a very long time before we met. When we were new to Santa Fe she was on the hunt for wool for a knitting project. One of the places we visited in that search was Miriam's Well in Santa Fe. Miriam had a pretty good selection of yarn but off to the side was a loom for weaving. I as...

This string of pre-dawn shots will stop once sunrise slides out to 0530 cuz I just don't do early ! Plus the weather seems to be on the brink of morphing into too-damned-hot. We have 80°+ coming in the next week. If the weather follows the usual pattern this could well be winter disappearing into the storage locker where it will recover its annoying habits and come visit again this coming November-thru-January.

 ... so I'm keeping a low profile. Leaseholders here are strongly encouraged to attend the annual meeting in early February. Amazing how we usually have a doctor's appointment on the appointed day! Board meetings aside, I notice that my occasional peek outside frequently includes sunrise. So a few more opportunistic shots pre-dawn here in Benson, AZ. In another month sunrise will be so early I'll be hiding in my bed pretending it can't possibly be as late as the clock says it is! Rise and shine (or not!) Even earlier... ugh! Bloody cold out there! Here's a peek across the San Pedro Valley as a freight train labors through on its way to point East. I-10 crosses the Dragoon Mountains via Texas Canyon. This route requires a very steep climb to get to the other side near Willcox. Not that anyone cares, the train follows a route across pretty-much level ground through San Pedro Valley and the town of Dragoon to a notch in the Dragoon Mountains. This route avoids the v...

The nice part about winter is that I roll out of bed before dawn. "Dude! Get a grip! There's nothing great about getting up before dawn!!" Yeah, my basic mantra.  I must admit, however, that I do see some pretty nice sunrise photo-ops pop up. So I'll post a few here to remember the event. Remember? Yeah, remember. Come summer I'll be inclined to hug the AC and look neither right nor left as I make a bee line from air conditioned space to air conditioned space! Here's a few of what greeted me as I trundled off these past few days...   Yeah... a little late getting up this day! The park (SKP Saguaro Co-op) is getting pretty crowded as snowbirds arrive from their respective warm weather domiciles.  Occupancy on 5 Jan 2025 here at SKP Saguaro Co-op Things will max-out about early February when the annual meeting is scheduled. All leaseholders are strongly encouraged to be here for that event. There are about 300 Leaseholders. 'Guests' are folks that rent a...