SHORT STUFF

After three lengthy blog entries and another lengthy one coming on Monday, I am going to make this one very short.

First, there is this incredible work of art!

My oldest lives in East Texas, where they just had an incredible amount of snow...for them.

He, the 40+year old kid, apparently had a ball building this huge fishing snowman.

He informs me that the bottom 'ball' required nine laundry baskets full of the white stuff.

On, or about, this same time, said 40 +year old actually went fishing!  He's a die-hard, that's for sure.

He caught a 14 pound catfish.  Good going, Kiddo!!!

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The other thing is this.

What's this, you ask?

This is just the coolest idea hubby recently had!

A one quart size ziplock bag fits perfectly inside a small Folger's coffee container.

And why is that so cool, you ask?

Because, when you open a can of tomatoes for making spaghetti sauce, only to discover it's a can of tomatoes and green chiles which would be really yucky in spaghetti sauce, you can pour it all into a ziplock bag and save it for making Spanish rice!

What's also very cool is that the big Folger's cannister is the absolute perfect size for the gallon size ziplock bags!

By folding the top of the bag down, you can easily pour the leftover spaghetti sauce-or any other messy liquid -into the bag without getting the zipper part all messy with food!

I'm sure there's a gadget available on the market that meets this purpose.  But I like this.  It works.

And it's free!

That's it, folks!

I'm going to go paint now!!!

I am very grateful for my husband's bright idea!

SNOW ON THE DESERT AND OTHER SURPRISES

Yes, we do get snow and we got a bunch, for us, this last week!  At least our mountains got snow and a lot of the higher areas around Tucson.  In the twenty or so years I've lived here, I've seen snow accumulate right here in town on only two occasions, to the best of my recollection.  One of those times, it was on Easter Sunday! 

Hopefully, with all this moisture, we will have an amazing wildflower display this coming spring. 

This afteroon hubby and I took a little drive so I could take some photos without all the utility poles and lines and all my neighbors' rooftops cluttering things up.  Unfortunately, a lot of the snow had already melted.

Here's what it looked like on Saturday morning from our back yard.

A palm tree in the foreground....looks kinda weird with a snowy background, doesn't it?

The snow level was pretty low as you can tell by this picture.

Sunset on snow....how gorgeous!

These are from our Sunday afternoon drive.

This is Mt. Lemmon.  They had 75 mph winds up there which knocked down a lot of big trees and left them with no power.  The folks at the ski resort are probably biting their nails over that!  We wanted to drive further up the mountain but the road was closed due to downed trees.

Brrrrr.

Brrrrr!!!!

This is Thimble Peak.

Here are more of Thimble Peak and other formations...no snow...but I couldn't resist.

It's amazing what a little change in perspective does, isn't it?  Yes, these  pictures were taken the same day as the other ones with the snow in them.  I promise!

I had heard the The Rillito was running so we went to have a look.  We were too late, but it was obvious that a lot of water had run through it yesterday.

We took a walk down in the riverbed.  I love the patterns the moving water made in the sand.

We found some very colorful rocks.

And this one which looks exactly like a piece of bread!

When I was taking pictures of the snow from my back yard on Saturday, I was lucky enough to catch these two Gila woodpeckers.

And while we were at the river, look what we found!  A baby woodpecker!  Well, he is obviously not a tiny baby, but he's a youngster, for sure.  He just wouldn't get into a better position for me but I was delighted to even get this shot!

Snow is wonderful.  Snow is beautiful.

I'm always delighted to look up into our mountains and see it there.

"THERE."

I must admit that I am infinitely grateful not to have to deal with it HERE.

HAIKU FOR THE SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

Peace, sweet peace envelops me

Like snow in winter

Blanketing the land.

I am so very GRATEFUL.