Ten Days of Little Celebrations – January 2016

I enjoy the big celebrations of the year....but the little celebrations that happen daily are the ones that keep me going all year long. Here are my top 10 for January 2016:

The most recent celebrations have to do with snow:

• Getting home from the airport in the ice and snow (it had just started coming down…so nothing had been treated yet)
• A snow big enough to cover everything and close just about everything – snow days and snow ice cream

I travelled to Tucson, Arizona this month and about half the celebrations are associated with that trip (and I still have a lot of posts in the works about that travel):

• Birds of southern Arizona (hummingbirds and turkeys!)
• Mount Lemmon (snow at the top)
• Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (plants and free flight raptor programs)
• Tohono Chul (steps to the roof as plant stand, rocks, small meditation garden)
• Tucson Botanical Garden (butterfly exhibit…cactus…rocks)

January 2016 included my 43^rd wedding anniversary....maybe that should be a ‘big’ celebration!

There was also a funeral in the family this month – a sad event but also a celebration of a person’s life and of continuity of family over long periods of time.

And last but not least, I spent more than a third of the month away from home ---- so it was a celebration just coming home again (in time for the big snow).

Mount Lemmon

We drove up the Catalina Highway from Tucson (about 2000 feet above sea level) to Summerhaven (about 8000 feet above sea level) last week. It is the curvy two lane road that goes up Mount Lemmon. Starting out in Tucson – the Saguaro and ephedra are common.

The pattern of spines on this barrel cactus was full of complexity

Making the prickly pear spines on the flat pads look relatively simple.

A little further up the mountain – there are more ocotillo and water gurgling the stream beds. The snow was melting above.

Further still there are desert spoons and grasses with hardy trees.

Here there was a prickly pear with some fruits still attached.

And then the vegetation changes to pines and there are waterfalls cascading down the mountain.

Sometimes the slope is so steep that there is not much vegetation at all.

Finally - we get to snow! The temperature is still in the 40s but the sound of water trickling down the slopes surrounds us.

The overlooks have more people. There is something about snow this close to Tucson is a draw for tourists and natives alike.

The white of the snow drapes over rocks – in every nook.

When we got to Summerhaven we stopped for a big cookie and hot cider….and then came back down the mountain.