Anole

One day this past summer while watering my tomato plants I discovered this tiny little anole clinging to the leaves of one plant.  She was probably no bigger than about three inches long.  I say "she" because the females tend to have more brown markings while the males are usually a brilliant green.

Speaking of gender, for those of you yesterday who thought the white peafowl was a pretty lady, I must inform you that it was a pretty boy.  Males are called peacocks and females are known as peahens.  There are probably in excess of a hundred peafowl which roam the pathways of the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin. They're literally everywhere.

White Peacock

Ellen Trout Zoo

Lufkin, Texas

Autumn's Glory

Happy Thanksgiving

from Deep East Texas

Pick Me, Pick Me!

These three tractors have been sitting for almost three years on a vacant lot in Timpson, Texas, just waiting for someone to come along and take them to a new home.  If a new owner doesn't show up soon, they're going to be weedbound.

Flea Market Reflections

White-Tailed Deer

We frequently see white-tailed deer on our property.  These photos were taken back in the summer in the meadow behind our house.  We have a large pond and several creeks so water is plentiful and you can see how high the grass in the meadow was.

There are a lot of deer in this part of the state.  My mom says when she was growing up they didn't even exist here.  Now it's almost a daily occurrence if you get out early enough in the morning or late in the afternoon to see these shy, graceful creatures.

We are now in the middle of deer season and we hear rifle fire almost every day.  I don't understand how anyone can kill these beauties for sport.  But I guess that's a way to keep the herds from becoming overpopulated.

Lady Cardinal

Me 10/Squirrels 0

My 92-year-old mother has a constant battle with the squirrels who steal from her bird feeders.  She yells at them and bangs on the window trying to scare them away but they learned all her tricks years ago and are oblivious to her threats.  I get tired of all the screaming and yelling and banging so I recently decided that I'd set our small varmint trap and see if I couldn't trap what I thought was three around our big oak tree.  Little did I know that three was just a drop in the bucket.  I baited the trap with sunflower seeds and sprinkled a few up to the open door hoping to entice a little critter inside.  It doesn't take long for them to find the seeds and they begin their munching, delighted to find a yummy buffet.  So one day after looking out the front door and seeing one of these crafty characters around the trap I decided to capture the event on camera.

Uh-oh, I think he saw me standing behind the glass door spying on him.  He takes a break and gives me his best pose.

Here he's heading into the trap.  Several times he backed out but couldn't resist those tasty sunflower seeds leading up to the plate which, if he even lightly touched, will trigger the closing of the door.

Bingo!  Here's the little rascal, none too happy with his predicament.  They chirp and occasionally make a barking sound.  I place squirrel and trap in the back of my pickup truck and off we go at least four to five miles where he will hopefully join up with some of his long-lost cousins.  My squirrel relocation project has paid off with me scoring 10 out of 10.  After the last two trappings we have managed to be squirrel-free for a mere two days before we spot another one.  At least the banging on the window and the yelling has stopped for the time being!

Caption This

This iguana is basking in the glow of a heat lamp at the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin, Texas.  Come on, Blogger friends, and bestow a caption on this beautiful lady.

Rural Rest Area

Imagine my surprise upon my return from my Arizona trip to discover that someone has installed a rest area on the roadside just next to our property line.

Fall Flowers

One of the greatest things about Phoenix this time of year is the abundance of fall flowers.  I always try to make a trip to the nursery that was close by my home just to see the beautiful blossoms that make Phoenix a winter visitors' oasis.

In addition to the plant life, this particular nursery has a wonderful selection of garden art.

Selfie

Me on a bad day!

El Charro Cafe - Tucson, Arizona

After a morning at Mission San Xavier del Bac my friend Jo and I sought out the El Charro Cafe in downtown Tucson.  We were working off the map app on my phone and kept getting twisted around due to construction but we finally found it and found a good parking space just behind the restaurant on the next street over.

El Charro is the nation's oldest Mexican restaurant in continuous operation by the same family, having opened its doors in 1922!  In 2008 it was named by Gourmet Magazine as one of America's 21 most legendary restaurants.  It is still reasonably priced, the service is excellent, and the fare is traditional Mexican.  Real Mexican, not the Tex-Mex stuff we get here in Texas (sorry Texas friends, but you haven't eaten real Mexican food until you've sampled it in Arizona and New Mexico!).

And I'm always a sucker for an interesting window!

Mission Residents

This pup didn't seem to mind the visitors to Mission San Xavier del Bac and was perfectly happy taking a snooze next to the inside of the front wall.  When I returned from the day trip my  daughter asked if I had seen the dog.  I said yes, he was sleeping right along the wall, and she advised that's exactly where he was when she visited a couple years ago.  When I showed her my pictures, imagine our surprise to discover that it was a different dog.  There must be something especially peaceful about the mission that causes animals to be perfectly comfortable even among a throng of tourists.

Another del Bac resident I encountered was this friendly roadrunner in the parking lot.  He didn't seem to be the least bit upset with my focusing the camera and walking closer toward him.  He probably was finding a little bug snack in that grass next to the sidewalk.

Sanctuary - Mission San Xavier del Bac

When I finally got around to looking at the photos I took of the sanctuary as I prepared this post, I was somewhat disappointed.  There was so much to see and I was fascinated by the stories told by our docent guide that I suppose I must have just shot pictures at random with little or no regard to composition, much less focus. But now I have a good excuse to return someday!

Mission San Xavier del Bac has been a work in progress its entire life.  Beginning in 1790 artists from central New Spain worked to complete the interior. They were paid double wages because of the constant threat of attack by the Apache Indians.  But in 1797 funds were depleted and the artists and master artisans were dismissed.  The east tower was left with bare brick and no dome or lanern.  Choir loft and baptistery paintings were left unfinished.  But del Bac's parishioners, the local Tohono O'odham Indians, continued to build and rebuild.

The Franciscans left in 1837 and the area which is now Arizona became part of the United States in 1854 as part of the Gadsen Purchase.  Regular services resumed in 1866 and in 1913 the Order of Friars Minor returned to Bac where the faithful parishioners had guarded their church and its sacred artifacts by burying them in the desert to protect them from the Apaches.

I was obviously most fascinated by the many sculptures of various saints found in the sanctuary.

Most of the paintings and sculptures are original pieces of art from the late 1700s.

Bac has been damaged by an earthquake (1887), a lightning strike on the west tower (1939), and the discovery of major water infiltration issues which caused the necessity of major repairs in 1989.  A five-year interior conservation effort was begun in 1992 and the west tower was restored in 2009.

Patronato San Xavier was formed in 1978 for the sole purpose of restoring and preserving the church.  Over $10 million has been raised and spent to remove water-trapping cement plasters on the exterior, remove soot, dust and grime in the interior, and stabilize salt-endangered pigments.  Brick fired in the 1780s has been repaired and protected with soft lime and sand plaster as used originally.  But substantially more remains to be done to complete the project, including restoration of the east tower and future renovation including a four-column facade at the entry, the mortuary chapel to the west, and the graveyard walls.

The White Dove of the Desert

Mission San Xavier del Bac

Nine miles south of Tucson in the village of Wa:k (pronounced Wok) sits one of the finest examples of Spanish baroque architecture in the United States, the Mission San Xavier del Bac.  The mission was established in 1692 by Father Eusebio Kino, a Jesuit priest who traveled approximately 19,000 miles on horseback on apostolic expeditions throughout the Southwest establishing missions in Mexico, Arizona, and up the coast of California.  In 1700 Kino laid a foundation for a church in this area which was never built and whose remains yet to be discovered.  Construction on the current structure was begun in 1783 by the Franciscans after the Jesuits were expelled by Spain.  Initial construction continued until 1797.

The Tohono O'odham tribe was responsible for gathering the materials of sand, lime, clay, rock and wood.  They built kilns and fired the brick which reinforce the walls and excavated the trenches.  The three-foot thick walls were in place within a matter of a few years.

Humans were just smaller in those days and the stairs seem quite narrow and the doors very short compared to today's standards.  From the day the church was started it has been a continuum of building, restoration, and maintenance.

Artistic renderings of the abalone shell, used as a trading medium by the residents of the Southwest during that time period, appear as a theme throughout the mission.

Spines from the skeletons of saguaro cacti serve as a covering for the ceilings in various rooms of the mission.

This arch between the west tower and the mortuary building is also visible in the photo below.  The doors to the sanctuary are the original doors from the early construction.  I was unable to get a photo of them because of the intensity of the light from the west at the time of my visit.

The west tower exterior was restored in 2009.  The east tower was never completed.  An active parish today within the Tohono O'odham San Xavier Indian Reservation, approximately 200,000 people visit the mission each year.

Next post:  The art in the sanctuary

Desert Botanical Garden - Phoenix

I had a wonderful time during my vacation in Phoenix and one of the highlights of my trip was as a guest of Sharon - Phoenix Daily Photo - to the Desert Botanical Garden.  If you visit Sharon's blog you undoubtedly know that the DBG is probably her favorite place in the whole wide world and to see it along with her guidance was a real pleasure.  She is definitely an expert on this beautiful spot of nature.  Above is a wonderfully old mesquite tree which I might have walked right past had Sharon not pointed it out.  We all should hope for such character in our older years.

This tranquil area of water and reeds must be a gathering spot for much of the wildlife that calls the garden home.

This little bunny certainly wasn't intimidated by our clicking shutters.  He continued to enjoy a breakfast of prickly pear cactus while we did our photo thing. Amazing how they can avoid all those needlelike spines.

Thanks for a wonderful time, Sharon!