March 2017 Photo: Geraniums

It’s been a really colorful spring with lots of wildflowers and a few new additions to our patio garden.

So, for March, I chose this photo of a couple geraniums Phillip rescued from some plant department clearance bin. We also have blooms on our nasturtiums and our dwarf pomegranate tree. The hummingbirds are loving it all, and so am I.

Runners up:

I considered posting a photo either from Southwest Maker Fest or coffee painting at CraftHack, like these two mini masterpieces by Niecy.

Also, we spotted this bus the other day that said “Let’s be better humans.” I don’t know what the story is behind it, but it’s a good message!

Update: I found the Instagram account for the bus! I’m still not totally clear on what their campaign does, but they describe themselves as “a movement in love and humanity,” and that sounds like a good thing to me.

April 7, 2017April 7, 2017

Make a Mt. Lemmon Day Trip

You start in the Tucson heat surrounded by saguaros. An hour (or so) and a few thousand feet in elevation later, you can be sitting among spruce trees in air cool enough to not melt the chocolate chips of the oversized cookie in front of you.

Welcome to Mount Lemmon, a 9000-foot peak in the Santa Catalina Mountain Range.

Drive the Sky Island Scenic Byway (also called the Mt. Lemmon Highway, the Catalina Highway, and – officially – the General Hitchcock Highway) through beautiful landscape and six (6!) different climate zones.

Then you can hike or picnic or ride the year-round ski lift. (Yes, it gets cold and snowy enough in the winter for skiing up there!)

When Phillip and I and my parents went, we stopped at a picnic area (Box Elder, I think-?) before driving to the parking lot at end of the road and taking a little hike from there.

Along the way is the town of Summerhaven, a one-and-a half mile high city that caters to visitors seeking shelter from sweltering Tucson summers.

It’s also home to the giant cookies of Cookie Cabin. Four of us split one sampler cookie. There was literally a line out the door but plenty of nice outdoor seating.

I taught my dad how to use the Hyperlapse app, so we could take timelapse videos of the drive up. You can see the dramatic changes of scenery compressed into two minutes.

– More Mt. Lemmon info –

Be prepared to pack out your own trash.
Ski lift – The “sky ride” to the summit lasts about half an hour. Off-season (summer) adult tickets are $12/ride. Winter lift tickets are $45/day. Details at skithelemmon.com.
Keep the high altitude in mind when you’re planning hiking or other activities.
We were there in mid-August, right at the end of the summer wildflower season.

Scenic Drive:

Fees:

Many places you can park on Mount Lemmon require a pass, including the visitor center, picnic areas, etc.
You can purchase a Coronado Recreation Pass on the mountain at the Palisades Visitor Center or buy one before you go.
Passes are available at several locations, including the Coronado National Forest Supervisor’s Office at 300 W. Congress near Downtown Tucson.
Day passes are $5 per vehicle. ($10 for a weekly pass.)
Instead of worrying about which specific places require it, consider just getting a day pass in town before you make the drive. It’s only 5 bucks and helps to support the forest.

April 25, 2016April 25, 2016

Coffee Sleeve Flower Press

I didn’t expect to be pressing flowers during this winter’s trip to Virginia, so I didn’t pack anything for that. But I ended up with a few rose petals from my cousin’s wedding I wanted to preserve.

I’d been wondering if a cardboard coffee sleeve could work as an on-the-go flower press, so I grabbed one from the hotel. Since the inside had ridges, I tore it at the seam and basically turned it inside out, sandwiching the petals between flat sides. It may not have been necessary, but I slipped another sleeve over the top just to help everything stay put. Then I clipped it all together with a hair clip.

It actually worked pretty well! I imagine you could also use binder clips or wedge the sleeve under something heavy in your suitcase to keep it flat. Another way to repurpose coffee sleeves for crafting!

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April 18, 2016May 23, 2023

March Photo: Blossoms

I took this photo of a tree covered in white blossoms against a brilliant blue sky during our recent camping trip at Chiricahua National Monument.

It was outside the old Faraway Ranch house. I’m not sure what kind of tree it is, but the bees sure loved it! The blossoms make me so happy that I’ve made this the wallpaper for my phone’s lock screen.

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March 17, 2016February 13, 2019

Mounds State Park

Sharing some green with you today from Indiana last summer, specifically from Mounds State Park in Anderson.

The Mounds

Mounds State Park is named for mounds of earth built around 160 BCE by a culture known as the Adena-Hopewell, famous for pottery and mad mound-building skills.

Actually, they could’ve been two separate cultures, the Adena building the Mounds and the Hopewell leaving their more advanced stuff around later. Or the Adena could’ve just gotten Hopewell-levels of advanced over time.

If there’s a new car outside your friend’s house, is someone visiting or did your friend just get a new car? Way harder to clear that up when your friend is 2000 years in the past. So I guess hyphenating the two names is a way to hedge archaeological bets.

Why were they built? Maybe the Adena built them for ceremonies and then they were used for burials by the Hopewell (who may or may not just be the Adena 200 years later). The truth is we’re not sure what all people back then were into.

What we do know is that someone (ok, a lot of someones) purposefully dug out and built up earth a couple millennia ago into mounds you can still see today.

There are 10 of these earthworks in Mounds State Park, and they tend to be crater-like, with the mounded outsides surrounding a depression with a platform in the center.

The largest one has dents in it that align with the equinox, solstices, and rising of certain stars. Known as “the Great Mound,” it is 9 feet tall and has a quarter-mile circumference. So, yeah, whatever the Adena-Hopewell were up to, they were not messing around.

The Park

The visitors’ center has displays about the park’s ecosystem and a floor map of how the Mounds align with various astronomical phenomena.

Its observation room has chairs facing oversized windows, giving you a front row view of a pond, birdhouse, and a thick stand of trees, so you can watch for birds or frogs or maybe even deer.

Outside is a cute little children’s garden.

Also at the park is the historic brick Bronnenberg House, which dates from 1840. Compared to the Mounds, though, that seems like new construction.

The White River cuts through the park, and you can fish, as well as camp, hike or picnic. There are trails of varying difficulty levels winding around the Mounds.

Our Visit

Since we were in town for a family reunion, Phillip and I got to visit the park with my uncle, who’s been going there since he was a kid, and my cousin Allison, who made sure to photobomb the butterfly video I was shooting in the pollinator garden.

A video posted by stephanieliebold (@stephanieliebold) on Jul 6, 2015 at 2:24pm PDT

We started down trail #1 towards the Great Mound and met a harrowed-looking hiker coming from that direction, who asked if we had insect repellent – not to borrow it for himself but to make sure we were protected.

As we approached the boardwalk, we found out why. The mosquitoes were out in force that day. Despite our deet, they didn’t seem to be deterred. I could barely stop long enough to snap a photo without those tiny vampires swarming towards my neck and head.

I wrapped my scarf over my head and tucked my arms inside. Allison laughed at me, but I’m pretty sure it was just that she was jealous of my scarf/mosquito net and not that I looked ridiculous.

We cut our hike short after seeing the Great Mound.

We drove to a spot near the river, where the guys wanted to explore some more. Allison and I decided to take in the scenery from the safety of the car.

I wonder how the Adena kept the mosquitoes away.