2026 Northern Migration - because it really has become our annual event

Days 1 to 2 – 15-17 May – Tucson to Phoenix (Peoria), Arizona – 134 miles – We’re spending a day and a half with our niece and nephew in Peoria, a suburb of Phoenix.  It makes for a more relaxing trip north, and besides, who doesn’t enjoy visiting family for these occasional catch ups?

Days 3 to 5 – 17-20 May – Phoenix AZ to Camp Verde – 102 miles – We like the Cliff Castle Casino Hotel, and usually spend a night or two here.  I always visit the cliff dwellings nearby, for which the Cliff Castle is named.  Not only is it amazing artistically and architecturally, but the place also has a very peaceful aura.  It’s just a wonderful spot to relax and contemplate the ingenuity of early civilizations.

Since we have quite a bit of time to head north, we're taking a few days to just enjoy this area (part of the Prescott National Forest?  Or maybe the Coconino National Forest?  We saw signs for both) as we wander northwest-ish.

Anyway, I spent the afternoon of the 18^th at the National Park misnamed Montezuma’s Castle.  Yeah, the early white people really had zero clue about the history of the region. 

In keeping with my past year of sketching where we are, I wanted to do a sketch/painting of the cliff dwellings.  Fun project!  One of the park rangers came by to answer questions, but she fell in love with my little painting.  After I finished and wandered back through the park’s building, she asked me to please show my picture to all the other rangers working in the shop that day.  A bit embarrassing, but the picture really does capture not only the buildings but also the peaceful but vaguely other worldly feeling of the place.

Day 6 – 20 May – Camp Verde to Kingman AZ – 196 miles – We got a late start, but managed to get to Kingman, which is where we’ll begin to angle northwest and eventually just head north.  We went through Williams, AZ, the jumping off place to head to Grand Canyon.  However, there’s no road west along the southern rim of the canyon.  If we visited this amazing place again, we’d need to drive around three-fourths of the canyon to get to where we’re headed.  Didn’t make sense.  We just kept heading west.

We stopped in Williams for lunch – and I somehow found the cute little diner we ate at on our last trip through Williams!  Very good food, and we were happy to enjoy the place again.

Day 7 – 21 May – Kingman AZ to Henderson/Boulder City, Nevada – 89.6 miles – It was just one of those days.  Road work along the interstate, traffic barely moving in the one open lane.  No rest areas, and very few “services” along the route – so we ended up at the Hoover Dam visitors’ center for restrooms.  We finally got on the right highway, US-93 North, and were moving along nicely.  But it was early afternoon, we were getting hungry, and there was a sign for the Iron Rail Café.  With a name like that, you know it’ll be good food in a kitschy atmosphere.  We never did find the Iron Rail, instead we found the Bullet Train Café – with the Jackpot Breakfast special:  two eggs, bacon or sausage, home fries, and toast or biscuit.  All for $5.99!!!  After a lovely brekkie for lunch with a friendly waitress, it was closing in on 3 PM.  We agreed rather than trying to drive through Vegas at 5 PM, we might as well stay here.  So we’re ensconced in a huge hotel room at the Holiday Inn – I’m sitting on a chaise, and we’re relaxing.  Tomorrow is another day.

Day 8 – 22 May – Henderson to Ely, NV – 267 miles – We headed north, planning to eventually reach Jackpot.  We hoped to stay in Caliente, but all the hotels there were fully booked since it was the local high school’s graduation.  We drove onward to the next town, Pioche (rhymes with brioche) – again, no vacancies.  The only options were to sleep in the car, or keep driving north through the Great Basin (on the Great Basin Highway, of course).  We eventually came to Ely, a fairly large town.  Found a hotel and settled in.  Though we did have dinner at the Copper Queen Hotel and Casino, where we’ve stayed once or twice on previous trips.

Day 9 – 23 May – Ely to Jackpot, NV – 205 miles – This may have been our strangest departure from a town EVER!  We left Ely after gassing up the car and I even cleaned our windshield.  We knew we would drive the rest of the Great Basin, basically one long long road through the high desert and occasional scrubby forest, with tiny towns few and far between.

A few miles down the road it started raining so I turned on the wipers, and one seemed to be flipped around and not working properly.  I pulled off the highway, Richard got out and tried to fix it, but then the wiper was barely hanging on the arm!  I went out and was able to take it off, but I could see some little part inside was broken.

Some nice guy stopped and asked if he could help.  We all agreed we needed either a new part or new wiper, and he gave us directions to the only auto parts store back in Ely.  He also left the arm of the broken wiper standing up so it wouldn't scratch the glass - so the other wiper swept the rain off the windshield, but the passenger side looked like the arm was waving at other cars!  (We were laughing hysterically at this!)

Then suddenly there was a thud, as if a rock hit the windshield!  Turned out that arm fell back onto the window!  I turned off the wipers, the rain let up, we made it to the car parts store.  The guy knew exactly what gizmo needed to be replaced, and he had a box full of these little gizmos!  He found one he thought fit, sent me out to see if I could re-attach it - I couldn't make it work.  There was some back and forth, he had another guy look through the box, he found something else.  And said he'd come out to put it on, there was specialized knowledge on how they fit.  Apparently there are over ten different ways wipers can attach to the arms!  The way he did it was so simple compared to the way I tried to do it - as he said, specialized knowledge!

Best part - he wouldn't take a dime!!!!  I of course told him he was wonderful, and thanked him profusely.

We eventually made it to Jackpot and our hotel, about an hour later than anticipated. Definitely one of our crazier adventures!

Days 10 – 12 – 23 to 26 May – We stayed three nights in Jackpot, partly to avoid some of the Memorial Day traffic, partly because we like this odd little town and the quirky hotel where we seem to always end up, the Four Jacks.  How can you not love a town that embraces their casino reputation?  We still haven’t figured out if anyone really lives here.  Oh, and to add to the uniqueness of Jackpot, near the Idaho border, they’re on Mountain Time.  Even though Jackpot is in Nevada, which is on Pacific Time.  Totally confusing, but just one of the odd and quirky aspects of this town.

Day 13 – 26 May – Jackpot NV to Ontario, Oregon – 226 miles – We’ve stayed here in Ontario previously, it’s a good stopping point after the trip across the SW corner of Idaho.  (Though Twin Falls is a nice little city, and the Shoshone Falls are absolutely worth a visit.)

Did I mention previously that our tire pressure light came on as we were driving from Tucson to Phoenix?  The weather in Oregon is rather chilly, and that tire pressure light is still on, despite the fact that the tire pressure shouldn’t be elevated due to heat. 

As we headed to the hotel we’ve stayed at previously, we saw there was a Toyota dealership practically next door!  We stopped by, and I went in to the service center.  I explained the issue to the young man, and he said he’d check the tire pressure first.  Turns out the pressure is exactly where it should be.  However, the lit up pressure light indicates there’s something wrong with that system, most likely one of the batteries that powers this “safety” feature.

Whew – at least we know the tires are just fine.

Days 14 – 15 – 27 to 28 May – Ontario to Baker City, OR – 72.9 miles – We’re slowing down as we approach Yakima, where we’ll visit my middle brother and his wife.  From Yakima, we can make it to our summer base in one long-ish day, or break it up into two days.  So we’re stopping in towns we’ve passed by previously, just to continue our Tiki touring – travelling without a plan, and exploring new places.

Baker City is along the Oregon Trail, a small city dating back to the gold rush.  The city was founded in 1861, and officially incorporated in 1874.  (I realize this is not OLD old, the way places are in other parts of the world.  But for the western part of the US, this is pretty old.)

Baker City is also a small town. Population just over 10,000.  Richard and I had a lovely lunch at a homey restaurant aptly named the Oregon Trail restaurant.  We found a hotel/inn.  We had a snack because we were too early to check in.  We settled in, had a quiet afternoon, and headed out to dinner about 7:30 PM.  And everything seemed to be closed by the time we arrived.  The one and only place that wasn’t dark and shuttered was a pizza place.  They were very kind, and even though they were officially closed and cleaning up, the oven was still hot enough for takeaway pizza.  Five minutes later we had a lovely medium pizza, with packs of hot pepper and parmesan cheese, paper plates, napkins.  Richard pointed out the table outside in an alcove, complete with two chairs.  Our dinner was al fresco, overlooking the parking lot and the sunset behind the mountains in the distance.  It actually was quite lovely!

We opted to stay in Baker City a second day and night.  It’s a nice little town, and now we know to have dinner earlier.  But there’s a strong storm coming through this afternoon or evening, with strong winds (up to 60 mph), thunder and lightning, and hail.  Not anything we want to be driving through, especially on some of these hills that are almost mountains.  So we’re going to be smart and stay in Baker City.

Day 16 – 29 May – Baker City to Boardman, OR – 141 miles – We found a hotel where we could get a discount (using points), and near the Columbia River!  Maybe not by the shore, but close enough. 

We had a nice lunch in Pendleton, but the block where we parked and ate was turned into a farmer’s market at 3 PM.  Our lunch spot was slooooow, but we saw one of the market coordinators setting up so I pointed out our car, and said we were just waiting for our bill.  He was fine with it, but after we paid and got in the car, heading out, one of the market vendors started driving in as we were trying to drive out the one open spot!  ACK!  And they wouldn’t move!  Fortunately, some nice woman moved the sawhorse so we could drive out – I opened the window to tell her our lunch spot was slow so we were running late.

Then to top off our afternoon, we saw a very weird cloud that turned out to be a huge plume of smoke, and the interstate was closed!  We had to get off, and tried to find a way to our destination.  Of course, Greta the Garmin kept trying to get us to turn around and get back on the interstate!  We finally found a gas station where we got directions, and managed to find our hotel.  Whew!  Turns out there was a wildfire, so about six miles of the interstate were closed. 

What a day!

Day 17 – 30 May – Boardman OR to Yakima WA – 125 miles – We actually managed to reach Yakima without any fires or road closures!  Settled in at our hotel, had a nice dinner with my middle brother and his wife.  (Their daughter is the niece we stayed with for two days in Phoenix.)

My brother has been doing volunteer work with the emergency services organization in Yakima County, and he talked about the floods last year.  I knew there had been flooding in northern Washington, didn’t realize the central region had problems with flooding as well!  It explains the fallen trees various logs littering the river we can see from our hotel room!

Day 18 – 31 May – Yakima to Ferndale, WA – 235 miles – We arrived a day before our rental was available, and spent the night at the casino hotel we like.  (Kind of a theme for us.)  It’s a nice place, affordable, and as a member I get a 10% discount.  After our long trek, it’s nice to be back among the very green Pacific Northwest!

Day 19 – 1 June – Move-in Day in Ferndale, WA!

Redeeming Myself at Navajo Weaving

22 to 24 March 2026

 

I attended a Navajo weaving workshop last year in Tucson, and while I enjoyed it, I wasn’t very good at it.  This was my second weaving piece (as well as second class), and I made a lot of mistakes.  Not enough to throw the piece out, or to refuse to finish and leave the class as someone else did.  I’m not that much of a perfectionist.

But the two instructors ended up finishing my piece for me.  As a former teacher, I know that means I was really not doing a good job.  Perhaps even doing a bad job.  But it really is not a good sign when the teacher finishes the work for you because you’re working so slowly.

So I had to redeem myself.  At least in my own eyes.

Here’s the blog from the first Navajo weaving workshop:

https://rollingluggagers.blogspot.com/2025/04/navajo-weaving-workshop.html

The same two wonderful women were the instructors – they are sisters, from the Navajo nation, and come from a long line of weavers.  Fabulous teachers, and they include stories from their tradition as well as history as part of the class.  It makes for a fascinating three-day workshop!

On day one, we selected our yarn colors, and began by weaving the edge.  (In fabric it’s called the selvage, for you non-fabric-working readers.  Helps stabilize the piece.)  Wove about two inches, and during the lunch break we selected a traditional design and sketched it on graph paper.  As I explained in the 2024 blog, Navajo weaving is based in math and numbers – each square of the graph paper equals four warp (vertical) strings, or two overs and two unders in the weaving.

I added a stripe of midnight blue surrounded by a few rows of green and then pale blue on my turquoise background.  I actually have not only improved but sped up! I also brought my loom home with me so I could work on it a bit and not be the last one finished.  We each were making a "rug" (that's what our two instructors call them), about 6.5 x 8.5 inches.  I have some blue and teal green to use up, so bought a turquoise and a midnight blue balls of yarn.   (We weave in one ply, it compresses better when we use the beaters and so the warp threads don't show.)

On the second day, our main instructor, the famous Navajo weaver, showed us her family's collection of weavings, from her grandmother on through the current generation of her own children.  So, four generations of this family's weavings.  SO gorgeous, and so precise!  One looked like it was painted, although I kept thinking even when I paint I can't make lines that straight! Truly amazing!

As we were leaving that afternoon, the two instructors said we should try to have all but the last 2, 2.5 inches woven. Finish your design, add some more of the background. If you have a bottom stripe, add a top stripe. That way we'll be able to finish everything tomorrow.

I brought my loom home again, and spent my evening weaving.  Tiring but satisfying!

OH - just in case you were wondering - Navajo children receive a Navajo name when they are born, as well as an English name.  The names are usually in honor of an older (and maybe deceased) relative, so that names are often handed down within families.  I was chatting with our super weaver lady, and said I asked because Jewish children receive a Hebrew name as well as their English name.  And when we're called to do certain rituals in synagogue, we use our Hebrew name and then daughter of (or son of) and then our mother's or father's name.  She looked surprised and said that's what they do as well!  We agreed that human beings have very similar rituals, despite our ethnic differences or origins.

Day three, and yes, I had just about two inches to go!  Lovely weaving if I do say so myself, an icy pale blue, a dark midnight blue, and a teal green against a rich dark turquoise background.  All water colors, which is what I wanted.

Our chief instructor took out a few rows of weaving below my stripe, she said that way the horizontal stripes will match.  I have no idea how she could tell, because the yarn compresses as we go.  How can she predict exactly how much compression will take place?  I truly don’t know.

We all finished by the end of the day.  After taking the rugs off the loom, at the very end, the instructors fold each piece in half horizontally, then half lengthwise – and we each cut the four corner strings.  It's all very symbolic and has deeper meanings within Navajo culture.  Anyway, when the professional weaver folded mine, she looked at me and smiled, and said "oh, look! Good job!" – because my stripes above and below the central design lined up PERFECTLY!!!  I said something like wow, how did I do that?  She smiled more broadly and said "that's why I made you keep measuring!"  She and her sister are gifted teachers and story tellers, and she really is an incredible teacher. If we're back in Tucson next year, I'll take their class again. It really is fascinating to hear their stories and history, and as I said, I just like making art.  (The knots at the four corners of each rug represent the four cardinal directions.)

This year, when I pulled the Spider Woman string, I didn't get a whoosh of energy - but I did get an involuntary shiver. I'm telling you, it really is rather spooky!

In addition to my almost perfectly matched stripes, my sides are almost perfectly straight!  I did a LOT of measuring – every inch of weaving, we're supposed to measure the width to make sure we're not wobbling or changing size.  It's not easy to achieve the perfect balance of tight enough to not drift outward, but not too tight to pull the weaving inward.  Took me a while to get that balance.

I'm using the little rug for the penguin I got at the wedding last October.  I know, it's a little crazy.  But I have a small stuffed puppy from my childhood (his name is "Puppy," I probably named him at age 2 so I didn't have a lot of names) – but Puppy has always been with me, and now he hangs out with Pengy.  I figure they can have their own little weaving for them where they sit on the nightstand.

The design is a traditional Navajo design – or at least traditional from the tribe that our sister instructors are from.  The designs are based on squares – any Navajo design that includes diagonals is not traditional, these designs came from Navajo weavers being taken as slaves and forced to copy designs from Mexico.  (The sisters include components from their lives, and their tribes' history, in the class with all the technical instruction.)

When I look at the weaving, I see the deep turquoise waters of Antarctica.  The pale blue looks like ice floes or bergs, and the teal green looks like the islands of the Antarctic Peninsula.  My stripes look like waves or part of the current.  Perfectly apropos for a crocheted Adele penguin!  (Puppy is also very happy with his rug, but he stays on the islands.)

 

Sketching Arizona

November 2025 to May 2026

 

I’ve been a member of Urban Sketchers for a while now, and have attended their meet ups in several different cities and states.  For those who don’t know about Urban Sketchers, it’s an international organization that encourages people to sketch wherever they are, and post their sketches online.  The sketches are not finished pieces of art to sell, rather they are quick drawings or painting to show the beauty and diversity of our world.  And we meet up in a specific location however often the group decides; each person works independently; at the end, we have a “throw down” where everyone puts their sketchbooks or papers together, and someone takes a photo to post.  (Most of us post on our own art websites as well.)

 

So, I attended several Tucson Urban Sketchers meet ups, and then decided to draw and paint our back yard and some of the cactus in bloom.  It’s been an interesting project, and I think it needs its own blog post.  Besides, since I was so busy sketching, I didn’t have time to take photographs of the scenery!

 

Our first meet up was at Danny Lopez Park on the east side of Tucson.  There’s actually a lake there!  It was a small group, and I never did find where everyone else was working.  As I drove in, I saw a wonderful view of the Santa Catalina Mountains, and there was a covered area with picnic tables.  So I sat there, and worked on a large overview sketch.  I tend to work on more close up and detailed images, so this was fun.

 

The following month, we met up in Barrio Viejo, literally the “old neighborhood” of Tucson, dating back to the mid 1800s.  You can see what I mean about sketching small detailed images – this was the metal work above a door and the grate over the window of a small house.  As I was finishing up, the owner of the house came home, and I told him I really liked his window grate.  He said he and his wife picked up the flowers and hummingbirds at a crafts market, and he took them to an ironwork specialist to have them incorporated into the whole window.  Just gorgeous!  (And a great way to meet people!

 

In December, we did our Caribbean cruise, and I sketched/painted at many of the ports.  Those images are included in that series of blogs.

 

The January meet up was at the San Xavier del Bac Mission, the old Spanish mission church in south Tucson.  The original mission was founded on this site by the Jesuits in 1692, but the current church was built from 1783 to 1797 – making it the oldest European building in Arizona!  The actual labor was accomplished by the O’odham Nation, and the building and square stand on Tohono O’odham land.  Every Sunday, there’s a market with stalls selling food.  The arts and crafts market is held at the huge market building across the street.  (One of these years I’ll make it there.)

When we sketched at San Xavier last year, I drew and painted the usual scene of the church itself.  This year, I decided to draw the church as the backdrop to the market in the square, with all the people coming and going.  Since it was a quick overview sketch of a large scene, I worked in fine point marker and didn’t add color.

In the center of the square is a stone maze, a tradition among the O’odham people (and other indigenous people of the Southwest).  Called “The Man in the Maze,” this labyrinth represents the journey of life with all its complexities, options, decisions, and challenges.

 

Next up, we went to Avenida del Convento, sort of in central Tucson in the Mercado (market) district, with very Spanish architecture and large plazas.  It isn’t an old part of the city, but it’s built to look like an upscale version of it – bigger houses than in the Barrio Viejo, but similar architecture.

Most of the group gathered on a different street, but I parked and noticed the ornate oval windows of these attached buildings.  So I ended up sitting on the stoop on some building, and painting the scene across the street.

 

Our next sketching adventure was at the Mission Gardens.  Yes, for a while we were meeting up nearly every Sunday!  The Mission Gardens is a non-profit funded by a grant from the National Park Service, and they are growing plants (including crops) that the indigenous people of this region were using some 4000 or so years ago. Really fascinating! The had several kinds of citrus fruits, the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash planted together), and even fig trees! It's located on land sacred to the Tohono O'odham people, the Native Americans in this region of Arizona. A canal runs through the property - apparently digging a canal from a nearby river was pretty common for the indigenous people here.

I seem to be the only one without a chair, so I wandered looking for a nice place to sketch that included a rock or ledge or something else for sitting. I found a gorgeous trellis covered in ivy, with a couple of kinds of prickly pear cactus around the base, an agave, and a couple of flowering plants.

So that was my spot for the morning.  But the funny part was the road runner who came wandering through. He was my second-ever road runner, so I talked to him, and he bobbed his head and tail at me. He also sort of raised and lowered the crest on his head, so I guess that was part of his conversation. He actually came within less than a yard of me!  I told the young ladies at the shop about him, they said oh yes, he decided he lives here, his name is Kevin. I said he really didn't look like a Kevin to me, they laughed and agreed. I'm not sure if road runners qualify as remarkably bright, but we definitely communicated with each other.

It was a really nice morning, and the perfect spot outside the city for drawing and painting! It does make me think of using a bigger watercolor set for these outings, though - I have to mix my own greens, and given that I only have lemon yellow and ultramarine blue, my greens all look very much the same.

My scene had so many different greens, I opted to draw first in marker, and then paint.  With only about 90 minutes to work, it’s an easier way to differentiate between the various plants.  Sort of a quick and dirty way of making a fast but clear image of the scene.

Kevin agreed.

 

We gathered in a part of Tucson called the Lost Barrio.  It’s not really lost nor hidden, it’s actually the old warehouse district that is now turned into trendy little shops and boutiques.  I found a lovely little white shop with bright cobalt blue trim, posts, and railings, surrounded by greenery and pink flowering bougainvillea.  Just a lovely little vignette.  Plus I could perch on a planter across the street from it, and set up my water cup on the edge of the planter.  (We the chairless get creative.)

I’m not sure what the mosaic in the center front of the building was, some saint or something.  Possibly Our Lady of Guadeloupe.  I’m also not sure if the basin below the mosaic was a fountain, or more of a birdbath kind of thing.  But it was pretty, and fun to paint.

 

The following week, we met by an old building that is or was the Art and Music Palace, or school, or center, or something along those lines.  I hate to say I don’t remember, because I ended up not staying there.  (Are we sensing a theme here?  Yes, I tend to pick places to sketch where there are fewer people gathering.)

But mostly, it’s because when I drove to the location, I passed a statue of a bright orange griffin.  Really!  It was gorgeous, and I do love a good mythical creature!  How can you go wrong with a half eagle, half lion friend?

I parked, met the group, and told them I was walking back down a few blocks to draw the griffin.  I wandered on down to the griffin (maybe four blocks or so?), found a flower pot with enough edge to sit on and use as a table for my supplies, and that was my sketching spot. I had a great time and he was a very good subject, didn't move a muscle!

Actually, a tour guide with a small group came by, and he told the people about the sculpture.  The griffin is named Toby, and he was created by a group of artists in 2010.  There are even footprints cast in the sidewalk, randomly spaced eagle talon and lion foot prints!  Very whimsical!  (I do enjoy whimsy!)

Just as I was finishing up, a man from Cornwall, UK, came by and asked if he could take a photo of my sketch.  (I think I made Toby's torso too long, but I'm embracing the wonkiness.)  Anyway, he enjoyed my painting, and I had fun.

 

I started my backyard sketching with a lovely blue-green agave plant growing under what I think may be a mesquite tree.  There was some sort of succulent that had deep red flowers in early spring, and a spray of these blossoms created a gorgeous slash of contrasting color across the agave.  Great composition with just two plants in complementary colors.  (A bit of quick online research indicates that this is probably a blue agave, which is the kind used for making tequila!  And the red flower is most likely a coral bean flower, or Bidwell’s coral bean, which seems to be a true red and not a red-orange color.  Botanical Name: Erythrina bidwilii.)

 

Our last Urban Sketchers meet up was at the Juan Santa Cruz picnic area, overlooking the valley that is the Saguaro National Park West, with the Tucson Mountains in the distance.  (The eastern part of the park is obviously on the eastern side of Tucson.)  The area isn’t far from Old Tucson, originally built as a movie and television set, and now something like a theme park.

I wanted a view that included both the mountain range, and those friendly saguaros.  I picked the largest picnic shelter because I could sit on the side of the half-wall, and had a great view of the distant mountains, valley, and two hills covered in saguaros.  With several chollas in the foreground.  I was in the shade, and had a lovely breeze.  Ended up with a group of twelve hikers who came to cool off and have a break, and then the rest of the sketchers came to cool off as well.  Really was a perfect spot!  Well, 18 miles west of our house, so it took about 40 minutes to get there, but it was still a great place for sketching.  (Several people painted to ocotillas in full flower!)

Oh, and I was also visited by several cactus wrens, the ones that poke holes in the saguaros to build their nests. And a jack rabbit went hopping by - looks like an average rabbit but longer ears, and a leaner build than our plump bunnies of the north.

So, all in all a good day.  As with most of these Urban Sketcher works, I quickly draw in aquarelle pencil, and then paint with my mini six-color watercolor set.

 

Our Urban Sketcher leader headed back north (to Bellingham, of all places – where we summer!), so I went back to sketching our garden.  I tried to organize an event so other sketchers could come by, but Facebook seems to have banned me or something, so I couldn’t communicate with the group.  Oh well, I had fun anyway.

Under the same maybe mesquite tree was a lovely little vignette – another blue agave, and two other aloe-like succulents, both with clusters of flowers on long stems.  Actually, now that I’m trying to find out what kind of plant they might be, it turns out that aloe does indeed flower, and they look very much like the yellow and orange flowers in my painting!  Who knew?

The ground is normal Tucson desert dirt and gravel – I had a fun time splatter painting to create the gravel effect!  And I rather like the faded hint of greenery as the background, so that you get a sense that this is just a small scene in a larger garden.

 

Next I tackled the flowering prickly pear cactus.  It turns out there are a LOT of different kinds of prickly pears, and this is the black spine prickly pear.  Loooong black spines with white tips, and gorgeous yellow flowers with red splotches on the inner part of the petals.  And the cactus itself is green, but purple around the edges!  I know, it sounds like an odd combination, but it really works well.

The base of the flower turns into the prickly pear fruit, which can be eaten raw, or cooked into jellies, or rendered down into syrups.  And the green “paddles” of the cactus can also be cooked and eaten, although they aren’t sweet like the fruit.  (People also keep bees who produce honey from prickly pear cacti, another specialty.)

This sketch is mostly aquarelle pencil, rather than paint.  It was late afternoon, there were insect, and I wanted to work quickly.

 

We had two large cacti in the same shady area under that mesquite tree, very bright green and shaped like a big prickly pear, but with soft curly little protrusions, and no spines.  These turned out to be spineless prickly pear cacti!  They have pretty yellow flowers, and these also turn into the deep red-purple fruit.  I don’t know if the fruit from the different kinds of prickly pears taste different, though.  Or if the paddles taste different.  (Now I’m wondering how one removed the spines before cooking the paddles.)

Again, sketched in aquarelle, and painted with my mini watercolor set.  Though to make the pale center, I did need to use the white aquarelle pencils to get that very light color.  Also, this was done on a single page, not the open sketchbook, so the image proportions are very different.

 

Okay, the final Tucson botanical sketch.  This wonderful saguaro isn’t even in our rental’s yard, it belongs to the neighbor.  But it’s such a gorgeous cactus, I wanted to sketch him.  Her?  Some plants come in male and female.  Turns out cacti are both, so that the flowers of a single cactus can cross pollinate itself!

Anyway, this is an OLD saguaro.  They don’t begin developing “arms” until they’re roughly 75 years old, and this one has branches on branches! 

According to the National Park Service, saguaros have arms, not branches.  Here’s more information about saguaros – how tall they are at various ages, when they begin to develop the arms, all that:  https://www.nps.gov/sagu/learn/nature/saguaro-growth.htm

My guess is that this particular saguaro was about 20 to 25 feet tall, comparing it to the house.  And it was in full bloom, with those lovely white flowers with yellow centers.  (Yes, these flower stalks also develop into fruit.  The indigenous people created a tool from dead saguaro inner spines, to pick the fruit and cook it into jellies and syrups.)

This saguaro is to our west, so I waited until just before sunset began to sketch the neighbor's saguaro.  It's too hot and too bright mid-day, and I’m not a morning person.  I found an angle I liked, and started sketching.  Then one of the people who lives there drove up - and parked on the gravelly area what would normally be a sidewalk, because we're not supposed to park on the street. I moved, then he opened his window and said "can I help you?"  I explained I lived next door, and was just sketching their saguaro, that I had been doing a series of sketches of our backyard but we don't have a gorgeous saguaro the way they do.  We chatted briefly, he asked if his vehicle was in my way, I said no, I just moved so I wasn't in his way.  (He said with my book, he thought I'd be asking him to vote for something!)

Anyway - so I have a nice sketch of the saguaro, full of holes that cactus birds made so they can nest inside.  It's a really old saguaro with lots of arms as well as arms capped with lots of flowers, buds, and maybe fruit.  I came inside, used my skinniest marker to outline everything and make the lines that are really more like pleats in the saguaro skin.  Then used my watercolors to color and shade it all. (And a vague splash for the background.)

Last note, before I end because I know this is loooong – those accordion folds or “pleats” in the saguaro are an adaptation so that saguaro can drink up lots of water into the core during rainy season, and the saguaro actually expands with water and the pleats flatten out!  Major survival evolution!!!

Diatoms and Mollusks and Nudibranchs, Oh My!

22 to 27 January 2026

 

I know, it’s been half a year since I posted a blog.  It was a busy winter and spring.  Sometimes living and doing are more important than documenting what and where we’re travelling.  But I usually catch up.  So here it is, my short trip to Seattle in mid-winter. 

 

One of my college roomies from over half a century ago had a solo art exhibit at the Pacific NW Quilt and Textile Museum.  She had been a marine biologist with the Northwest Fisheries at NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle).  Her specific job included prepping slides and taking photographs of specimens using the SEM, the scanning electron microscope.  

  

Okay, for people like me who aren’t science people, here’s a quick explanation of the SEM.  It’s a giant microscope that shoots electrons onto a prepared sample on a glass slide, and the electrons bounce off so it creates an image of the surface, which is then photographed.  Because it’s using electrons, the images can be up to one million times the size they are in reality.  So if a scientist wants to see the effect of a pollutant on a fish embryo, for example, they might want to use the SEM and produce an image that is 2000 times the size of the actual fish egg.  That’s the very short description, but you get the idea.

 

Because the photographs are created by electrons bouncing off the slide, there’s no color included.  It’s not a visual image, not the way we humans see.  It’s more of an echo created by those electrons, or maybe a vibration.  The photos are all in black and white and grey.

 

So, my friend Carla retired from NOAA, and started creating art quilts portraying many of the images she saw using the SEM for research.  Things like shark skin, which is way more texture-y than normal fish skin.  Or various microbes in ocean water, such as diatoms.  (Another aside – diatoms are sort of like algae, in that they’re more in the plant family than they are animal.  They’re single-celled tiny microscopic things that live in water, and produce oxygen – something like 20 to 50% of the oxygen we breathe!  Essential little guys!)

 

All of that science stuff aside, Carla had this solo art show.  How could I, supportive friend and art person, NOT go to the exhibit?  Of course I flew up and spent a five day weekend with my old college roomies, and had a great time. 

 

Friday I spent the day with R, and we visited the Burke Museum at the University of Washington campus.  They had a fabulous exhibit about weaving techniques and natural dyes used by the Coastal Salish peoples, the Native Americans ranging from Oregon through the west coast of Canada all the way up to the Alaskan Panhandle.  Fascinating, and we had a great time.  (R is my weaving friend, who went to the tapestry class in Italy with me in October 2024.)

 

On Saturday, I caught a ride with R to town of LaConner, Washington.  Carla was already there ensuring everything was ready for her talk, where she described her journey from playing on beaches to becoming a marine biologist to creating quilts about microscopic sea creatures. 

 

You know how you know someone, and after fifty years you learn all sorts of new things about them?  It was that kind of experience. 

 

And because many of Carla’s quilts are based on those SEM images, she plays with color.  Diatoms are fascinating little things, with layer upon layer of structure, all contained within one single cell.  Because they’re more like algae, they’re probably in the earthy greenish range of colors.  But when seen at 2000 times normal size, well, magentas or turquoises make perfect sense!

 

She also has created waterscapes, such as kelp forests, or nudibranchs (fancy sea slugs) in their environment.  She even made a gorgeous sea turtle swimming over a Caribbean coral reef for Richard and my wedding present – just incredible detail!!!

 

Plus fabric sculpture of oysters, held in a little wire barbecue basket – and I know she’s currently working on a series of barnacles.  Really!  Imagine oysters and barnacles created in fabric and mixed fibers like felt, yarn, and who knows what else!  Or a close up of fish skin, or even a fish scale blown up 1000 times!  

 

I should add that Carla doesn't just sew the quilts.  She also dyes much of the fabric she uses, as well as paints or sews details to add texture.  I'm saving the nudibranch quilts for the end so I can really enlarge the photos so you can see the exquisite details of her work. 

 

It was a wonderful exhibit and talk, and showcased something like 20 years of Carla’s work.  (I should add that Carla has had smaller exhibits at various aquariums and science centers around the Pacific Northwest, but that this was sort of a culmination of all those smaller shows.)

 

We spent Sunday and part of Monday together, had a bunch of dinners together, and did the normal close-friends-catching-up kind of talking.  Often accompanied by prosecco and/or chocolate.

 

Here’s an interview with the artist, and I’ll follow with a link to her website:

https://createwhimsy.com/projects/spotlight-carla-stehr-fiber-artist/

 

To see Carla’s quilts next to the SEM image that inspired her:  https://carlastehr.com/series

 

And then I flew out on Tuesday, leaving a chilly 30º but sunny Seattle, and returned to our Tucson desert warmth.  (The mountain photos are views of Mount Rainier, from my hotel balcony.)

 

Okay - fairy nudibranks with tiny sea anemones and sea snails.  No SEM, just seen in a tide pool.