After Christmas dinner, we went out and saw several of these Javelina (collared peccaries) roaming around looking for some scraps we threw up in the wash earlier. I saw them and went out with my camera to get this photo of these smelly, ugly beasties. Click on the image to enlarge.
It was just another beautiful day in our high desert home today. I took this photo of the sunset punctuated by a high-altitude aircraft contrail. Click on the image to enlarge.
A few years ago, I wrote the code for a sidebar widget that prints the solar ephemerides (daybreak, sunrise, transit, sunset, nightfall and the length of daylight hours) out on our website. Since yesterday was the shortest day of the year, I wondered how the data compare for the longest day of the year.
I took a screenshot of yesterday’s data and saved it as an image. Then, I monkeyed with my code to make the widget think it is June, 21, 2013, the longest day of the coming year. I got a screenshot of that data and merged it with the shortest day into the image above. The length of the day changes from just under ten hours to almost fourteen and a half hours – a net delta of 4 hours and 32 minutes.
We like our mild winters here but we love the summertime even more. We like the heat and the absence of the snowbird population that clogs the roads and supermarket aisles in the wintertime.
In the fall, some of the desert wild shrubs turn to fall colors. These are located on the east shore of the Hassayampa River near the US Highway 60 bridge. Click on the image to enlarge.
This is one of the best air-fresheners you will find. Every Christmas season, I get out the whole cloves and an orange and poke the little cloves into the rind. The result gives off a delicious aroma like orange and cinnamon together. Click on the image to enlarge.
After the rain showers late last week, I stepped out into the courtyard and took this photo of another beautiful Arizona high desert sunset. The rain clouds were drifting away and the sun lit them up from the west. Click on the image to enlarge.
