Verna and Bob's Weblog

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Goldfinch Watering Hole

Goldfinch Watering Hole

This little bucket which sits under the rain spout by the patio serves to not only collect rain runoff, but to provide a reservoir suitable for our little winged friends to get a drink of water. There generally are no places where water stands for very long in our arid environment, so we’re happy to provide a place for the birds and other critters to get water.

I had a birdbath set up out back for quite a while before the monsoon winds and showers totaled it out. This bucket takes the place of the fragile glass fixture that we still find shards from, while not endangering the critters that take advantage of it.

We have no direct evidence of it, but we suspect that squirrels, roadrunners, bunnies, coyotes, mule deer and other assorted local critters take advantage of the water. Someday, we might get photographic evidence of that and post it here.

January 24, 2016 by Arizona Climate Critters Home & Garden Retirement

Dusk

Dusk

This is the most colorful sunset of this year! However, there are bound to be a lot more as colorful and more in the coming year. Happy New Year!

Click on the image to enlarge.

January 2, 2016 by Arizona Climate Home & Garden Photography

Merry Christmas 2015


Verna and I wish each and everyone a very Merry Christmas! We hope that you all have been and will continue to be blessed as we have been.

We are spending our Christmas with each other and our dogs at home, away from the hubbub and secure in our little house. We plan to travel and visit with family and friends after the new year begins.

Verna took the image seen in the animation above on New Year’s Eve, 2014, just about a year ago. It was the ONLY snow day that we have seen in the five years since moving to Arizona.

Again, blessings to you and yours and enjoy the Christmas Holiday.

December 24, 2015 by Arizona Climate Holidays Photography

Frozen Rain Bucket

Frozen Rain Bucket

When the Daddy walked Bay Bay and me this morning, we noticed something about the water in the rain bucket that the Mama keeps under the drain spout. The water was very hard and cold! I sniffed at it and tried to take a drink but I couldn’t.

The Daddy said the water was frozen and then took us into the warm house where I could get a a cookie and a drink. Click on us to make us big.

December 15, 2015 by Arizona Climate Critters

The Sam Adams Guide to Seasonal Changes

Winter LagerIt is sometimes difficult to tell the seasons in our part of Arizona since we’re in a temperate zone where we can have a cold spell as we did in early November and, like today, we have spring-like mid 70’s temperatures and clear, blue skies.

But we can tell from what we see in the cooler at the supermarket that when Samuel Adams Winter Lager shows up, that it is well into the fall and winter is nigh. We’re transitioning from Samuel Adams Oktoberfest (the last three bottles today) to the Winter lager that is in the fridge and ready for tomorrow. We look forward to, regardless of the weather, having Samuel Adams Cold Snap and then Summer Ale to be followed with Oktoberfest next fall and Winter Lager thereafter.

Of course, another positive indication of winter is when the snowbirds fill the RV parks in our area. They are back now, and the roads and stores are busier than the lighter traffic months of spring and summer.

November 21, 2015 by Climate Food and Dining

Water Under the Bridge

Railroad Bridge across the Hassayampa River

This is a rare photo of the BNSF Railroad Bridge spanning the Hassayampa River seven miles south of Wickenburg where there is water flowing above ground in the riverbed and going under the stately bridge. Verna took this photo from US 60 on Wednesday while we were on our way to do some shopping in the northwest metro valley.

We have had a considerable amount of rainfall over the last week, with thundershowers in the mountains and below producing enough precipitation to flow down from the headwaters of the river in the mountains northeast of town. Today, the showers have subsided and the forecast is for partly cloudy and mostly sunny weather until the next unseasonable thunderstorms hit, maybe as a consequence of hurricane Patricia, now situated in the eastern Pacific off the coast of Mexico.

Meanwhile, it looks like good weather to prevail for tomorrow and the weekend.

October 22, 2015 by Arizona Climate Photography

Avalon 1998

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