Allophile

Photos. A week later...

A week has passed since I, (predictably), blogged about snow-in-the-desert.

Surely all newcomers to southern Arizona must go through this phase during their first winter--wow, it actually does snow here--thereby making the eyes of their friends 'back elsewhere' roll: oh, boy, there he goes again talking about the weather, ay ay ay...

So, as promised, here are photos of last week's snow, which fell on Monday...by Wednesday afternoon, the snow had melted on all but the highest peaks...and yesterday the high temperature here was 79 degrees...

(I think if you click on these photos, you can zoom in...)

--the early morning view, last Tuesday, of the Catalinas

("Finger Rock" on the left) from where I work...

--that afternoon, we went to Sabino canyon, to enjoy the chilly sunset...

--snow on the Rincons to the east...

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About two weeks before that, I went on a little hike up Bear Canyon, which runs parallel to Sabino Canyon; the trail leads to a series of waterfalls, seven in all, thus the name "Seven Falls:" So, not only is there snow in the desert, but even the occasional waterfall...

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Reading while riding the recumbent bike at the gym makes me want to write about all sorts of things...and then there's the drive home, dishes to wash, the bird to feed, and, of course, the spouse to greet...and by then I've lost that brilliant aphorism that came to me...

So, I am reduced to weather-photos, then...

...and the occasional book- and/or film-recommendation. I've been reading things by Robert Kaplan--nonfiction/travelogue/history/geopolitics...awesome! Check him out...

And--we just saw "Persepolis." If you haven't heard of it yet, google it--check out the clips on YouTube...It's a black and white animated autobiographical film, in French, praised at Cannes and Oscar-nominated here, based on the graphic novels of an Iranian-French author who grew up during the Iranian Revolution and Iran-Iraq war and was sent by her parents to finish high-school in Europe, but then returned to Iran. Sounds unusual. It is. A must-see!!!