FROM SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

Chapter 14: Big Storm of 2006

SCOTTSDALE, Sep 4, 2006 - Who says the monsoons don't come to the Phoenix area anymore?  Take a look at what I found at my home late last night when I returned from a Prescott/Sedona drive...

Wasn't the two-thirds moon pretty, peaking through the branches of the toppled tree?

...and the same scene in the morning...

...and as seen from the street.

Here's what the same tree and the front of my house looked like less than a month ago.  

A close -up of my front entrance...

...and the same as seen from my front door.  Looks like a tree tunnel, doesn't it?

Finally, a new view of the front of my property from my office window.  

The irony is that I have been joking during the last couple of days, including last night, that "St. John the Baptist", as I put it, or "Señor Juan", as a friend likes to call him - the remnants of Hurricane John that hit Mexico on Friday - may pay us a visit "and sprinkle some holy water on us."  Little did we know that his "holy rain" may arrive with mini-tornado strength winds.  

Take a look at some other trees that were also uprooted and toppled on my street, like these two at my next door neighbor's property...

A few more trees were toppled around the pool area, too, that had already lost two big trees this summer to wind storms.  Here they are...

A little farther up the road, at the DC Ranch Market place...

...last night's mini-twister had peeled the roof off a large store (above).  You can see a work crew with a crane taking down the remains of the roof, and preparing the underside for a new one.  So it looks like the storm cut a swath from the northeast to the southwest across DC Ranch and Grayhawk, leaving havoc and destruction in its wake.

A Preamble to the Storm...

And now, here's an amazing tree story...

Even though the monsoon season was pretty much supposed to be over by the end of August, something made me call a tree man last week.  Just in case.  Two days ago, he and his crew trimmed six big trees in my back yard, including three tall acacias that I share with my neighbor to the north.  As of this morning, all six trees were still standing.  So last night, as I was surveying the damage to my front yard, I thanked God for giving me the inspiration to call the tree man in the nick of time.

But we're not out of the woods yet (literally, as well as figuratively).  :-)  Take a look at the bulging roots of the biggest of the six trees in my back yard...

...a beautiful Chilean mesquite...

The roots were not visible at all yesterday, before the storm.  And yet look at them now...

The tree kicked off the two big rocks as if they were pebbles.  It must have fought like hell to stay up against the wind.  And won.  For now.  But more storms are forecast for tonight and over the next several days.  So I called my tree man again this morning to see what, if anything, we can do to save this gorgeous Chilean, one of the biggest mesquite trees I have ever seen.  So we'll see, stand by...

Epilogue 

SCOTTSDALE, Sep 5 - I was awakened this morning by the sound of chain saws.  I figured that the neighborhood cleanup had begun.  But when I looked out my office window...

...I saw that my fallen tree had already been cut up and was being hauled away.  Yet I did not even know of or expect this landscaping crew to show up.  Must have been the Home Owners Association that sent them.

Anyway, they did the job and cleared the debris.

This left the front of the property looking a little bare but otherwise pretty normal.  The only damage I could see was one broken roof tile.  I am not kidding.  A mini-twister ripped through the neighborhood, a tree fell on my house, and the only damage in my case was one smashed tile.  How lucky can you be?  :-)

Oh, well... onward and upward.

Three New Art Treasures Shipped

SCOTTSDALE, Sep 5 - On a more sedate topic, I just got word from Thailand that the three bronze sculptures that I had ordered six weeks ago have now shipped.  Here they are...

Reclining Horse

Dancer's Break

Blind Justice

... as they looked when these pictures were taken at the artist's workshop in Bangkok, Thailand.  It will take another 4-6 weeks before they actually get to Arizona.  Hope they look as good when they arrive here...  

Cactus Flower Power 

SCOTTSDALE, Sep 15 - I woke up this morning to glorious, clear skies and the temperatures in the mid-70s.  It was the first time since early May that they have been that low.  

In my living room, I found Nina, the Ballerina, taking her morning bath in sparkling sunshine that poured in through the window. 

But the biggest and the best surprise awaited me outside.  A new cactus flower had opened overnight (right).  And it was pointing toward my house like a beacon directing the sunlight to Nina and other sun worshippers inside.

To put things in perspective, here is the seven foot-cactus with its new "flower power" near the top.

Check out this desert beauty from different angles...

While I was still admiring the cactus flower power, my eyes veered to the right, where a honeysuckle bush...

...had also burst into color practically overnight.

A few feet away, a potted flowering lily added a few more notes to the morning symphony in orange.

Tucked in the corner close to my northern gate, was this lonely bush that also decided to strut its purple and lavender colors this morning.  It had been dormant all summer.  And now that things have cooled off a bit, it decided to celebrate the end of summer with its bloom.

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