Shadows over Christmas

It’s been hard for me to participate in holiday festivities this year. My friend Ginny was felled by a mighty stroke on Thursday and never regained consciousness. Her body lived on for two more days, then ceased functioning altogether on Christmas Eve. Ginny’s family was keeping vigil at her bedside. Although I was many miles away, I was keeping vigil too.

Will Christmas ever be the same for Ginny’s family or for me or for her many other friends? Will every Christmas bring an acute sense of loss?

Too be honest, I haven’t cared much for Christmas for many years. I am not only repelled by the excessive materialism, but also have unpleasant memories of the season. They will always cast their dark shadows over the holiday. I do love to see little children’s excitement as Christmas approaches, but my participation has become more and more difficult.

Next year I think I’ll just celebrate the northern hemisphere’s winter solstice. December 22 marks the end of lengthening days and the sun’s return to dominance. Winter solstice celebrates the coming light. No more shadows for me.

Copyright 2016 by Shirley Domer

Time out for Organization

These are busy days. Christmas is coming up fast. There are planes to be met, cookies to be baked and English toffee to be made. The Bee House, our second casita, is almost completely renovated except for the bathroom fixtures selection and installation. Progress depends on our making some final choices, so I’m busy with collecting bids.

I need to stay focused, but yesterday I felt the urge to take a day off to concentrate on getting better organized. Our tiny house has two sheds attached to its back. One is for the water heater. The other is a precious storage space. It had become so disorganized I could barely get inside. Last winter I urged Dennis to get some shelving, but he hadn’t shown interest.

As it happened, yesterday was our 41^ST wedding anniversary. Knowing that Dennis loves giving gifts, I grabbed the chance to ask for shelving as an anniversary gift and right away we were off to purchase shelving. Logan, who is here from Madison for the holiday, offered to go along.

After lunch and a short nap, Logan and Dennis got busy on the shed project. They carried out all the stuff that was on the floor.

That didn’t leave much inside. (Yeah, I should have also asked that the shed be painted inside before moving in shelving, but I dared not press my luck.)

With two people working the shelving went together quickly. (That's the Bee House in the background, and its new side door.)

In about an hour the whole job was done.

Uh-ho, it now becomes clear that we have way too many coolers. Thrift store donations are in order. I’ll add that to my long, long to-do list, but right now I’m going to make those cookies.

Copyright 2015 by Shirley Domer

Back in Midtown Tucson

Whoopee! We’re back in midtown Tucson in our little casita ten steps away from the big house where the grown-up grandchildren live. That makes the four of us a multigenerational family. We share almost every evening meal, and sometimes breakfast or lunch. All of us notice how much more conversation there is than when just two people eat together.

Lots of things have changed since we left here last April. Late last winter Grant, with his brother’s help, planted little fruit trees ­– orange, fig, and lemon. The little orange now has a dozen oranges ripening on its lower branches.

Yesterday Blair harvested the season’s first figs. Others are still ripening on the little tree.

Grant and Blair did a lot of work on Casita Bee while we were away, in spite of Tucson’s blistering summer heat. Casita Bee will be for grandparents use. We envision it as our recreation/guesthouse.

Grant took the building down to its studs, and rebuilt it. No doubt I’ll be writing about the casita in more detail, but for now, the new entry door and windows give a glimpse of the inside, notably the brick wall with fireplace that fills the entire opposite wall. (To see the interior a little more clearly, double-click on the image.)

I have to stop now, because tonight we will see the Arizona Theater Company’s presentation of Fiddler on the Roof. That will keep me up way past my bedtime. I must gird myself with a long nap.

Copyright 2016 by Shirley Domer

See Ya Later, Tucson

Our sojourn in Tucson has come to an end for this year. It’s springtime in Kansas and time to plant potatoes, so we’re heading home.

We have learned our way around most of the city and met some delightful people. We have learned a lot about the desert landscape and its exotic flora that we’ve come to love and appreciate.

This time around I’ve not written about Tucson’s love of walls, or about its charming Southwest architecture. I haven’t written about xeriscaping, and other water conservation strategies. I’ve neglected to write about our intergenerational living experiment, which has been a huge success. I haven’t talked about Tucson’s unique rattlesnake pedestrian/bicycle Broadway overpass, but next fall I promise to take up these topics and more.

In the meantime, I must apologize for my February 12 post, “Tucson’s Tohono Chul Park," that featured among other things the ocotillo. Frankly I couldn’t see that the ocotillo had any saving grace other than its utility as a fence. (I even got that part wrong, as I acknowledged in a subsequent post, “Egg on My Face.”)

But as springtime came to Tucson, the ocotillo began to show its true elegance and beauty. Its thorny stalks put out tiny, dark green leaves and developed flower buds at the terminal of each stalk.

These buds will soon open and become bright red flowers that remind one of holiday candle flames.

My perception of the ocotillo is a good reminder that there is often more than meets the eye of a stranger in town. Next year I’ll come closer to becoming a Tucsonan. There’s always more to learn.

P.S. This is my last post on Tucson Off and On. I'll be writing in my Chicken Creek Journal instead. (chickenbcreekjournal.blogspot.com)

Copyright 2016 by Shirley Domer

Tucson Abloom

Tucson is abloom! There’s too much to note and photograph and write about, so today’s focus is on just two blooming plants – pomegranates and aloes. Neither one is native to the Sonoran, but they both come from desert climates in other parts of the world.

The pomegranate is native to Iran, but has been cultivated for centuries around the Mediterranean and in northern India. It came to the southwestern United States via Spanish monks in the Eighteenth Century. Though nonnative, the pomegranate takes to this climate like a duck to water.

I’m watching with interest as the pomegranate shrubs outside our kitchen window wake up after a brief winter’s nap. First came the new green leaves (unlike most desert plants, the pomegranate is deciduous), followed by little red buds at the ends of stems.

Then the earliest buds began to burst.

And now those have fully opened, while more new buds are showing up.

Aloes, having originated in Asia, Africa, and islands in the Indian Ocean, also love the Sonoran climate. They take the occasional winter freezes with grace, and then send up dignified bloom stalks in March. There are more than 500 varieties of aloes. This aloe, probably a striatula, inhabits our front yard.

We have Hedgehog aloes, too, but I took this photo at the Tucson Botanical Gardens.

We will be leaving Arizona soon, and I won’t get to see our cactus bloom. Luckily I can see the incipient blooms, beautiful in both form and potential.

I’m sorry to miss the cacti, but I sure won’t miss the palo verdes. They are in full bloom, generously wafting pollen. We can’t stop sneezing.

Copyright 2016 by Shirley Domer