Monday, July 16, 2007

Back on-line...Photos...

Tonight, we finally have a home-phone-line again...
...and along with that, access to the Internet. So no more balancing a laptop at a cafe table in a free wi-fi coffee-shop...'Free' gets expensive when you have to buy 4-dollar lattes...

The moving-company said it should be another five or six days before our things arrive.
(They definitely have themselves covered by giving themselves a 21-day window for delivery in the contract.)

We're so glad we brought a small box of kitchen-basics with us in the car: a pot, a pan, a can opener...so we can at least cook...
We're sleeping on an air mattress. We found a bistro-table-and-two-uncomfortable-chairs-meant-for-the-patio-not-as-indoor-furniture. So we can at least eat off the floor. Well, not literally 'off the floor.' You know what we mean.
That's it for furniture.

Tomorrow makes it a week already that we're here...
Yesterday and today we had our first true monsoon-storms in our part of the valley. After the thunderstorms, it's a good thirty degrees cooler!

So, for those of you who are curious, here are a few photos of where we live now.
No more views of Mt. Rainier. (hélas...)

(you can double-click on the photos for a larger view)

First, then--our little street, with an arrow pointing to our townhouse.
We're so thankful for covered parking--no need to get 2nd-degree burns from your sun-exposed steering wheel...And I love looking at palm trees...on 'our' street! Gambel quail and mourning doves run across the pavement almost every morning, along with the occasional jackrabbit...



...the POOL! with a view of the Santa Catalina montains beyond the palo verde trees! and almost no one else uses it! and it's right next door! (sorry for all the exclamation points, but come on--we can't help being excited!)


Here's our little front patio. We've had hummingbirds every morning--southern Arizona is one of the 'hummingbird capitals' of the birding-world, evidently...



And here are the beginnings of a 'garden'...a tomato plant, basil, a jalapeño, some mint, lavender, rosemary, geraniums, thyme, oregano...it's too hot right now for cilantro, but we almost have the makings for salsa...

And on the side, we have a lemon and an orange-tree--our neighbor said that our orange tree produces good fruit--just have to make sure to water it if you want juicy citrus--should be ready in September, and if the winter is not too cold, there's another crop in March!

...looking out our front door...



And lastly, I had to include our last photo taken from the balcony of our place in WA, the night before we moved--our last Rainier sunset, July 3rd, 2007...


...desert mountain sunsets to come...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

all the dust that is floating in the air in AZ makes for the best sunsets in the world, OK, the best I have ever seen, I haven't been everywhere in the world.
:) mg.

Anonymous said...

wow--feeling really dumb here, 'mg', but i can't place the initials with a name! must be the sun-induced torpor...e-mail us so we know who you are! ;-) movers should arrive today with our things, so we'll sleep on our own bed again--that should help the powers of concentration as well...

Unknown said...

Howdy Joe & Sara...
Just stopped by your blog to see if you posted photos of the new digs. Very cool!

We're looking forward to seeing you and your new city in person. We'd love to come visit—I've always wanted to see real desert.

I thought of you two while listening to a band that's from Tucson. Have you ever heard of Calexico? I think you two might like them. Their influences range from desert-ish music, to Peruvian music, to mariachi, to straight-on rock. Interesting people. Here's a link to sample: http://www.casadecalexico.com/index.php