Monday, October 01, 2007

Critters and glyphs

Tonight's uploads:

Last weekend at Sabino Canyon,
I saw two quintessential Arizona creatures for the first time--a Gila monster and a rattlesnake.

Gila 'monsters' are lizards with orange-mosaic patterns--venomous but only attack if cornered...This little guy (about 3 feet long) was heading away from the trail where we spotted him.
I was walking with a friend and friend-of-a-friend visiting from France. The critters really came out and put on a show for him--the usual lizards and rabbits...but also deer, a roadrunner, the Gila Monster, and then...
...this rattlesnake (serpent-sonnette in French):


He wasn't very long--maybe three feet as well--but the 'babies' can be more dangerous since they can release more venom. (see previous blog entry)

Yesterday afternoon we went for a drive to take a short--a very short--trail in Saguaro National Park--up Signal Hill to see some precolumbian petroglyphs made by the Hohokam culture around a thousand years ago:

Now that the monsoon season is officially over, things are beginning to dry out...and so the ocotiillo are losing their green leaves; 'fall foliage' in the Sonora desert:

...and of course, we couldn't drive back into town without first waiting to see the sun set...






...

and to end on a random note--
--my wife found these names for nail polish in the ads in this past Sunday's paper.
I submit them for your amusement:
they're from a 'Russian collection:'
Vodka & Caviar, Catherine the Grape, Ruble for your thoughts, Suzi says Da!, Kreme de la Kremlin, and St. Petersburgundy.
We say NYET!!!
The bad copywriting sounds like, well, nails on a chalkboard, eh?

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