ellarien: claret cup cactus flower (spring)
The desert along I10 between Tucson and Phoenix is really blooming. I first noticed it yesterday somewhere north of Marana, when I had to look up from building an Excel index because the rattling bus was making me slightly travel-sick; the median was bright with poppies, almost solid orange in places. Up towards Picacho Peak the flowers were having a harder time dealing with the construction work, but there were pools of blue lupines. (Which are not to be confused with lupins, though I think they're related.) So far, though, the bloom doesn't seem to have spread to the slopes of the Peak itself as I've seen it do in other years. Further north it's mostly yellow brittlebush, but quite a lot of that.

I dreamed HTML last night, and I may again tonight, but I think the index is done, bar one missed link that won't seem to take in the "published" version no matter what I do.
ellarien: Blue/purple pansy (Default)
Saturday was the annual Sunday School excursion to the Wildlife World Zoo near Phoenix. It was a quick turnaround after the Stanford trip last week, but I'm glad I went. The weather was perfect, everyone had a good time, and I got some nice photos.

Several pictures and a video )

Here's the full set of photos and videos on Flickr
ellarien: Blue/purple pansy (Default)

IMG_1433
Originally uploaded by ellarien.

IMG_1472b

On Saturday I was at the Wildlife World Zoo near Phoenix. I took the bigger camera this time, which was something of a logistical challenge but well worth it. (I've never actually taken that camera further than the campus in the year I've had it.) The light was wonderful and the weather was perfect, and the zoom really comes into its own in that kind of situation.

More at the Flickr set here.

Update

Aug. 19th, 2007 08:34 pm
ellarien: Blue/purple pansy (Default)
I think I may be over the jet lag; I woke naturally at 7 this morning; there was a dream before that in which I was impossibly weak and exhausted, but in real life I feel more or less normal. Normal for the aftermath of a Phoenix run, anyway, so I don't think I'll be staying up terribly late tonight.

A storm must have just brushed by Tucson this afternoon; no rain, but when I got back around 4.30 the sky was gray and the temperature was in the 80s instead of the 100s, which made the slog across campus rather more bearable.

Wildlife spotted between the office and home, not counting mourning doves: one half-inch green beetle, with shiny legs and a duller carapace; four Gambel quail trotting along the boundary of the apartment complex; a cactus wren lighting briefly on a windowsill and flying off again. Wildlife spotted in Tolleson: several burrowing owls, a nighthawk, a distant flight of cormorants; a humming bird at the feeder.

Done!

Apr. 29th, 2007 11:52 pm
ellarien: writing is ... (writing)
And another one bites the dust: "Defector" finally weighed in at 33,376 words. (I got 930 words yesterday, in transit and in Phoenix, and another 851 tonight after I got home.) I suspect it needs major revisions, which will either shrink it considerably or expand it into another half-novel.

However. That's all three of the fanfic projects that were hanging around at the beginning of the year, pushed through to the end. Now I have to get serious about outlining Behemoth 47 before I plunge in and start writing it again. If I feel like cat-vacuuming, I suppose I could try to make it an icon.

In other news, Phoenix had major wind and dust storms yesterday, apparently, so I suppose we got off lightly with our bit of rain.
ellarien: Blue/purple pansy (Default)
The Palm solution to writing on the shuttle to Phoenix worked very well on Saturday, with the composition book as a lap tray, and I ended up with about 1100 words. Coming back today, I was fighting a particularly bad weekend headache, so I didn't try (though I did read through the chapter-and-a-half of stalled novel from last year), but settled for a more modest quota in the comfort of laptop and recliner, post-Ibuprofen and dinner. Ambassador is at 24,965 words, and I have some hopes of wrapping it up this week. (I know, I said the same thing three weeks and about 15K words ago.)

I also got some photos of peach blossom on Saturday, which was a beautifully sunny day; today was rather grey, but still quite mild.

Off to bed now.

Mission Statement

Reading, writing, plant photography, and the small details of my life, with digressions into science and computing.

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