Tag Archives: Arizona

A Visit to Taliesin West

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Taliesin West

The day after Christmas, I took my daughter to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Arizona home and work place called Taliesin West. This was my third visit to the magical place.

The photo above was on a bright sunny day when I visited Taliesin West with my son and daughter-in-law two years ago. Unfortunately, they had to leave early this Christmas vacation because we had unhealthy air quality alerts and my son couldn’t breathe. I was so sad to have them leave us, but the bright spot was spending one-on-one time with my daughter.

“The mission of an architect is to help people understand how to make life more beautiful, the world a better one for living in, and to give reason, rhyme, and meaning to life.”

– Frank Lloyd Wright, 1957

Each visit to Taliesin West, I feel like I am in the presence of genius — which of course I am. I love the use of space, materials, and the different feel from one building, room to outdoor spaces. This visit, I noticed so many more details than I had before.


“Taliesin West is a look over the rim of the world.”

– FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, 1943

https://franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/

We did an hour-long self-guided tour with our own phones and earbuds. I appreciated the detail of information including snippets of Frank Lloyd Wright speaking. I could picture the people living and working there.

The tour took us from outside to inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s office, around the property to various pools and patios to inside a gathering room, dining room, cabaret where they watched movies, inside the drafting room and inside a Kiva. The Kiva is a round dark room, that feels like it’s underground with phenomenal lighting in the ceiling and floor. They watched movies there and used it for storage when they returned to Wisconsin for the summer.

Here are some photos I took with my iphone during my trip with my daughter:

A view of Bougainvillea through the window in Wright’s office.

An outdoor space between buildings.

Wright was a collector of Asian Art. This eight-paneled screen featured ceramic faces.

The two mosaics, inspired by the moon and sun, were a gift from Clare Boothe Luce. She turned to mosaics as therapy in her grief of losing her daughter in a car accident. The Luces were friends with the Wrights. The mosaics are in the beautiful Garden Room.

Below: A Chinese statue which is one of around a dozen markers placed throughout Taliesin West. They are located when a theme or concept changes.

From the Taliesin website:

Wright’s beloved winter home and desert laboratory was established in 1937 and diligently handcrafted over many years into a world unto itself. Deeply connected to the desert from which it was forged, Taliesin West possesses an almost prehistoric grandeur. It was built and maintained almost entirely by Wright and his apprentices, making it among the most personal of the architect’s creations.

https://franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west/

Where have you visited that the experience was greater than your expectations?

looking through the door of Frank Lloyd Wright's office.

Looking out from Frank Lloyd Wright’s office.

A day’s visit by a hawk

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Photo one:

I had a visit from a Harris Hawk Wednesday. Then a friend joined him. I practiced my photography as he moved around our backyard, looking for his favorite spot.

Photo two:

He decided to try a tree rather than the fence.

Photo three:

I caught him in flight as he flew from one end of the yard to another.

Photo four:

I handed my camera to my husband after seeing a bunch of my blurry photos. He hadn’t used the camera before, but I think he did well!

Photo five:

I took this pic and it turned out! While I’m writing the post, that’s where the Harris Hawk sits. He’s looking down on house finches who are on the ground.

Photo six: Hanging out on the neighbor’s chimney with a buddy.

Photo seven: Another flight photo. Yay!

Which is your favorite hawk photo and why?

Just say no…

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Bobcat on wall
A bobcat sitting on our wall outside the front door.

I’m having one of those weeks where I have at least one big thing on the calendar each day. Monday through Sunday. Plus, my Frango project that I wrote about Monday HERE as well as an ever expanding list of work and writing to do.

Anywho. I decided to say no to my Thursday meetings and get stuff done. It felt so good to say NO.

I went to a Board of Director’s meeting Wednesday night for my Creative Women’s Group. We raise funds to support victims of sex trafficking. You can read about a residential facility we support HERE. They have a link to our group’s fundraiser HERE. It’s last year’s event, so I’ll ask them to update it to our March 2025 event.

I needed to get my own list of things done. Like going to the post office with boxes of Frangos to mail. I have to say the people are so nice here. Not at all like So Cal where people were impatient with me and my multiple packages to mail. To be honest, in Palm Springs, they were downright nasty and cursing. The employees were great by the way. The Carefree folks, employees and customers, are chatty and love to laugh.

The Post Office is on Easy Street. Think of that. Easy Street in Carefree, Arizona. Love it.

I joked with two women standing behind me in line that I needed my husband to retire so I could quit the Frango job. They laughed and one said, “Oh, you’ll find out there will be other things that he will do to keep you busy.”

The other one said, “I tell my husband Yoyo.”

“Yoyo?” we asked.

“Yoyo. Your on your own!”

Not to go off on a tangent, but I have a Frango dilemma. I’m missing 40 boxes of Frangos. I ordered them weeks ago. I got an email confirming my order. Next, I got an email saying they had shipped and were on their way. I clicked on the tracking link and I read a notice from UPS that said they never received the box. I called the store. They said they’d be delivered by Dec. 4 and that UPS was wrong and hadn’t updated their notification. Well guess what? I still don’t have them.

I was so proud of myself for starting this project early. I guess it’s a good thing!

When do you find yourself saying no? Are you overwhelmed when you say no, or do you say no as a preventative self care measure?

More hawks

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The other morning, my husband saw seven Harris hawks in a tree in our backyard. By the time I got there, they were all gone. But a little later, this guy was hanging out on the fence. It’s quite a sight to see the quail take off like jets when the hawks appear.

Here’s the photo of the hawks in a tree that my husband took with his iphone. Not all seven made it in the photo.

It’s kind of hard to see them, but my husband said the three hawks on the right side were busy eating prey. I walked out later to the tree to see if what they had been eating in the tree, but there was nothing left.

I’m excited for my photography class which begins in January and runs through May. I ordered the text book on Amazon and it arrived this week. It’s a paperback called “A Short Course in Digital Photography.” The community college where I’m taking my class wanted $175 for it. I bought it for $50 on Amazon. I don’t think it’s right how much colleges charge for textbooks.

This is as close as I’ve gotten to catch a hawk in flight. He took off so fast and was out of my range.

Later in the day, my husband and I went for a walk. Walking out the front door, I noticed seven hawks in a tree in our front yard. We scared them away. It was spectacular to see them in flight, but there was no way could I get a photo.

What are your thoughts about the price of college text books?

Remembering Olive

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Kitten Olive with her best friend Angus, may they both rest in peace.

It’s been a sad few days for me. But I’m forcing myself to go outside and walk. I also spent time going through all the Olive photos on my iphone. I’m sharing some of my favorites here today.

Olive enjoying the Palm Springs lifestyle.

angry kat shreds tp
Olive in a negative mood

Olive found herself locked in the car. I have no idea how that happened. She was deathly afraid of cars and hated them.

A picture taken by my daughter on one of Olive’s first days with us.

Below is Olive enjoying indoor/outdoor life in Palm Springs.

Indoor Arizona life.

My favorite photo of Olive.

Closet cruising.

A stowaway in my suitcase.

My pretty kitty.

One of Olive’s favorite things to do. Harass the quail.

Which is your favorite Olive photo? And why?

Thanksgiving awaits

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The Harris Hawks are feeling right at home in our yard. This was the second day of them hanging out. I wrote about hawks on Wednesday, HERE. This guy is looking mighty plump.

Next week is Thanksgiving. I have mixed emotions about the holiday. I do like getting together with family or friends. I enjoy cooking the meal and having a bounty of leftovers. I enjoy the compliments my Thanksgiving meal gets. It’s satisfying.

But the dark side of Thanksgiving awaits.

Thanksgiving 2021 our dear friend passed away.

Decades earlier: When I was unmarried, living in Seattle, a recent college graduate, this friend (who also lived in Seattle) introduced me to my husband. My husband was visiting for Seafair, which is a summer festival highlighted by hydro races and a Blue Angels show.

As they say, the rest is history.

Eventually our friend left Seattle, sold all his property (real estate was his business) and moved to Arizona. He turned his Seattle real estate into an even greater empire in the Scottsdale/Phoenix area. Prices were way more affordable. Taxes were much better and the business environment was exciting to him.

We would visit our friend in Scottsdale a mile or two from where we now live. We would drive for the weekend from Palm Springs and stay in his casita. My husband was convinced that when he retired, Arizona was the place to be. We’d say good-bye to the high cost of living and taxes of California and embrace Arizona life.

COVID hit and my husband worked remotely. Home prices were skyrocketing in Palm Springs because people wanted out of apartments in San Francisco and LA. They wanted space, a yard, pool and our prices were much lower. We had a new next door neighbor who moved in from SF with his mom sight unseen and called the home his “COVID” home. He was worried about his elderly mom’s health.

My husband decided that it was time to make our move. Especially since he was working from home. I wasn’t sold on it, but told our kids that I was going to ask for a ridiculous price for our home that nobody would consider. That was my secret plan to stay in my dream home. Our house of almost 30 years sold in four hours with offers above asking. So much for that.

So we moved to Arizona close to our friend. He was our first and only friend in the state. We had been friends for close to 40 years. He loved to grill steaks for us. We had him over to our house for dinner. We watched football together and went out to great sushi restaurants. My husband would help him with his properties on weekends, schlepping refrigerators into apartments, or other DIY stuff. Like I said, that was his business. He appreciated my husband’s help.

He introduced us to his entourage, his brother and wife who also moved from Seattle to Arizona. Then another couple who will be retiring from Seattle to Scottsdale in a few years.

A few weeks before Thanksgiving 2021, he was hospitalized. He had a cough and was having trouble breathing. He was put on a ventilator after a week. He’d call my husband to bring him things from his home, like his razor and a pillow. The hospital tested him eight times for COVID — all negative.

Thanksgiving night, 2021 we had our friends who moved from Palm Springs over for dinner. My husband told them that he was worried about our friend, who was finally diagnosed with Valley Fever. Thinking it was COVID, the hospital had treated him the entire time with antibiotics, which is the wrong thing to do to a fungus like Valley Fever. Antibiotics allowed the fungus to grow unchecked.

The harsh words from our dinner guest, who retired from running the ER in Palm Springs said, “He’s not going to make it.”

He died a few hours later.

What holiday that is supposed to be joyous has dark undertones for you?

A Hawkish Day

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I had a visitor for most of yesterday. The visit began early in the morning as I was writing my morning pages. I kept seeing a huge shadow swooping past the casita window. It had to be my Harris Hawk.

He landed on the fence and kept watch.

I went for a walk and came back home to discover the hawk was no longer on the fence.

Instead he landed in a tree.

As I was writing this post, he began to call for a friend

Flying by our window a second hawk screeched with talons outstretched, wings spread wide, five feet off the ground, going in for the kill. He flew over the fence into the bushes. I missed the action.

Eventually, the second hawk settled into the tree. Behind a branch with the other hawk.

Can you spot the two hawks in the tree?

I watched in awe as a hummingbird landed on hawk number one’s head. The second hawk was attacked by smaller birds including house finches. The little birds are not fans of hawks. The quail are keeping away. They must be prime targets of the hawks.

And then there were three.

One hawk is hidden from view, preferring the other side of the tree.

I signed up for an intro to digital photography class through Maricopa Community Colleges. The class begins late January and runs through May. I hope my hawks are around to model for my class.

Here’s a LINK to the Harris Hawk’s call from Cornel l Lab All About Birds website.

What are your favorite birds to watch?