Tag Archives: Scottsdale

Meanwhile, back at the ranch….

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This is a photo I saw online from Monday afternoon at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Flights had to be diverted to Las Vegas and Los Angeles due to the haboob.

What’s a haboob?

A haboob is a type of intense dust storm carried by the wind of a weather front or thunderstorm. Haboobs occur regularly in dry land area regions throughout the world, and off-Earth. They can be dangerous.

Source: Wikipedia

Fortunately we missed this event. We are still at the beach enjoying beautiful weather. I received photos and videos from neighbors. The haboob hit Maricopa County south of Phoenix all the way up north to our neighborhood. We didn’t get the brunt of it, but I read the winds were up to 75 mph.

I also read that 67,000 homes lost power.

A haboob is a dust storm pushed by the wind produced by a weather front or thunderstorm and typically occurs in flat, arid areas. Heavy rain and wind followed Monday’s haboob, delaying flights at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and causing some damage to a terminal roof.
https://weather.com/news/news/2025-08-26-phoenix-arizona-dust-storm-haboob

A couple years ago, my husband was driving on a freeway in Scottsdale when a haboob hit. He said he lost visibility and his car was being moved around. Talk about scary. I’m glad I was safe at home at the time. When it passed, he said there were trees littering the freeway.

In any case, I’m glad to be at the beach and that we missed the haboob. Mostly I’m glad we weren’t driving at the time. Also, the good news was the haboob was followed by much needed rain.

Have you heard of a haboob before?

What type of strange weather do you have where you live?

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?

What’s cooking?

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Instructor Jan D’Artri helped us by cutting up the White Chocolate English Toffee I made with my neighbor during a cooking class at Sweet Basil Culinary Center.

Are you a spur of the moment person?

I’m not. I plan out my weeks and I like to follow a schedule. I make to do lists and enjoy crossing off items with a red pen.

My neighbor texted me and invited me to an Ina Garten cooking class. She said her friend couldn’t make it and would I like to take her place. I hesitated. It wasn’t on my schedule. It wasn’t on my list.

Then I said yes.

I had to look up who Ina Garten was. She had a show on the Food Network called the Barefoot Contessa. I watched her show occasionally, but I didn’t know her real name.

It was a hands on cooking class called Cooking Ina Garten Favorites (no she wasn’t there in person). Then we got to pick what we wanted to prepare out of the following recipes:

Spinach & Artichoke Dip with Garlic Bread
Truffled Mac & Cheese
Crispy Chicken Parmesan with English Roasted Potatoes
Ina’s Chicken Pot Pie Soup with Puff Pastry Croutons
White Chocolate English Toffee
Beatty’s Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream
Paloma Cocktail

FYI, you can google any of these recipes and they show up from Ina Garten.

Crispy Chicken Parmesan with English Roasted Potatoes. Delicious.

Chicken Pot Pie Soup with Puff Pastry Croutons. This was my favorite and I’ll try it at home. Here’s a LINK to Ina’s recipe.

One of my neighbor’s friends making the Paloma cocktails.

A photo of the cooking area. We were assigned to stations with our ingredients, pots and pans, burners, ovens and recipes.

My neighbor and I chose White Chocolate English Toffee because it looked super easy. However, we couldn’t get our white chocolate morsels to melt. The instructor added vegetable oil and whipped it into shape. Here’s a LINK to Ina Garten’s recipe.

When we were done cooking, we sat down to a delicious meal. Everything was so good!

Sweet Basil’s is also a kitchen store with all sorts of fun gadgets, beautiful dishes, serving platters, knives and everything under the sun for cooking.

Have you tried any of Ina Garten’s recipes before? If so what ones?

From my list of recipes from the cooking class, which would you most likely want to prepare and eat?

Are you a spur of the moment person or a planner?

Back in the PR biz again

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Desert view from a morning walk outside the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

I was asked a few months ago if I’d like to join the Board of Directors of the women’s group I belong to. The focus of the group is to raise funds for a residential facility for women who have been sex trafficked. We also clean out our closets, donate our clothes and purchase any items they need like deodorant and new underwear. I’ve written about the Dream Center HERE and HERE. The center provides medical care, eye care, clothing, psychologists, education and religious services if wanted.

The sad thing about my group of women is the club used to have 250 members. Now we’re at about 35. There’s not a whole lot of money raised by 35 people. What happened? COVID shutdowns plus an aging membership. I’m one of the new and young members — in my 60s!

In the end, I said yes and a neighbor friend also agreed to be on the board. Our first meeting was last month and I immediately knew what I would do. I agreed to be in charge of communication. My first project was to create a new brochure. Now I’m working on a sponsorship packet. After that it will be press releases. Back to my old career in the PR Biz.

I could see that communication was an area that could be improved. I’m glad I have experience and who knows? Maybe we can grow our organization back to where it will have a greater impact on the human trafficked teens and young women.

Then I saw this article:

42 arrested in Scottsdale human trafficking operation

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – A human trafficking operation in Scottsdale led to the arrest of dozens of suspects, police said.

Scottsdale Police say they conducted an operation on July 12-13 “to arrest sex buyers, child predators, and individuals involved with the sex trade and trafficking.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/42-arrested-in-scottsdale-human-trafficking-operation/ar-BB1qdslq

Forty-two arrested? In two days?

What type of volunteering are you doing now or have done in the past?

Another day, another fire

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We were supposed to go to a friend’s house to watch the debate, but a fire broke out. This is the view from my backyard. This fire was closer than the previous fire.

I called and cancelled, but I don’t think our friends were happy. They said we could keep an eye out for the fire from their house. They have a rooftop deck where they said we could hang out.

I did my usual prep in case of evacuation. I have my “go” bag, money, my mom’s flute and my great grandmother’s cookbooks in the laundry room, right next to the garage. I locked kitty in a room with her carrier, so I wouldn’t have to search the house for her. I didn’t want to leave our house and our cat to go to our friends’ house. It turns out people one mile away from us were evacuated. The fire went from six acres to 600 acres in less than an hour. Now it’s at more than 3,000 and not contained.

I looked back on what I was doing one year ago. Much of the same. Watching and learning about a fire nearby.

How do you prepare for an emergency?

Would you be comfortable leaving your house with a fire close by?

Uptick in dinnertime burglaries

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Looking out our front door.

I noticed a helicopter circling our backyard after our guests left Friday night. That was odd. When we moved here a little over three years ago, I felt so safe. We went to bed without locking our doors. Our doors were unlocked when we went shopping or on walks.

Now I make sure the doors are locked even while we’re home in the daytime.

That’s because there’s an organized crime ring, using high tech gadgets to scramble WiFi and cameras, breaking into homes.

From the AZ Central:

Thieves responsible for a series of dinnertime burglaries in Phoenix, Scottsdale and Paradise Valley have targeted homes when residents were away and under the cloak of darkness. Jewelry, cash and precious metals stolen from homes have been sold on the black market.

Scottsdale police said a total of 33 burglaries were confirmed in the city; 131 cases have been throughout the Valley since the first trend of burglaries started in 2019.

The Tuesday meeting focused on what law enforcement describes as crime tourists, typically originating from South America, and the high-tech, dedicated means the criminals used to elude arrest.

Lt. Jeffery Hawkins, Scottsdale’s expert on the topic, worked on recent surveillance operations that saw the burglars in action. He said crime tourists were believed to be exploiting a visa-less entry into the U.S. through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization program. The waives a visa for tourists and businesspeople like bankers who are entering the country for a short time.

“We don’t know who they are. We don’t know their family. We don’t know where and if they’ve done any criminal activity in their native country like Chile, we don’t have access to that information.” said Hawkins. “It’s a blank slate that we have to start putting together,” added Hawkins.

Hawkins said the crime tourists often ship stolen items to South America or to be sold in larger black-market rings on the West and East coasts.

“This crew is fast, elusive and professional,” said Hawkins, who described the burglars as “ghosts.”

Hawkins also added that police have found the group using Wi-Fi and cellular signal jammers, which can disable the signal to a home’s security system. The device, which consists of a green plastic brick with dozens of black antennae exiting the top, can invade a signal from 30 to 50 feet away.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/scottsdale-breaking/2024/02/28/metro-phoenix-crime-tourist-dinner-time-burglaries-continue/72774952007/

When we lived downtown Palm Springs, we had a homeless guy living in our yard. I had my bicycle stolen and we had two break-ins. One of the things I liked best moving to Arizona was the sense of safety. I’m so disappointed that I feel afraid in my own home, have my doors locked and watch helicopters circling overhead.

Have you heard about dinnertime burglaries or crime tourists?

What do you do to feel safe in your home?