We've been back in Tucson for six weeks now. I'll admit to having a bit of whiplash with this changing of locations, changing of lives. Don't get me wrong -- having two wonderful homes in two incredible, and incredibly disparate, environments is fabulously decadent. It is also a bit over-stimulating, this switching between worlds. I hope I get better at it.
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| Blazing aspens in the Colorado Rockies |
One moment we were high in the Rockies surrounded by ponderosa pines, firs, spruce, and flame colored aspen. The next we were streaking across the Navajo reservation at dawn, the subtle golds and sage greens of the high desert working their magic, reassuring me that I did indeed still love arid lands. Tucson was welcoming, if a little warm, and we were happy to get back to our other "forest", this one of towering saguaros.
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| Bob dwarfed in our Tucson saguaro "forest" |
During our last couple of weeks at the cabin in late September it was rutting season for the elk. The nights were filled with the eerie calls of the bulls, exhausting themselves with the work of challenging other males, managing their harems, and mating. In all the times we'd gone to the trailer, pre-cabin, for a week in late September hoping for aspen and elk, there had never been anything like this, both in fall color and elk activity. We felt so very lucky.
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| Elk at dusk in Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument |
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| Culling clothes in Tucson |
Returning to Tucson meant reunions with friends, getting back to "work" with our volunteer jobs at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Saguaro National Park, enjoying (except when it came to cleaning and maintaining) our much roomier Tucson home, and reveling in the convenience of the nearby proximity of groceries, restaurants, theaters, and libraries. We had a flurry of appointments with everyone from our financial advisor to our dentist. We've recognized that to be happy actually living in two places, both have to be simple and streamlined, and we're determined to downsize our possessions in Tucson since we can't come to grips with downsizing our home, despite missing our much smaller cabin and the easy life it afforded. We've also taken time to hike the foothills and washes near our Tucson home, reacquainting ourselves with the fascinating, but more frugal, fauna and flora of the Sonoran desert.
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| One of six mule deer we spooked out of an arroyo near our Tucson home |
The best part of all of this is that we don't have to give up either of the two places we love best on Earth. We just need to learn to move between them with a little more grace and a little less whiplash.
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| One last reading session in the hammock at the cabin |
We'll get a chance again soon when we leave in four weeks for Christmas once again at the cabin.
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| Stellar's jay rides out last winter's pre-New Year's snow storm at the cabin |
In the meantime, check back soon for some posts of other end of summer activities at the cabin.
