photo by Ballard Avenue


While in reality we left Arizona before sunrise, photographically we'll leave the state at sunset.

photo by Ballard Avenue
They have some nice ones in the desert, too.

photo by BallardAvenue

This being a family blog—my mother reads it from time to time—we're not going anywhere near any explanation of what appear to be the sexual practices of Arizonans.

photo by Ballard Avenue

We visited the Queen Creek Olive Mill, located a few miles southeast of the scabrous sprawl that is Gilbert, Arizona. Queen Creek has its own trees and produces some very fine oils.

Why black and white? The scene reminded me of the Farm Security Administration photos from the 1930s.

photo by Ballard Avenue.

Stacked on the sidewalk, these cacti sure looked like zucchini piled up at the produce counter. Wouldn't that have been a treat!

photo by Ballard Avenue

Well, at least a small part of it. Amazing what a little water can do over a zillion years.

photo by Ballard Avenue

We're back from cactus country with pictures to post, but ever mindful of our Friday cat obligations we present this picture of Mary eyeing the string toy while Goldie's head melts down.

photo by Michael Heppler

Aye, it's a hard thing we do, to leave the gray skies and drizzle of Ballard for a few days of blue skies and shirtsleeve weather in Arizona, but someone has to attend to the family obligations...

photo by Ballard Avenue

Mary goes for the string toy, Goldie goes for the window.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Excited as I was about the new tennyrunners, I forgot there were more Tacoma pictures to post. Here's a picture of Tacoma's own little light rail train. Officially known as Link, the cognoscenti refer to it as Dink, for it serves no useful transportation purpose as it runs back and forth on its 1.6 mile journey through downtown. But it allows Tacoma to say that it has something—rail transit—that Seattle and Ballard do not.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Needless to say, I'm running faster and jumping higher these days. They're made by No Sweat, and I got mine at Market Street Shoes. Check 'em out.

photo by Ballard Avenue

A recent Sunday found us in Tacoma for a performance of Leonard Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti. You don't get to see Trouble in Tahiti very often, so it was worth the trip to Tacoma. But once there, we found few others who found a Sunday trip to Tacoma worthwhile. They should have come to the show. It was great!

The accordionists are great but the rhythm section needs some work.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Peggy and Marcus have two kittens! Mary and Goldie will be featured here over the next few weeks. They're sooooooo cute.

photo by Ballard Avenue

Maybe our woodpecker was taking his cue from this weathervane on a nearby garage.

photo by Ballard Avenue

It was so sweet. The boy woodpecker sitting on the street light was pecking away all morning long, pounding out a supremely funky "Get on up, get on the scene, I'm a avian sex machine!" Eventually a girl woodpecker landed on the wire above. She sang a sweet song back to him. With love so near, the boy woodpecker switched from James Brown to Jussi Björling, and answered her with his own love song. Not wishing to intrude, we left them as they were beginning to sing a duet...

photo by Ballard Avenue

The fog rolled in over Sunset Hill this morning and left these droplets behind.

While the narration is in English, "clasificados" is muy español and Google said the video came from Peru. If that is the case, it looks like somebody went up in the Andes and spent too much time where the air is thin. Oxygen deprivation will lead to hallucinations, you know...

photo by Ballard Avenue

Just to look at him lowers your blood pressure, no?