fautrever.com

One of the many things that I love about traveling is being a tourist. Not in the annoying, stereotypical American type of way but in the exploratory way. For better or worse, I was born with an insatiable curiosity (ask anyone who knew me as a child). Perhaps when I was small someone read me this Rudyard Kipling quote:

Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges. Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go.

Many times my urges to discover that which lies behind the bend have landed me in a bit of trouble and given my loved one fits (poor Lance). Other than a few mishaps I survived unscathed—looking back it is unfathomable that I have suffered nothing worse than a few cracked ribs!

As you may have noticed things have been a bit quiet around fautrever.com lately. We’re still here, happy and healthy but our day-to-day life has certainly changed. As you may recall we purchased a house last May. It was a big decision but it felt like the right one for us. We had long dreamed of a chunk of land with room for a garden and even goats and chickens (someday) and finally all the pieces fell into place. Owning the property requires that we stay put for a good part of the year, and after traveling year-round (mostly) for the past four years we are comfortable with the change. We are looking forward to this next leg of our life journey.

Our lives are still filled with adventures, just not so many of the traveling kind. (It might be time for us to rethink the title of our blog.) One of the many hobbies we fill our time with when we’re not tackling house projects, volunteering, or working is creating photographic archives for our families. It was my brainchild and it grew out of our need to downsize so that we could squeeze into our very first RV. As you might have noticed, I love to take pictures, I always have. I feel they capture moments and places that I might otherwise forget. As a result I had close to twenty large photo albums, which of course could not fit into a twenty-two foot long home on wheels with two adults and two cats.

Yet the thought of leaving them behind was unbearable so I had this brilliant idea to digitize all my photos. Seriously. All I would have to do is carefully remove each photo from the album, scan it, label it, and sort it into the corresponding year. Piece of cake, right? I don’t remember how fast it went or how much time it took but I must have thought it quite simple since I also started a digital album for Lance, too. Of course if you know me then you know that it didn’t make sense to limit the albums to just photos we owned. Why not include childhood pictures from other family members? And why stop with just our siblings? Why not gather photos from parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and yes, even grandparents? There is nothing simple in my world because apparently, I like it that way.

With as busy a month as December was, it is no wonder that the time disappeared quick as a wink. Since it was the season, there were various holiday gatherings and celebrations mixed in with our house projects and work assignments along with a smattering of interesting short excursions.

Tucson is so diverse that there never seems to be a shortage of events and activities to attend. Work and other obligations limit what we can participate in but thankfully we still manage to get out there. December was a crazy busy month for Lance so he had to skip a few of the outings. But hey, when work comes your way during this difficult economy you’re grateful for it.

Early in the month I attended a bird walk at Sweetwater Wetlands led by Rick Wright, a very talented “bird nerd.” We know Rick since he manages WINGS, a birding company, one of Lance’s clients. While we enjoy birding and have learned a great deal in the past several years we still feel like amateurs so I was a wee bit intimidated to be in such renowned company. Thankfully, my worry was for naught. Though Rick’s skill was prodigious—he identified far off tiny dots as birds without his binoculars and deciphered species from mere snippets of song—his main goal was to make the rest of us better birders. Anyone that encourages me to think of a Northern Shoveler as a floating football is cool with me!

It is that time of year again, when we say adieu to the departing year and anticipate a new one. Though 2009 was filled with ups and downs the moments that come to mind are those that were dear to our hearts: time shared with friends and family.

• Hiking with Brendan,
• bike riding with Aaron, Jenny, Nate, Geoff, and Lauren,
• celebrating Grandma Eileen’s 93rd birthday,
• spending time with Shirley,
• celebrating nephew Aiden’s first birthday,
• Letterboxing with sister Desiree,
• birding with Nancy and Denny,
• celebrating Charles’ birthday,
• participating in hummingbird monitoring with Alison,
• enjoying a visit with relatives from Ohio,
• touring the Chihuly exhibit with Aunt Coralie and Desiree,
• spending time with Tom and Libby,
• celebrating Lance’s birthday,
• attending cousin Dan’s family-filled wedding in Rhode Island,
• celebrating Desiree’s birthday,
• celebrating sister Adria’s birthday,
• attending Danny’s wedding in San Diego,
• spending time with Rich and Karen,
• visiting Lanny, Sharon, Dave, Emily, Rusty, Angelika, Sarah, Megan, Ronja, Shane, Steve, Frankie, and Gracie in Ohio,
• celebrating cousin Shane’s birthday,
• celebrating second cousin Sarah’s birthday,
• savoring Mexican food with Bev, Hector, and LeeAnn,
• sipping tea with Boubacar,
• celebrating Scott’s birthday,
• cheering on the UA Wildcat football team with Adria and Joel,
• sharing Thanksgiving with Jed, Heidi, Andrew, Aiden, Joel, Bruce and Barbara, and
• catching up with Dave, Tori, Lori, Dennis, and Heidi.

These are just a few of the experiences that have enriched our lives this past year: a wealth worth more than all the money in the world. We look forward to many more such memorable moments in the coming year and we wish the same for you.

The Old Pueblo has a lot going for it: it is the longest continually inhabited spot in the United States¹, the winter weather can’t be beat, and it is the birthplace of that delicious Mexican entrée the chimichanga. As if that wasn’t enough we just recently learned that Tucson can add the birth of that jolly, chubby, red-suited, white-bearded man known as Santa Claus to its list of distinctions. Yes, we know that the legend of Santa Claus (or Saint Nicholas or Father Christmas or Kris Kringle) comes from the Old World but if you look at some of the oldest historical depictions of Santa, he is a thin and serious-looking man.

Not quite the same image of the Santa that we grew up with. The legend of Santa came across the Atlantic and was cemented as part of American popular culture in Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem The Night Before Christmas. Though in Moore’s tale Santa was portrayed as a tiny, jolly, elf with a little, round belly. In 1863 Thomas Nast, an American political cartoonist, was the first to draw Santa as a full grown, well-fed man. But that still wasn’t Santa as we think of him today. Our modern version of Santa: tall, big-bellied, white-bearded, jolly, and clad in a red suit trimmed with white came about in the 1930s as part of an advertising campaign.

In 1931 Haddon H. Sundblom was hired by the Coca Cola Company to depict a gift-bearing and jovial Santa for their holiday advertising campaign. Sundblom chose a quiet guest ranch in the foothills overlooking the tiny town of Tucson as the location for his creative endeavors. Sundblom’s Santa was soon seen all across the country in Coca Cola ads, and the iconic image stuck. So even though Santa has a long history, our modern American version was born right here in the dusty little desert town called Tucson.

© 2009 The Coca-Cola Company (Click image for full-size version.)

While Santa is the subject of much controversy (which we will not delve into here) we would like to borrow his jolly demeanor and say:

Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!

Notes:

¹ Prehistoric Native Americans, known as the Hohokam, lived along the banks of the Santa Cruz River for thousands of years and their descendants were still in residence when the Spanish established El Presidio San Agustín del Tucson in the late 1770s. ↩

Thirty days sounds like quite a long time but somehow the month just slipped away. At least that was our experience with November. Granted it was a busy time as we had tasks around the house and new work projects. Still, as you’ll soon discover we had plenty of time to play.

Though we’ve both lived in Tucson off and on for a number of years, and are pretty familiar with it, there are always new things for us to explore. (Which is one of the many things we love about the area.) Especially in the outdoor arena since Pima County owns over 200,000 acres of protected open space. That may sound like a large chunk of land but when you take into account the county’s massive size, roughly 9,200 square miles, it’s a small portion. When Arizona first became a territory, after winning separation from the New Mexico Territory in 1863, Pima County was established as the southernmost of the four original counties. Since that time about 21,000 square miles were removed from Pima County to create three other counties. Even thus reduced Pima County still surpasses the four smallest states in size!

(Click the photos for larger versions.)

Congratulations to Sam who was the first person to correctly surmise the identity of this month’s mystery animal. The Javelina or Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu) is native to the Americas, from the southwestern U.S. all the way down to Argentina. Though it looks an awful lot like a pig or wild boar at first glance, the Javelina is more closely related to the deer family than pigs (pigs evolved in the Old World).

Though primarily nocturnal in the hot summer months Javelinas take full advantage of daylight during the cooler weather. Which is probably why we had our first close encounter with a small family group (females and young stick together throughout the year) here on our property earlier this week. Tucson has a substantial population of Javelina that share our urban area—Sam also made the acquaintance of his neighborhood Javelinas earlier this week (see his photo on Flickr).

Our small group of four (the fourth one stayed hidden for protection probably because it has a pronounced limp) wandered quite peacefully through our yard for a half hour. Which allowed us plenty of time to observe their behavior—like when the two adult females rubbed each others backs, releasing a pungent odor from their scent glands. And obviously, they even hung around long enough for me snap some photos, some of which turned out better than others.

Thanks everyone for participating! See you in the New Year for a fresh set of challenges.

This month we have a “Mystery Animal” photo for you to decipher. The challenge is to identify the animal in this picture.

Please be as specific as possible. Good luck!

(Click photo for larger version.)

Instructions: When you think you have figured it out, enter your guess in the comment field below. Be sure to check back in three days (this Friday) to see if you were right.

OK, I admit it, I am a weather wimp! According to National Weather Service it has been at least a week since we have seen 70s here in southern Arizona. I can’t change the weather but I can take heart in the fact that I am not alone in my winter weather wimpishness. To see what I mean check out the December 2nd issue of our (last remaining) local paper which printed this cartoon from Tucsonan David Fitzsimmons, an editorial cartoonist: Top 6 Ways Tucsonans React to Winter.

And, just for the record, I completely agree with you David, anything under 72 degrees is downright freezing. Brrrr!