Happy Valentines

If you celebrate Valentines where you are, and even if you don't, I hope that you have a day filled with love!
and just to let you know....I LOVE that you stop by my blog..Thanks!..Janey

Colorado Get Together

We spent our last day in Arizona at the home of friends of ours from Colorado.
Their winter home is on the side of the mountain above Tucson, Arizona. Gwen and Dick are both professors at the University of Arizona

They have decks on every side of the house

That is Tucson down below. I guess the view at night is spectacular.

They have ten acres on the side of the mountain which is covered with Saguaro catus

They even have Roadrunners . I love Roadrunners. There was a cute animated cartoon when I was a child ....about a Roadrunner! Does anyone else remember these cartoons?

Frosty

Don't let anyone tell you that it doesn't get cold in southern Arizona
We woke one morning to a cold front that delivered a dusting of snow!

The pretty fountains in the neighborhood even had icicles hanging from them

And someone  built a tabletop snowman!

But, the sun came out and it warmed to nearly 60 degrees!

Yikes

Coming back from the coffee shop, I spied something moving in the brush. Do you see it? At first I thought it was a dog.

but, actually it was a coyote! It is amazing how it's coat is perfectly cmaflouged with it's surroundings!

Pottery

I love love

all of this colorful pottery

and if I weren't moving when I got back

I would be filling up the back end of the car

wouldn't you?

Catus

Walking through the neighborhood here in Tubac, AZ you see so may different types of catus . I think this is a Violet Prickly Pear

Maybe a Century Plant?

Not Sure

or this either

This Prickly Pear was enormous

and all of the Barrel Catus around here have golf balls sitting in the middle?

but the real show stopper is the plentiful Saguaro.

Tumacacori Mission

An artist's rendering of Tumacacori Mission being built in 1691. Part of the Spanish Mission system that ran from then Northern Mexico all through Central and South America. The King of Spain's way of converting the Indians and natives into Christians and to teach them the Spanish way of life.

 Tumacacori Mission as it looks today
A  U.S. National Park (located south of Tubac, Az ,north of the Mexican border)

Another rendition of what the inside mission looked like then

The actual mission as it looks today...after years of neglect. It was pillaged by the Apache Indians and treasure seekers. There is a lot of folklore about the missing treasure of Tumacacori...which people today are still searching for.

 A painting of the Presidio at Tubac, that was built in 1752 to protect the Mission (Tumacacori) which lies just a few miles to the south. The Presidio is why Tubac (where we are staying) became a town.No traces of the Presidio still remain except for some underground excavation, which is  visible at the local Historic Museum . Fifty Cavalrymen were garrisoned there to keep peace with the Pima Indians and to fight off the aggressive Apaches.