Photos and comments from Arizona and around the world
Walking Arizona There are around 550 different species of the genus Aloe. The varieties of each species can be endless. Even though they have stickers, these aren't cactus. The jagged hooks are really quite innocuous compared to other plants, especially...
Walking Arizona The flowers on the prickly pear (opuntia) always form on the edge of the pads. The buds start as small fuzzy spots and grow into the fruit-shaped buds that blossom and then ripen into the dark red fruit. The fruit and the pads are both...
Walking Arizona We all seem to think that pleasant, sunny days are preferable over the stormy ones. It is that way in life also; we think that the placid times are preferable to the turbulent ones. But when it comes right down to it, storms are what...
Walking Arizona With the rain coming down in sheets, it was interesting to see the patterns of the rain water on the cliffs. It dramatically illustrated why the desert varnish (mostly minerals such as manganese dissolved in the water) is formed from...
Walking Arizona Column cactus have a very specific structure that makes them very stable. It is extremely rare that an established cactus, such as this one, would fall over or be blown over by a storm. The reason is the structure of the cactus with...
Walking Arizona I think it is interesting how the blooms are sort-of randomly scattered around the cactus plant. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason for where the flower stalks grow. Maybe someone has done a study on the placement?
Walking Arizona If you walk around looking carefully, you will begin to see a lot of things in detail. Life is made up of the details but remembered in the generalities. You might miss a flower, such as this one, if you are in too much of a hurry. It...
Walking Arizona I often wonder why these small animals seem to have such thick coats of fur when they live in the hot desert. Maybe the fur helps to keep them cool as well as warm? They do not come out during the hot part of the day, but if you look...
Walking Arizona These lovely cactus flowers are just barely blooming. They will open completely in another day and then be gone. So much beauty, so little time.
Walking Arizona Water is the most important element in the Arizona landscape. Seldom is there enough. But this view show what happens when there is an abundant water supply. This is not a cultivated field, the plants in the foreground would all be considered...
Genealogy's Star Genealogists who are actively doing research, spend considerable time searching for information. Obviously, as technology and the Internet have become pervasive, a lot of that time is spent looking for information on or in websites. To...
Genealogy's Star We commonly accept the proposition that online family trees are inaccurate and mostly passed around copies of each other. But can this be accurately demonstrated? If the trees were merely copies, wouldn't the information in each copied...
Genealogy's Star There are several blog posts so far today about MyHeritage's new Record Detective program introduced this past weekend at the National Genealogical Society (NGS) conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Since I did not attend NGS, I have had...
Genealogy's Star I received the following comment to one of my recent posts on adding external sources to FamilySearch.org Family Tree with Tree Connect: Thank you for your informative video. Is there a way to use TreeConnect to show the actual source...
Walking Arizona If you are impressed with vast fields of flowers, you might be slightly disappointed at the relatively smaller and less profuse blooms on the cactus. But I am not so much impressed with quantity as I am with quality. Each of these cactus...
Genealogy's Star Let's suppose that you are looking online for your ancestor and through a search on his or her name, you find a previously unknown photograph of the family, including the ancestor you were searching for. Since your ancestor died in 1910,...
heritagerecipes.blogspot.com
Walking Arizona There is a big difference between standing on the edge of the canyon and actually being down inside the canyon. This shot was taken from the Old Navajo Bridge looking down into Marble Canyon. I have often thought I would like to take...
Walking Arizona The spidery structure of the New Navajo Bridge contrasts with the more massive structure of the old bridge. This view down the Colorado river is framed by the struts of the new bridge. This is a good place to see condors.
Walking Arizona Sunsets have always been a part of my life. Some of the earliest photographs I took, even before my teen years, were of sunsets in Arizona. This one happens to be in Florida. I will still go outside and stand and watch the sunset if...
Walking Arizona This "Improved Whirl" washing machine is said to have sold originally about 1902. From an online search, it appears that some of these were still in use in the 1930s. There seems to be little or no mention of the manufacturer of this...
Genealogy's Star This Quick View of Genealogy is Part One of a series about digitized books or eBooks online for genealogists. In Part One I cover some of the basics of understanding what digitized books are and where they can be found. In Part Two,...
Walking Arizona The area surrounding Sedona, Arizona is known as the Red Rock Country. It is the southern limit and edge of the Colorado Plateau and has some of the same types of sandstone formations you see in other parts of the Plateau. The main difference...
Walking Arizona Tuzigoot National Monument preserves a hilltop ruin dating from around 1000 A.D. It is one of the more accessible sites, with wide paved paths and a gentle slope. It stands on a hill overlooking the Verde River valley in central Arizona,...
Family History Expos Question: What were the suffrage requirements in 1796 Maryland? Answer: This question really involves the more general topic of voter registration lists. Commonly, in most jurisdictions where voting was possible and where registration...
