scrottie

Today has felt like a day of ups and downs. I managed to drag myself out of bed at o-dark thirty for a jog, which was all right. We had mixed success finding foraging leafcutter colonies this morning, and yesterday after a rather long battle I had to give up on any ideas of getting timelapse footage of the queens (in short, can't quite sort out settings on available webcams in Ubuntu and they may not have adequate resolution for filming ants anyway). But we're still in a good position overall in terms of research progress, so I can't lose sight of that.

Got news that George the cat got hurt somehow, and that made me instantly homesick, less for New York and more for S and the cats.

Yesterday morning, I went on a couple of walks in the neighborhood. There were lots of interesting things to see. Here's an example of one of the many stormwater retention systems built around here:



There's still a TON of runoff after larger storms, which can take hours to fully subside. For example, here's the intersection near our accommodations, the night before my morning walk:



But back to the walk. This looked like an unusual growth form for a prickly pear-type cactus.


I have really been appreciating being back among the desert sunrises.


And I love the character and details of this older neighborhood.


I had a letter to mail, so I also went over to the nearby post office, which turns out to be the Postal History Foundation Museum.


The building houses a historic post office that used to be located right along the border between Arizona and Mexico. The post office was put back into its shipping crates when the town folded because the trains passed through Bisbee instead. Eventually, it found its way to Tucson and got installed in the museum.


There were interactive and visual displays about how post offices work and the services they provided.


There were several ways to try out canceling pieces of mail.


There were also lots of other resources for people interested in stamp collecting and stamp history, too. Not a huge museum, but totally a fun spot to visit when wanting to find a post office! Apparently the working post office got added on because the museum and associated library wind up needing to mail out a lot of stuff all the time.

Anyway, there's a lot to enjoy in this neighborhood.

We have been developing a rather long list of fun and interesting destinations to visit while in Arizona. One of the destinations at the top of my personal list was the Tohono Chul Gardens. I can't remember for sure, but I think my aunt who lives in the Catalina Foothills had given Tohono Chul the thumbs up; I just haven't ever had the opportunity to check it out. Also, it's definitely within the Leafcutter Ant zone, so.

This was a morning for sleeping in, so then we got over to the gardens shortly after they opened at 7 am, while it was still cooler out. At Tohono Chul, there are planted gardens filled with art, and additional desert ground to explore depending on how far a person wants to walk. Also, the original house on the land has been turned into an art gallery, and there is a cafe space, too. My students really want to go back again next weekend, too, for a Monsoon Market and Chillin' at the Chul, an evening gathering with refreshing drinks.

( photos beneath the cut... )

It rained again yesterday, a bit more heavily in spots, but not quite the right spots yet.

I suspect the leafcutters are paying attention to the ambient humidity, though. We found two very enthusiastically foraging colonies this morning, which brings us up to 4 out of the 10 total that seems like a decent sample size to work with. (might go up to 11, though, because we barely got 30 foragers from the second colony)

No signs of any queens yet. More rain in the upcoming forecast.

(with a nod to Yogi Berra because that one's a favorite)

It's always a little funny to travel to a different place and thereby be confronted by one's self. Arriving here in Tucson, I had something of a flurry of little to-do list items, like visiting every possible different food source location to stock up on miscellaneous groceries.

Some of the items couldn't get tackled until today, in the heat of the day. First, I took my bike over to a local bike shop to see if they can fix the bad wheel truing job I did on my rear wheel (it has an annoying hop). I really should have told them to go ahead and do a proper headset adjustment for me, but my brain might have been a little baked.

Bikeless, I walked over to a credit union to do a shared branching check deposit. Then I walked home.

Kind of hot out there.

The advantage of walking is it's easier to look at stuff, as compared to biking around. Behold, an old church:


The disadvantage of walking, of course, is that it's stupidly hot out there. Every little patch of shade matters.

This sign was reminiscent of a sculpture in that Arvada sculpture garden, except it just had one message:


(The Arvada one:)


Interesting train underpass along Stone Ave. Lots of signs to indicate this underpass floods regularly. Not right now, of course. It's quite dry currently. That's making it harder to find leafcutter ant colonies, but we'll keep at it.


Tucson has some phenomenal murals, like this one, which was tricky to photograph:


Yes, that's a javelina, tortoise, and hare riding bikes in the back.

When we're not out hunting for ants, I'm gradually managing to convince myself to work on the various projects I've brought along. I did not try to bring along the bike parts chandelier; instead, I have a knitting project to work on, and some books to read, and some manuscript-writing projects that I definitely need to tackle.

It is really nice to have a kitchen right here, so I can easily get a drink from the fridge and make myself a fresh lunch on the spot. We have to do a lot of driving to and from the field sites, though.

How civilized, to wake up in a space where I could just walk over to the kitchenette, brew a cup of coffee, sit in a chair at a table, and write out a few thoughts.



Something dampened my joy, however. In all of my planning for biking up to Montréal and then taking the train back down to Albany, there was one concerning missing link: how to get my bicycle back to Albany with me.

( the adventures of the day... )

I did manage to get around 140 photos uploaded and annotated just now.

This morning I hopped on Frodo to run errands over to a credit union and then to Food City. Alas, this Food City did not have the magical, nostalgic Salsa Roja Molcajete, so that quest will have to continue. But they did have yummy Latinx cheeses and also Salsa Lizano!! And an horchata mix with all real ingredients (probably mostly sugar, but still!). If the horchata mix is any good I'll be running back to buy more. Arizona summers call for good refrescos.

It felt really good to ride a bike, albeit at a casual pace, stopping often to check maps.

It hasn't rained recently in Tucson, but the Santa Cruz River still had some liquid water in it:


I'm taking that as a good omen for our leafcutter research.

I paid a brief visit to the Bike Cathedral on my way home.



Shortly thereafter I also went down to the closest Goodwill, which appears to be one of the very well-stocked Goodwills, and found a Brita pitcher for cold fridge water here. The tap water itself tastes fine to me, so the pitcher doesn't have a filter in it, but I'll add one if it helps ensure my students stay hydrated. Plus also to Antigone Books for a research notebook, and Food Conspiracy for other groceries and bulk items. It is amazing to be within walking distance of Food Conspiracy, one of the things that makes Tucson vastly superior to Tempe, except in the matter of rowing.

Also amazing to be within walking distance of Time Market, where I found not one but TWO favorite hard-to-find things, big bottles of Marie Sharp's, and flageolet beans!!



I will probably wind up going back to buy a second big bottle of the Marie Sharp's. One cannot have too much, particularly living in upstate New York.

A person could easily spend far too much time drinking capuccinos and eating delicious pastries and pizza at Time Market (to say nothing of the booze selection!). Here's a leftover slice of a fig and balsamic and goat cheese pizza, with arugula:



Also, a quick look at where we're staying. This house has a funny layout that I can't quite make sense of, but the funny layout is probably in part because of when the house was built (1906, the early days for Tucson).

The front door opens to this living room; the fireplace is no longer safe to use, so it's the perfect spot to store Frodo.


A partial wall separates the kitchen from the living room:


And the bedroom I'm occupying is right off the kitchen:


Meanwhile, the dining room is deep in the middle of the house, with the bathroom behind it, and an Arizona room / walled porch to the left:


The dining room is probably going to be the ant room for us.

There's another bedroom to the right of the dining room entry, behind the living room/fireplace.

I think what's most intriguing to me is there are no hallways.

With the house being old and on the corner of two busy streets, it seems all the windows are painted closed. They seem to still be single-pane, so there's good reason to continue keeping all of the blinds closed, too. At least there are ceiling fans in every room, a necessity out here (central air also).