Neighborhood Watch

Feeling better now so I took a little walk around the neighborhood.

This place is a rustafarian's dream. Lot's of distress and rusty collections and rockwork, that's why I love the place.

We're starting with my street side patio which is called a "portale" in Spanish. My road is actually called a trail named after a famous Indian warrior which I also love.

Reminds me of Alaska, the frontier, the trail part that is.

Can you guess what this is? It only cost me $2 at an antique store.

I'll send you a little something if you guess it right!

Here's the handle

The lot next door just waiting for a photo op.

See,  I like it better when decorations and structure go awry with nature.

It pleases me. That's why I couldn't live in Scottsdale.

We're kind of in a different country down here in Bisbee, the border of the border I guess.

Stucco Art

Creative abodes. That mountain in the background is in Mexico.

I hear that a famous comedian lives here. Dave has it in his mind that a clown lives here so it's the clown house. They have lively parties that we can hear. We haven't met them yet.

They painted the rocks in the yard

The place looks like a fun party even without the folks

My neighbor thinks Italian Cypress are ridiculous worthless trees.

I think they're kind of exotic "graveyard trees" 

And look, they are a birdhouse to many.

This is one of those shots that I prefer the manmade phone lines rather than just nature.

Makes the composition more exciting to me and it looks as if the bird is sitting on the line, which it's not.

I haven't seen this particular strain of cacti before or should I call it fracti?

Just beautiful.

Meet the meters

the back side of the clown house, They party on the roof there.

A different perspective of my studio

Lower part of the blue house on the right.

I've never looked at our house from this vantage point before from the street below us.

Do you see a face? I do.  Shades of Easter Island in the wash on Black Knob

parumpapum pum I spy a drum.

OK it's a tank but that's not quite so poetic or Christmasy.

I could make a reference to Tanksgiving  but that would be too corny.

Now if I could just get into this window... treats inside!

patterns everywhere

Old style concrete garages

You can see the imprint of "Drink Coca Cola" on this concrete wall.

How cool is that!

Desert Birch

'Nother garage 

I thought this looked like a crane in this empty garage

Rusty loveliness

And this was just a couple of streets nearby. 

Thanks for joining me on my walk today.

XOXO Kim

Rust and Relaxation

When I'm walking to the gym I pick up bits of rusty things.

I found this rusted top that I thought would make a good base for this pendant.

I'm wild about the sari silk ribbon I just discovered recently.

this is photographed against some of the rusty objects we've collected.

Most of these bits were from the ground or the thrift store.

I aged the wood by leaving it outside for 6 months and applying a

  copper and patina treatment

As you can see I changed my focus this week back to assemblage and collage.

It called me back!

I found that wiry bit on the ground the other day and had to put it to use!

It was time to start using some of the items from my frozen charlottes collection too.

( sorry about the fuzziness here)

I took a different way on my walk to the gym and 

discovered some great surfaces

I love doorways

I was surprised to find this!

Shabby Yin and Yang

Shabby Yin Yang

 Picking up the pieces ~ our collection

These still seem so exotic to me

View of the town of Warren

The mining company is planning on contouring the tailing piles and planting shrubs.

You can just imagine the hole left behind when they took out all of this material.

Well, here is a picture of the pit in case you can't imagine it

This pit is on the road between Old Bisbee and Warren

some shabby and empty houses

stately agaves

 Lone pomegranate 

Even the sewer covers are cool

Some houses are very nicely kept up.

The house of the  former big boss in this mining company town.

For sale at $650,000

Tailings that created a new landscape

The old Copper Queen  Hospital

arch to the empty house

Good old funky places

Italian cypresses piercing the open sky

Gateway

Prickly Pear Cactus

 I'm taking you on a little walk through our small Arizona town. Warren is a part of Bisbee, an old copper mining town  that was established at the end of the 1800's. After Bisbee got too crowded they set up this company town called Warren in the early 1900's. Bisbee had been one of the largest cities between St. Louis and San Francisco then.  Warren is in fact, an early planned city with sewer and water and it's nicely laid out with it's Vista Park that views the mountains across the border in Mexico. These days there isn't as much work since the copper mine shut down and it's a rather sleepy town comprised of many retirees.

 Coming from Alaska we relish the funkiness of the place with it's similar mining history as where we had been living up north. I can walk through the town with few cars on the road and do my explorations of the neighborhood on the way to the gym. My husband says it reminds him of the Flintstone's town of Bedrock. There's always so much to look at and little treasures to pick up on the roads and ditches. 

My rusted "roadsmithed" smashed bottle cap earrings were made from pieces I've been picking up on my daily jaunts.

I often say that the most magnificently warm winter's day here is so similar to an Alaskan summer's day with the big sky and desert dry air. That's one of the reasons we picked this place.

I relish my walks as it keeps this old truck driver's hip joints moving and I can take it at my own speed and lose myself in thought. It's been a crazy past week of  bad news about all sorts of friends, family and acquaintances. 


 One friend in Alaska was charged by a mad mother moose as she was trying to take a photo of the baby calf that was nibbling at her flower pots at her house.

 Mad Mother Moose Charging

( my friend has bruises from hip to toe but is otherwise all right, fortunately)

Another friend fell flat on her face at work busting her lip and smashing her face.

And another blog friend, Terresa taking a spill on her travel trip, suffering bruises yet fortunately not too badly injured.

The musician gentleman that lead the band that played at my wedding took a nasty spill on the ice from the ice storm that crippled Fairbanks and has been in and out of consciousness since then. We're praying for his recovery.

My own father facing yet another health crisis that he seems to be bouncing back from, I'm happy to report.

And another friend whose condition is too raw and dire for me to even express. I hold her in my heart.

All that is putting me in a pensive and yet expansive mood as I meditate on it all  and feel grateful for this day and all my friends and family and far reaching connections in my blog world as well.