March 22

We are staying in Tucson for a few days.
I should say, I am staying in Tucson for a few days, while Opa Henk flies back and forth to Chicago. Poor Opa... he's packing warm clothes right now... leaving today, back late Wednesday. Then we'll be on the road again Thursday with plans to head to San Antonio.

Yesterday was a quiet day with work (Opa),  laundry (me), watching birdies (me), home cooked meals (both of us), and lots of frustration with my laptop (me). It's been having issues. Opa spent a few hours last night uninstalling and reinstalling, and it seems improved (fingers crossed). No more Firefox, I'm using Google Chrome now.

Our bird count went up since we got here, with a quail - my, those are cute birds. Just sitting there on the fence next to the walk to the observation tower, cocking its little head with that bobbing feather bobbing up and down. Early yesterday morning we heard an owl - and there it was, sitting on a stub on a palm tree trunk. It was just light enough to binoculate it, and identify it as a great horned owl. We heard them before, but this was the first time we saw one. I think I saw a different kind of dove too, but need to see it again to be sure. Then there are phainopeplas here, we saw them in Burro Creek canyon also. Methinks somebody should come up for a normal name for those.
On the cactus front: it turns out the prickly pears come in many varieties other than pancake-shaped and oval-shaped pads. There is also one of which the pads look like a rounded-off upside-down kite with droopy tips. Weird. Then they also come in pinkish/purplish. Hailey would love them! The chollas are truly tree-sized here, a good bit taller than Opa and very bristly. And of course saguaros and barrels, both with green and with reddish spines. Obviously, being from the northeast this whole desert environment intrigues enormously.

It rained significantly last night, I hope I can see some interesting changes before we leave. Would two days of moisture be enough?