Cotton 2

As promised, more cotton! It's not the most exciting picture, but you can see how much "whiter" the fields are now.

The Lake

Another photo of Lake Roosevelt

Gas Pump

I wanted to post something with a little color today since yesterday's posts were so monotone, so I looked back through my Williams photos and found this one of an old gas pump. If I remember right, it was just sitting in front of a gas station.

Coyotes!

Admittedly, this is not the best quality picture, but I didn't have much time to take it. We heard coyotes a few nights ago, the first time I've heard them since we moved in three years ago. This morning, I was sitting at the table, working on an article I have due today, when something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. It's not uncommon to have dogs roaming free through the neighborhood, so at first I thought it had to be the neighborhood German Shepard. But, I hadn't noticed any black in its coat and it seemed shorter.

I stepped outside and saw two coyotes in the field just north of us. They saw me, too, and froze. For a while, the two stayed put, but as I ran inside to get my camera, one started to trot away. By the time I got back, I was only able to catch these fleeting shots of the second one. He was passing by our back fence line.

Church

Since it's Sunday, here's the neighborhood church (or more specifically, the church's cross). What makes this interesting is the church is actually in our neighborhood, surrounded on all sides by houses. I guess you can do that in an unincorporated area. The other unique thing about this church, as you can see, is it's a full gospel church. Not exactly what you'd expect to see in Queen Creek.

Cotton 1

Since I missed blogging yesterday, I'm posting two pictures today. Cotton is one of the "5 Cs" in Arizona (copper, cattle, citrus, climate/tourism and cotton) that played a major role in the state's economy from roughly 1950-1970. Today, the citrus groves, cotton fields and dairy farms are giving way to tract homes for Intel and Motorola employees.

Queen Creek, however, has quite a few cotton fields, at least for now. The first photo is a close-up I took about a month ago. The second photo shows a full plant. I was surprised to see that there are pods on a cotton plant that apparently bloom a pinkish flower before going to seed and producing cotton. On the plant in the second photo, you can see all three stages: pod, flower and cotton.

I'm going to try to get out in the next few days to take a photo of the fields now, almost completely gone to seed. The fields are white with cotton, and I'm expecting they'll harvest the cotton any day now.

Plow

In Queen Creek, we don't have lawn gnomes; we have old farm equipment in our yards. Well, I don't, but it seems to be a popular lawn accessory. This old plow is in a neighbor's yard. Not sure how old it is, but it looks really old.

Bicycles

Bicycle sculptures in front of the Queen Creek Library

Plants and Pumpkins

There's a nursery at the olive mill, and at this time of the year, they had pumpkins in addition to herbs, fruit trees and small vegetable plants. This is the display in the middle of the nursery.

Queen Creek Olive Mill

If you watch the TV show Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel, you may recall the episode where Mike Rowe visits an olive mill. This was the mill he came to, the Queen Creek Olive Mill in Queen Creek, Arizona. In the show, you would have seen the press and the olive grove, not the gift shop or the cafe that I've taken a picture of here. Great olives, great oil, great tapenade. Check it out if you're ever out this way!

Air Show

Here are a few photos from the air show last weekend in San Francisco. This is the last of the California photos, at least for a while.


Notice all the smoke in the air, especially in this next picture. It was cloudy, but all that colored exhaust made it even worse.

Ship

I was just going to post one more California photo, and then I found this one of a ship in Bodega Bay. Tomorrow...the Golden Gate Bridge, and then, I think it's back to Arizona.

Waves

One more picture of the ocean...Today's and yesterday's photos were taken west of Sonoma, just north of Bodega Bay, where Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds was filmed.

I know these photos the last few days are so out of place on Queen Creek, Arizona, photo blog. I'll get back to more local photos in a day or two.

Ocean

Playing in the waves

Crush

I just got back late last night from our fall trip to San Francisco and Sonoma, where it is crush or, basically, harvest time in the wine country. Here are some workers either picking grapes by hand or tending to the vines. (I couldn't tell as we passed by.)

San Tan Foothills

I'll be out of town for the next few days in San Francisco and Sonoma (so look for a few Northern California pictures), but before I go, I wanted to put up a photo of what I'll be missing while I'm gone.

Alfalfa

Mailboxes

The post office in Queen Creek won't deliver mail on dirt roads, so if you live in an unincorporated area, you have to put your mailbox along a paved road or get a PO Box in town.

Sunrise

Hunt Highway at sunrise this morning

Queen Creek Performing Arts Center

Palo Verde

Chiles

This photo is a few years old, but I wanted to post something quick today since I have deadlines and our family is fighting the flu. I took this down in Safford while writing about the Salsa Trail. Jane Wyatt of the San Simeon Chile Company gave us a tour of her property and let us sample some of her delicious products.