Spring has Sprung AZ Style

Two days ago, an early morning "stay cool" walk through

the resort proved to be worth the effort at 8:30 a.m.

And partly cloudy skies enhanced the colors of all the

flowers I saw. I'll try to name as many as I can...

 

This is a Beaver Tail Cactus.  The "paddles" are

colorful too but there are no thorns on the "paddles", unlike

The Prickly Pear Cactus.  

This is a close up of the one above.  The morning

light made the blossom look like it was made out of

tissue paper!!!

And both come in a variety of vibrant colors.

Prickly pear  cactus also have large pear-shaped red or orange

prickly fruit which are starting to grow along the edge of

this prickly pears' "paddles".  

The fruit will look like this by June.  Many specialty

shops carry prickly pear ice cream, jams & jellies.

Yes it is delicious.

The stunning Bougainvilleas  loves the hot dry air, but

are a real nuisance as the blossoms drop and blow in the

wind and end up in someone else's yard!!!

I took many of these photos as up close and personal

as I could get.    Don't know the name of this one...

This is a close up of  the beautiful blossom of the thorniest 

plant around, the Ocotilla.

It also referred to as coachwhip, candlewood, 

slimwood, desert coral, Jacob's staff, Jacob cactus, and vine cactus. 

It is indigenous to the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan

 Desert in the Southwestern United States (southern California, 

southern Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas), and northern Mexico.

Ocotillo in full bloom

 

This is Lantana and they are very drought resistance

and come in this beautiful multi color 

and bright yellow.  They are native to tropical regions, which

makes one wonder how they survive in the desert heat and require

minimal water.  They are part of the verbena family.

Every spring I see these  along the greenbelt path.  It looks

like they've just blown in from somewhere else, but if

you get up close

they look like this.  The flower is 1 1/2 inches across,

 on a somewhat short stem and they are attached

to a ground cover like base.  A close up photo was

difficult because it was very breezy so I took about 10

pictures of the Pink Evening Primrose and this was

my best shot.  Outrageous if I do say so myself!!!

Golden Barrel Cactus has sprouted many babies

as its tribute to Spring.

No this is not a miniature banana tree.  It is

an Aloe vera plant that shoots up these vivid yellow spikes

in the spring.  It is an an evergreen succulent  perennial plant.

It grows wild in tropical, semi-tropical and arid climates

around the world.  It will grow indoors as well as

outdoors and "Aloe" from the plant, not the flower,

 is found in skin lotion and ointments.

 

 Oleander is a poisonous evergreen Old World

shrub that is widely grown in warm  countries for its clusters

of white, pink & red  flowers.

This wider shot shows many of its tightly

clustered flowers.

Oleander pink version

Your guess is as good as mine...  Sorry!!!

Just a nice view thru some very tall desert blossoms...

which look like this close up.  Other "no-name"

flowers I enjoyed...

Yellow...

Reddish Orange 

Purple

A Palo Verde Tree against a blue sky.   Paloverde from

Latin American Spanish, literally means "green tree".

Beautiful, but messy as you can see below...

It's blossoms create a carpet of yellow on the

ground and here,  all over an Argentine Cactus

that is getting ready to bloom.

This is what the blossom looks like.  I featured

this cactus in a blog last year.  Their blossom is very

large, about 7-8 inches across!!!

As I approached home about an hour later, way up high the 

Saguaro Cactus was also blooming, against a now clear blue sky. 

It provides food, shelter and protection to

many other species, including a variety of birds

who make their nests inside the Saguaro.

And my potted flower garden was also looking good.  It

 includes snap dragons, petunias,

 gazania, gerbera daisies, dahlia, cosmos, zinnias. primrose

and geraniums... all on it's own recently installed drip system!!!

Have a great day.  It's raining in AZ and is only 57 degrees

now at 9:30.  Tomorrow sunny and cool with a high of 77.

Spring will soon be over... with temps in the 90's starting on

Thur for the next 10 days... Hello Summer.  Phoenix will hit 

102 on Saturday...

Back in Time Day 2 - Site 2

 Welcome to the Arizona Copper Art  Museum

Located on Main St  on Historic Rte 89A Clarkdale AZ just 15 miles

from Jerome this massive and incomparable collection of 

over 6000 works of copper art & architecture of Western European

 and Northern American emphasis, spanning from 

3500 B.C.E to the present day.

This  impressive sign sums things up...

W.A. Clark founded Clarkdale and

Copper Built Arizona.

Cyprus,  Legendary "Island of Copper".  Cyprus is the 

world's oldest Copper Mine (6000+ years).

  Copper is man's 1st metal.

These are some  the  largest Copper Mines in the U.S.

The collection is housed in the former Clarkdale High School 

which was built in 1928.

We spent a little time sitting outside on benches that

were made of bricks.  They were amazingly comfortable.

Do you know what this is?  I walked all around it before

I discovered the sign... I even asked Don if he knew what

it was.  He did not.  It is a Beer Kettle, made of Copper, of course!!!

And I even tried out  the Bronze Church Bell. 

The bellfounder was Marcel Michaels of Tournal Belgium.

And if you had time you could have a game of chess with

your friends (and a friendly dog) as you picked up and 

carried the chess piece you wanted to move to their desired location...

all according to the rules of the game.

The entrance to the museum was thru Copper doors, of course.

As we wandered around inside this massive museum, copper

footprints on the floor took us from one exhibit to the next.

A close-up of the plaque above the fireplace in the prior photo

is flanked by "Trench Art" which you'll learn about shortly.

Click on this photo to read the facts about selecting the

best state and town for this Copper Art Museum.

The perfect state and town (Clarkdale) were chosen.

Copper as Art - The World's Most Beautiful Metal, is presented

in 3 categories:

Fine Art - aesthetically pleasing artifacts created without

purpose except to be admired and contemplated.

Decorative Art - Beautiful and useable objects which we're 

intentionally decorated  when created, and

Applied Art - which are plain and functional objects

that were creatively decorated after the original purpose. 

Only two metals have color.  

The metal Copper is the first of the elements and Gold is 

the second.

However, Copper can be turned into Bronze with a mixture 

of 85% copper and 15% tin.

The Statue of Liberty is a perfect representation

of "Verdigris".

"Copper Flower"  is man made but can also form naturally.

This is a piece of natural Copper as it was extracted from the mine.

From  1914-1918 the term "Trench Art” affixed itself to a variety of war 

moments usually made from battlefield debris.

 It is used to describe many types of handcrafted artifacts made during 

or right after the war.  Most WWI trench art comes from 

the Western Front, stretching from Belgium thru France and Switzerland.

Discharged artillery shell casings were the most plentiful and were 

popular for making artwork while in the trenches.  Also many prisoners

 of war and wounded soldiers designed these souvenirs in exchange 

for food, wine, cigarettes & money or just to relieve boredom.  

There is an entire room full of over 600 German 7,7 cm shell casings

which have been repurposed into artwork appealing to the soldier's eye.

And, this is called "trench Art".

A mixture of copper and zinc was used to create the design on the surface of

the shell casing (in this case).  

This was my favorite. and a definite  winner in the "applied art" category!!!

Speaking of favorites what do you think of this giant

Copper grasshopper (about 20 inches long),

 with  what looks like to me abalone shell

inlay for the eyes and to decorate the legs.

 

And, this copper and glass necklace was pretty stunning.

This  close up shows the piece with more true to color lighting.

Bocce Ball anyone.  These beauties (circa 1800-1900)

were made in France out of Bronze, Iron, Copper and/or Brass NAILS!!!

Click on each of the items below to enlarge so you can

easily view the descriptions of how these glass colors were created.

Whew...  this 2 part 4 site was interesting and overwhelming

to see and write about.  Thanks for hanging in there... hope you

enjoyed the ride and maybe learned something new or two...