Tohono Chul

We spent a quiet week, healing from the hurt of losing Chip, kinda lost when figuring out what to do. We can now safely talk about Chip without crying. And we noticed that Grace has started to act differently - coming out of her depression also. And she is doing some of the things that Chip used to do - sleep right by my leg at night, becoming more vocal, even was sitting by the door and crying when we came home one day. Will we get another kitten? Yes, but not until this fall when we come back from our travels this summer. Want to be able to be near our vet for any issues and also to make sure the new baby is update with shots, etc.

We drove into Tucson and visited Tohono Chul Gardens. Named as one of the World's Greatest Botanical Gardens and is ranked as one of the top 22 secret gardens in the US and Canada. The park was started in 1968 when a couple purchased 12 acres of desert landscape north west of Tucson at the base of the Catalina Mountains. Today it is 37 acres of various gardens and educational buildings. Quite impressive. The ancient tribe, Tohono O'odham, lived in this area for many centuries and in fact there is an reservation in south western Arizona where over 25,000 members still live. Some day we will drive there and visit - there are a number of national monuments and Organ Pipe National Park is located there. But for now - Tohono means desert and we think chul means gardens. We had been to this park about 8 years ago, during Thanksgiving break when we had flown in to Phoenix to visit with Jill and family. But, it was evening, dark, cold, and the event going on was Christmas lighting and caroling. The visit we had was very very different, sunny, lots and lots of flowers in bloom, trees with their foliage, lots of little creatures roaming around - even told us to beware of rattlers - they were on the loose. Gardens were laid out for hummingbirds, gardens for flowers blooming at various times, one for no-watering, etc. And of course - took lots of pictures. Most of the pictures were for our use - when we start landscaping our place here in Picacho this coming fall. Was able to pick up some reference books on gardens that require little or no watering which is a must here at Picacho. And get a flavor of desert life and plants.