Thoughts of Tucson

 Santa Rita Mountains as seen from Sycamore Canyon May 7, 2008

It is a funny thing that, just when I told my husband I was tired of him looking for new jobs and, that If we didn’t move soon I wanted to stay here for another year, that he should get a phone call and a job offer. The phone call came through while I was in Connecticut visiting my family and friends. Suddenly everything shifted, and I started thinking of what was before me, and what I would leave behind.

 Mt. Fagan in Corona de Tucson 8-7-2010

Two years ago when we left Sycamore Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains of Corona de Tucson, we thought perhaps we would return in a year and move back into our house if it didn’t sell. Well, the house didn't sell, but we are not moving back in. We are just one of the millions whose house was so far underwater that we could not sell it and we could not refinance because we no longer lived in it. In the two years since we have been here so many things have happened. The first year was spent planning my Mother’s 75th Birthday party. The next year was spent trying to save her life as she battled breast cancer, which she discovered only two months after her party! She is through with her surgery and treatments now and all seems well, but you can imagine that it is just a little bit hard to leave her, not knowing if I will be needed again, and knowing it will be a bit harder to get back here if I am needed.

 My dining room calendar

As I was starting to look at my calendars to plan this move I suddenly noticed that two out of the four calendars I have in my house have photos related to Arizona. This one on my dining room wall not only has a saguaro cactus for July’s monthly picture, but the photo was actually taken at Saguaro National Park in Tucson!

 My kitchen calendar

Then I noticed that the kitchen calendar has a photo of a broad-billed hummingbird, a species easily seen in the Tucson area. Below it in the right hand corner is a Gila woodpecker, a species also see in the Sonoran Desert. Not omens actually, but certainly an interesting coincidence!

 Sabino Canyon, March, 2008

I know that when I get back to Tucson I will be able to visit all my favorite birding places like Sabino Canyon and Saguaro National Park and I will love seeing all the exotic and normal desert species of birds once again, but make no mistake, I will miss my New England birds as well, especially some of the more common ones that greeted me every morning when I woke up. There will be no Black-capped Chickadees calling to me in Tucson, no Blue Jays flying through the trees with blue wings flashing. I will not have nuthatches hanging upside down on my backyard trees, and I will miss them all. Thankfully I plan on flying home at least once a year to visit my family where these familiar birds will hopefully greet me once again. Until then, I look forward to seeing my first Cactus Wren. It has been long enough.

Cactus Wren, the Arizona State Bird

New Poems on Kathie’s Poet Tree

• A Phoebe in Maine
• The Mulberry Tree