Tempe Festival of the Arts

Today I ventured out to Tempe for the Tempe Festival of the Arts. The streets on and around Mill Avenue are blocked off for an Art Show / Sale. Bring your wallets because you WILL want to spend money. There are some highend pieces of art to more craft style objects and jewelry.

Some new ideas of what to do with all of those old items that you could not sell on e-bay.

Wind chime heaven.
The Tempe Police Pipe Band in the house!

Tons of stylin' dogs at the festival. This vendor had beautiful well behaved dog models.

Lock up your daughters - Girls Gone Wild is in town!

This gent was stylin' in his heavy jewelry crosses made of dimes.

Diggin' this didgeridoo one man band.

I left will my wallet a little lighter, my skin a little sunburned, but my spirits lifted. Get out and get some fresh air today!

A Vist to the Desert Botanical Gardens

One of the wonderful things about living in Queen Creek is the close proximity to some of the big city offerings. Yesterday I ventured out to the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. The weather here is starting to warm up and it was a great day for a walk.

If you go the desert botanical gardens I would recommend bringing the following:

Walking shoes - you will do a lot of walking. Some of the trails are paved and others are a fine crushed gravel.

A camera - you WILL want to take photos. The cactus specimens and the butterflies are fantastic.

Binoculars - especially if you are a bird watcher. There is plenty of wildlife at the park. We ran into lizards, quail, hummingbirds and a cute little friendly prairie dog.

Bottled water - There were water fountains and vending machines in various locations throughout the park but you may want to bring an ice cold bottle with you. It get's hot here in the afternoon.

A hat and sunglasses - The sun is very bright and hot in Arizona. You will be thankful for the extra shade about your head and the protection for your eyes.

Suncreen - if you are sensitve to the sun you can easily get an uncomfortable sunburn here in the desert.

Money - they have a wonderful gift shop filled with arts, crafts, books and gardening items and plants.

This month the gardens are holding a "paintout" Throughout the park there are individuals painting and creating art. The Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Butterfly Pavilion exhibit is also open.

One of the great things about the desert botanical gardens is that it can give you a good idea of the types of plants that can be grown here in the Sonoran Desert.

I highly recommend the Desert Botanical Gardens. We should all take time to stop and enjoy the natural beauty around us. It is good for the spirit.

Buyers vs. Sellers / Winners vs. Losers

The Arizona Republic had a front page article about the housing market in Arizona. The title read "Housing Dip Brings Opportunities". I guess this is the old half-empty, half-full scenario. If you are a buyer, you can get some excellent deals especially in Queen Creek. If you are a seller the outlook is not so good as our home values are down 20% in 3 years.

We have a lot of houses in this area that are foreclosing for various reasons but mainly due to the unscrupulous lending practices of many lenders. Now that the boom is over and the bubble has burst many of the ARM loans are coming up for increases. Those individuals with an arm loan who bought during the boom are now faced with large increases in their monthly payments. Some of these people who barely qualified for the loans are having difficult times and are unable to pay the increases. Next step foreclosure.

I just found out that the house next to mine is going to foreclosure. I hope whomever buys it knows how to pick weeds and clean a pool.

Shopping in Queen Creek

A fine example of the excellent shopping available in Queen Creek. Oh yeah, the new Target just opened too.

Wildflowers in Bloom

The wildflowers are back! Time to take a drive and check them out.

Keep on Truckin'

Trucks, trucks and more trucks. We had some road construction on East Queen Creek in the past week. It looks like they are putting in some large sewer pipes. Thankfully it did not seem to disrupt the traffic flow too much in the morning.


I know it seems like I only blog about traffic and the post office but I really do want to document the changes around here as they happen. I'm not completely against the growth and development but I do wish we could slow down the building of mega-subdivisions until we have more infrastructure in the area. I still get excited when there is a new service opening up in the area. I cannot wait for Steinmart! .....

Speaking of service and the post office. The Queen Creek Independent ran an article this week about the post office. It stated that the town had donated some land for a new post office. They addressed delivery service and talked about all of the trucks they have however did not address the service issues inside the post office or their lack of hours on the weekend. So my friends, hopefully we will have some service in a little over a year.

Well, please enjoy the photos this week. Thanks for stopping by.

Morning Construction on Queen Creek Rd.

Wow, what a difference a week makes. This building at Ironwood and Ocotillo is coming along fast.