From the 'Hood - Special Edition

Because I'm off today, sorely need a break from my Picasso-Esque Gato project, and have other commitments tomorrow (my planned 'Hood' post day), I decided to move my From the 'Hood blog feature up a day. I took a long, very chilly walk with my Muthacam (& a stocking cap on my head), south along the street pictured below. Once I've put up this post, I have to get to my journal. I've been 3 days without any contact with my journal, written, or making pages, and withdrawal doesn't begin to touch how my guts are feeling right now. So -- enjoy taking this 'Hood stroll with me. I'm off to the hug my journal.Look! NO CARS!!! This is a main Phoenix thoroughfare. NO TRAFFIC! Here is my oh-so-craved color. Sturdy little blooms/bush -- to have made it past 2 freeze warnings. Concrete graffiti. Rebar jungle. I've wrestled and wrangled my share of rebar in my day. I give it its props -- stuff works wonders and puts up a fight.I drive by this construction site on my way to and from work every day, and this exact piece of equipment (there are two of them) is why I walked down this way on today's 'Hood walk. What IS this? It has such personality, such dignity, such an 'old school' feeling. Rips and tears in the meshed security fence. Boy oh MAN! did my digits itch to rip one of these flaps off and stuff it in the pocket of my cargo pants. What a fabulous addition to journal pages THAT would be! Construction. Always. This is just a block south of our turn-off. No signage yet saying what's to come. Bloom, perfectly shadowed. A 'nest' of wizened tree branches. This is hands-down my favorite desert color, this pure, saturated sage. Sometimes after a monsoon in the summer afternoons, the heat and moisture and electricity in the air combine to take on this hue. I've felt the way this tree? bush? cactus? looks on more than one occasion! For months the color I craved was orange. Now it's this perfect blend of rose/lilac. I don't know very much about cacti. I wonder if the white bubbly stuff on this one is the result of two days of freezing temperatures? Maybe too much moisture? I love this shot! It would make a cool postcard, I think. I love pictures of citrus trees. Roses! Budding and blooming in December. The freeze we had 2 nights ago took it's toll on this one, but look at these incredible 'vintage' shades of violet! Wow! This is all that remains of my 'chandelier' leaves from my last 'Hood walk, only a week ago. Funny. I just left a comment for Mary Ann at http://www.dispatchfromla.typepad.com/ commiserating with her about a winter lacking snow or other such 'seasonal' attributes, although SHE has access to a beach, not a luxury I have, either. And then I go on my little 'Hood walk and look what I chanced upon? I mean, it reminded so much of sea creatures I've seen on the various beaches I've walked that I started crying. The desert does a sea-imitation - I honestly didn't realize that was possible.Doesn't this section of broken cactus resemble something washed up on the shore, spit out by the waves? A strange hybrid seacrab, perhaps! Leaves and bird-raided pecan shell. My wee Colorado, dressed in leaves.