Saturday January 6th 2024

Dear Journal:

Well it is a damn cold this morning here in Arizona, we had rain over most of the night and with the cold temperature we must be almost cold enough to have snow. There is no sense of urgency to get to the visitor center before a rush of visitors, so we have a second cup of coffee as we know it will be a tough day. I actually download an extra e-book as I’m thinking there may be some extra reading time. The cloud cover is very low and the top of Picketpost mountain is no where to be seen.

There are a number of events scheduled in the arboretum this morning as with most weekends, today we have a “Forest Bathing” session happening, it was planned for an open area in the Arboretum now there is a scramble to move it to a covered area. I will try to explain Forest Bathing to everyone once I understand it, all I know for sure is that it sells out when ever offered. As the first Arboretum visitors are mostly the Forest Bathing participants there is lots of time for for me to catch up on my reading.

One of the staff just came to the booth as she had never seen snow and today we are seeing the occasional flake falling, it is hard for me to understand someone never having seen snow, but it is a rarity in the Phoenix valley, although common enough at higher elevation. Which could explain the common driving hazard here in Arizona when after a snowfall at elevation the valley folk drive north on Interstate 17 then pack the shoulder of the highway to walk or play in the new fallen snow, causing a real driving hazard.

Miss Laurie snapped this photo from behind the admission booth mid morning when the cloud had lifted to expose Picketpost Mountain, a spectacular photo of Eucalyptus tree, Saguaro cactus, the sun peaking through the clouds and a skiff of graupel on the ground, even the 100th centennial sign at the visitor center.

Well we made it through what seemed like a very long day, and other than the Forest Bathers early this morning there were very few visitors today, there are some members that come out just to see the Arboretum when it is wet, and as much as it has been a cold rainy day the creek is still not running. This type of day is so good for the gardens as it allows the moisture to seep into the soil as opposed to just running into the creek.

There was a wet winter forecast this year and it has been with lots of gentle rains, and unlike last year when Queen Creek was running hard so much of the time this year the water is soaking in and I suspect there could be another super bloom in the spring. Not a lot more to be said other than it was a long day in our little booth.

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