Red White Blue Flowers

Definitely not desert flowers.  These were taken at my daughter's house in Massachusetts.

Ruby Tuesday - Birds

These are some of the birds with the color red observed recently in this area. House finches are commonly found in the garden while the other two are more often seen while walking in the desert. These are all male birds. Pyrrhuloxias resemble female cardinals don't they?

House Finch

Pyrrhuloxia

Cardinal

For more Ruby Tuesday featuring the color red, visit Mary T's Work of the Poet.

Ruby Tuesday - Costco

About once a month I shop at Costco to stock up on groceries. The store and its baskets are trimmed with red which reminds me of the Ruby Tuesday meme. And this time of year there seems to be an increase in merchandise and shoppers sporting the color red.








To see more fun Ruby Tuesday posts, visit Mary T's Work of the Poet.

Ruby Tuesday - Dinosaur McDonald's

Dinosaur McDonald's is a landmark in Tucson on the southwest corner of Grant and Tanque Verde Roads.

This month it is decorated for the holidays so there is plenty of the color red.










Smaller dinosaurs are at the back of the restaurant and the inside follows the dinosaur motif as well.


At one time there was a "Rocks and Minerals" McDonald's in Tucson that was like a little museum inside. Does your town have a McDonald's with a special theme?



To see more red posts, visit Ruby Tuesday at Work of the Poet hosted by Mary T.

Ruby Tuesday - Here and There

Here are some of the little "rubies" I saw here and there during the past week:

House finch in Vitex tree outside my computer room window

Holiday decorations on cacti at the entrance to the canyon

Cardinal in Jojoba bush

Desert Mistletoe in Mesquite tree

Cholla cactus turning red due to cold temperatures

Gila woodpecker on backyard hummingbird feeder

Chili Peppers hanging outside Mexican restaurant by the grocery store

For more Ruby Tuesday posts featuring a little or a lot of red, visit Mary's Work of the Poet.

Ruby Tuesday - Pyracantha

For Ruby Tuesday, I have something red from our garden to share. Pyracantha, also known as Firethorn, is a large evergreen shrub in the rose family that produces attractive berries in the fall.
Here are the berries ripening in September, October and November:

Pyracantha is drought-tolerant and used in landscaping all around Tucson.
Ours grew quickly to the size of a small tree.
A little hermit thrush was helping itself to berries the other day, but most of our backyard birds don't seem interested in the fruit.
The complementary colors of red berries and green leaves do look festive this time of year. Happy Holidays!
For more Ruby Tuesday posts featuring the color red, visit Work of the Poet hosted by Mary T.

Ruby Tuesday - Mobile Cafe

Here is Peddler on the Path Mobile Cafe parked downtown for El Tour de Tucson bike race. This mobile coffee bar is a converted 1960's mail truck that caters to cyclists at the Rillito River bike path and travels to local farmers' markets and special events.

In this picture, I like the ruby colored wheels as well as the OPEN sign hanging from the bike, and part of the red fire truck behind the cafe. To see more red-themed Ruby Tuesday posts, visit Mary T. at Work of the Poet.

Ruby Tuesday - Little Things

I have little bits of the color red to share from the butterfly exhibit at Tucson Botanical Gardens. Both local and tropical plants and butterflies live inside the warm greenhouse.

"The butterfly is a flying flower,
The flower a tethered butterfly."
~Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun


"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
~Hans Christian Anderson

"This magnificent butterfly finds a little heap of dirt and sits still on it;
but man will never on his heap of mud keep still." ~Joseph Conrad

"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough." ~Rabindranath Tagore

"Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine." ~Jeffrey Glassberg

Ruby Tuesday is a fun photography meme where participants post pictures featuring a little or a lot of the color red. To see more posts from around the world, visit Ruby Tuesday at Work of the Poet hosted by Mary T.

Seeing Red - at the gardens

Little bits of red here and there at Tucson Botanical Gardens:

Pomegranate

Pentas

Broad-billed hummingbird

Baja Fairy Duster

Mystery flower, Bottlebrush,
Shrimp plant, Pyracantha

To see more red Ruby Tuesday posts, visit maryt/theteach at Work of the Poet.

Red Bug Car

I don't usually pay much attention to cars, but this little red one parked on Sabino Canyon Road caught my eye. The car has antennae to make it look like a bug as an advertisement for a pest control service. On the front it says BMW Isetta 300. Isetta microcars were made in the late 1950's to early 1960's. Some nicknames for these little cars have been: "Rolling Egg" or "Coffin on Wheels" in Germany, "Yogurt Pot" in France, "Soccer ball of a Truck" in Brazil, "Little Egg" in Chili.

For more Ruby Tuesday posts featuring the color red, visit MaryT at Work of the Poet.

Ruby Tuesday - Sonora

Sonora is a monumental steel sculpture which stands in front of the main library in the heart of downtown Tucson. Completed in 1991 by artist David Black, the piece is an example of proto-architecture that blends sculptural and architectural elements with abstract imagery from native cultures and the environment.



The pavilion-like roof and arches are designed for people to walk under and the curved benches are for sitting on.
Southwest Native American basket designs are found around the top of the structure.
The huge central ring of the sculpture rests on arrow-like columns.
Sonora also features abstractions of streams, wind and mountains from the desert landscape. The bright red color represents Tucson's mountains at sunset.

I like this reflection of Sonora in the windows of the library. You can see books inside as well as buildings, cars and a red bicycle parked outside.

The sculpture reminds me of a dinosaur. It is a coincidence that the artwork is named Sonora because in 1995 the fossilized remains of a dinosaur were found in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. The genus was named Sonorasaurus which means "Sonora lizard."

Unfortunately, I was viewing Sonora when the sun wasn't right for casting shadows of the structure onto the ground. Next time I visit downtown, I'll look for Sonora's shadows.

For more Ruby Tuesday Posts featuring red things, visit Mary at Work of the Poet.

Rufus pecanosaurus

When I first saw these tall red things at Reid Park in Tucson, Arizona,

I didn't know what they were.

Alien figures...exposed roots...giant blood vessels?

Later, I learned the full title of this playful life-sized 1988 piece:
Inverted Pecans in Ceremonial Red (Rufus pecanosaurus)

Stripped of their bark, five pecan trees
are painted red and installed upside down.

More information from Smithsonian Art Museum Research Information System (SIRIS).