Janet Towbin: Quirky Reflections

No more to say than that! (Well, maybe a little more!) Have a look at these shots made with my new Canon EOS Rebel XTi. I am still learning how to use the camera, but making strides every day. I am wondering if a macro lens will help me get the focus and crisp detail I want out of this camera? I am not yet satisfied with the quality, even though I think they are pretty good first efforts.

I purchased this orchid from Trader Joe’s. It is a miniature phalaenopsis and I fell in love with it. You certainly can’t beat the prices for orchids at Trader Joe’s. Can you believe this orchid was under ten dollars!

Orchids are amazingly beautiful flowers and this phalaenopsis really loves to pose for me! If you want to see more photos of orchids there are a quite few orchid groups on Flickr. You can also view all of my orchid photos here. Some were taken at botanical gardens which are a photographer’s wonderland. But here is my new lovely lady, in all her orchid glory!

And, finally, this one from last night showing the newest bloom as it is opening:

Just as an FYI, I am watering her with bottled water!

Content and photos copyright 2008 by Janet Towbin.

We are drinking only bottled water in Paradise Valley!

On Wednesday evening we were notified not to drink or use tap water for any kind of food preparation (which includes washing dishes) until further notice. They say it is o.k. to shower as long as the water doesn’t get in our mouths (!!!), and do laundry. Sorry, but isn’t it true that solvents can enter the blood stream through the skin? And what about my eyes?

It seems as though Arizona American Water found traces of trichloroethylene in our water supply on Wednesday. (I want to know if the water was safe on Monday or Tuesday or any other day before they found the traces of TCE?) TCE is a solvent used to clean machinery and is a known carcinogen if ingested. Who is responsible for this contamination? How did a toxic solvent get into our water supply??? Even after they tell us the water is safe, I will still be wary of drinking it.

This event is making me have flashbacks of the movie Erin Brockovich. (As an aside, I loved Julia Roberts in that movie.) However, the contamination of our water in Paradise Valley and Scottsdale is a chilling reminder of how fragile our resources are and how easy it is to contaminate them! Thank God there is bottled water available for us to use in the meantime.

Content and photos copyright 2008 by Janet Towbin.

Update:  The water restriction was rescinded on Saturday evening.  I am still drinking  bottled water even though I completely flushed the pipes in our house of all the “possibly contaminated water”.  Call me crazy, but I still feel insecure about the water here.

We have plumbago in our garden. It is in an area overgrown with rosemary and lantana beneath an old eucalyptus tree.

A view of Camelback Mountain at sunset. The light is stunningly golden. We cleared out all the overgrown plantings that were hiding (and killing) the cacti. Oddly enough , these were water-loving plants that had been mixed in with the cactus. That didn’t seem right to me.

An oval shaped stone with an amazing shadow from a near-by succulent. It looks like a cartoon character to me.

A rope tied around a tree limb; the rope was left by the previous homeowners as a gift. The tree is a Chinese elm and we will be cutting it down soon. I hate to do it, but the tree makes a HUGE mess in the pool. It has to go!

A velvety prickly pear cactus. This cactus is a favorite of mine. I love going to the Desert Botanical Garden to see all the different varieties of cactus. It is a wonderful place.

These are ocotillo cacti which are also at The Desert Botanical Garden. We have an ocatillo cactus in our yard but I think it might be dead. We will know for sure in the spring–that is when it is supposed to sprout leaves.

All photos and content copyright 2008 by Janet Towbin

I haven’t exactly been keeping on top of this blog because my life has been way too hectic. What have I been doing you might ask? Well, the first week of December was the end of the semester and I had to schlepp all of my art supplies, papers, books and office goodies back home because it was my last semester there. Next, I had to grade my students’ final projects and turn in their grades. After that, I needed to select work for an exhibit I will have in February at the Print Center in Philadelphia. I needed to get all my ducks in a row (organize, organize, organize) because I was leaving our home in Philadelphia to move to Phoenix. I could only take 3 suitcases of clothing and assorted belongings with me (o.k., I admit they were mostly filled with shoes and handbags).

After arriving in Phoenix and setting up house in a temporary apartment, there were all those chores one must do to buy a house: calls to arrange for insurance policies and loans, calls to set up telephone service, gas, electric, cable, internet service, garbage pick up and pest control (did I mention there are scorpions in Arizona???). In addition to all these tasks, there are still wedding plans for E & M that must be attended to, and, well, I think you get the picture. I am overwhelmed and reeling from it all. It’s a wonder I can function! Am I functioning?

And yet, I have been able to take a lot of photos while exploring my new environment and thought it would be a good way to get back into the swing of things by posting a sampling of them. Here is a little eye candy from the new town I call home. I hope you enjoy the colorful visual stimulation–it is sure a lot more colorful and brighter here than in Philly.

A hummingbird mosaic on a bench at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Graffiti to knock your socks off…

A big, red sculpture at The Phoenix Theater/Art Museum…The rules of art are: if you can’t make it good, make it red. And if you can’t make it red, make it big. This is all three: good, red and big! (can you believe that blue sky?!)

Some bicycle graffiti for Rich…

Interior light at The Burton Barr Central Library…it is an amazing architectural wonder filled with light and wide open spaces and a really huge (massively huge) collection of printed matter.

And the obligatory cactus…

More eye candy will be posted on this blog as soon as possible. If you really can’t wait, then go to my Flickr site. I post photos there just about every day.

Content and photographs copyright 2007 by Janet Towbin