Scottsdale and Taliesin West

Caesalipinia Pulcherrima, or Red Bird of Paradise

It is hot hot hot here in Scottsdale today. It's the hottest day we have had in Arizona so far and it makes it hard to do anything outside. But I did take pictures of some Arizona flowers--the colors are so great. You only really see them in the resort areas and parks, where they are watered regularly. Everything else is so dry and you see little grass or color.

Bougainvillea

We drove into Old Scottsdale in the morning to look around, visited a few art galleries and shops. But it seemed so dead, as hardly anyone was outside.  In the afternoon we went to Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home in Arizona. We took a tour of the house and grounds and loved it. We have been to Fallingwater in PA and liked that house so much. Taliesin West is the house he built with the money he received for building Fallingwater (there is another Taliesin in Wisconsin where he would spend his summers). The interplay of house and nature is so great. Most of the rooms open to the outside, even the bedrooms. We especially appreciated his concept of "compress and release," meaning you go through narrow doorways and hallways to "compress" and then"release" upon entering a larger room. It was cool. Also the way he used lighting, dark and light.

There are several pools around the house, and believe me,  everyone on the tour was ready to jump in! Most of the land is dry and full of brush and cacti, but there are some gardens right by the house with some pretty flowers and lots of sculpture.

And I loved these trees, they are called Palo Verdes trees, and they are the state tree of Arizona. The picture doesn't show it so well, but the bark is a really pretty chartreusey green.

Palo Verde tree

We ate dinner tonight at a restaurant in Scottsdale called Bloom (shrimp tagliatelle for Walt, and roast chicken and stuffing for moi), and now it's time to pack up. We leave for home tomorrow afternoon. A great trip for us, good to see some places so totally new and different. And the Grand Canyon--that was the best. A good vacances.