| We actually started our travels in Bordeaux, France
with an Easyjet flight to Luton. This Airbus 319 was only 3 days old. It was
very quiet but without many of the frills (like TV screens and full catering)
that the long haul jets have, but these are not really needed on a 1 hr 20min flight. The
weather was fine and Bordeaux is an easy airport to travel from. |  |
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Luton was cold and miserable, as was Heathrow a few days later as we boarded
this Boeing 747-400 for Phoenix. It was crowded but comfortable enough for
the long 10.5 hour flight. It was late out of Heathrow and late into
Phoenix. We were then even later as we waited on the wrong floor for our
friends to meet us. Eventually we linked up, but by then we were pretty
shattered. |
| We stayed with them in Scottsdale, a suburb of
Phoenix, while we recovered from the jet lag and worked out what to do next.
It wasn't as warm as we had expected but still a very comfortable 25˚C and sunny.
We have not been here this early in the year and the bougainvillea flowers
were out in profusion. |  |
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I particularly like the feathery flowers of the fairy duster. |
| This is the flower from the aptly named orchid tree.
The leaves are large and can be almost folded in half like a closed book. |  |
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But it is the desert cacti and succulents which are most striking
since these are unfamiliar to us. The spikes on these sotol are flowers. The Phoenix area
gets about 7 inches of rain per year, usually all at once in July/August
with lighter (female) rains around Christmas. |
| This is the citrus season and our friends have a
number of established trees. We are discovering the joys of true freshly
squeezed orange juice and a particularly sweet variant called a tangelo. I'd
like one but I can't see us growing it back home, even in a greenhouse. |  |
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We have also been picking lemons and making fresh lemonade. At the moment
the lemons are falling faster than we can drink so the freezer is filling
up. I could cope with life in this season but I gather it gets pretty nasty
in July and August with very high temperatures and humidity. Our friends (in
common with snowbirds) head north for cooler climes. |
| But for the moment it is what to do with the lemons,
so Jan became part of the lemon meringue pie production line. This is true
luxury! |  |
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The fairly constant sunshine makes this a good area for solar power and
the city of Tempe has a commercial solar power station. This is one of many panels at
the station. Consumers here can pay a premium to be nominally supplied with
solar energy. |
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