I'm pretty familiar with the insect life of Northern Indiana/Southern Michigan. I lived there for a good chunk of my life. Instinctively I just know about plant life there, what perennials can survive the harshness of a Midwest winter, when to plant a garden to avoid the risk of frost, when wheat is planted, the rotation of crops, the predominant trees that fill the Midwestern landscape, what too many gray days and the up and down of the barometric pressure does to one's mind, spirit and body.

There is not much I do know about where I am now, except that everyday the sun comes up brilliantly set against a big blue sky. I know that it is cool in the morning, warm in the day and cool again in the evening. I know that I have never seen (short of a Texas sky) so many stars at night. I pretty much know that I don't instinctively know much about Arizona or much about Prescott like I do about Indiana.
I don't cook much with recipes. That doesn't always help family members who want recipes. Cooking is a feeling and instinctive thing for me. I suppose I operate best in instinctively feeling my way through things. I'm most definitely not there with this culture, these geographics, this flora or the critter and insect world, yet.


There are bugs and creatures here that are not present in the Midwest. Case in point, tarantulas are not found in the wild in Indiana unless they are escapees from a cage in some quirkily strange teenager's room.
Walking down a mountain road yesterday Doug looked down and saw something. We both bent over to see what it was. It was a dead tarantula! Still quite large even though it had met death by the tire of a car as it no tried to cross the road. I don't have instinctive knowledge but fear!

I don't know the plant life here at all except to be able to say, with some measure of confidence, "Look at that cactus!". I have no real knowledge, instinctiveness without having been taught or garnered over time, of what plants survive the hot sun, how long a shingled roof lasts here or a paint job on a houses' exterior.
It's been good to be shoved out of my comfort zone of instinctive knowledge. I do know this; I will most definitely take tarantulas and sunny blue skies daily over volatile rising and falling barometric gray Indiana and infestations of lady bugs.
Check back with me after I have seen a scorpion or a rattlesnake up close. I know I don't like either of those.
Ahhhh...but Prescott doesn't have ME in it...now THERE is a huge negative!
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