Where Do You Spring From?

Road Dust and Writing Signs 2026

Hello readers,

Well, it’s supposed to be spring, but in Wisconsin, spring has more starts and stops than a jerky roller coaster.

Now that we’re home in Wisconsin, I appreciate the erratic weather for a few reasons. First, the Arizona winter tested my patience and love of adjectives, offering only two descriptive words: hot and dry. From January until we left, those words sufficed for the daily topic of conversation. Second, I missed grass and trees, and the color that accompanies them: green. There’s not a lot of green in Arizona, not where we visited, anyway.

My beef with Arizona is petty to be sure because there’s beauty, great hiking, and fantastic birding, too. I added at least thirty new birds to my life list, highlighted by five hummingbird species (Anna’s, Broad-billed, Broad-tailed, Rivoli’s, and Violet-Crowned). An amazing spectacle happens nightly at Whitewater Draw in Cochise County. As the winter sun sets behind the Sky Islands (mountain ranges), tens of thousands of sandhill cranes and snow geese emerge in droves to settle in the shallow water marsh reserve overnight. Yellow-headed blackbirds arrive, too, swooping in a choreographed dance ending in a collective death spiral into the fields. The cacophony is jarring and unforgettable long after the last bird lands.

I hiked at high altitude in Pacacho Peak State Park and Sedona, inspired by their vistas and challenged by their austere surroundings. Since I like to experience the world through multiple senses, I was compelled to touch every cactus and bush on those hikes, testing the strength and intensity factor of their barbs. Some of the leaves on certain succulents could double as saw blades or even swords, prompting me to consider how they might be useful as a murder weapon in a future mystery.

In the coming days, you can catch me online as Author For The Day, May 2nd, on the Global Girls Online Book Club https://www.facebook.com/groups/2707378716037558

Or live on May 4th via Zoom on The Cozy Mystery Party page at 6 p.m. central time here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cozymysteryparty

Meanwhile, I’m visiting bookstores in Wisconsin to say hello and shop. I hope you will support our wonderful independent bookstores wherever you live because we need small businesses to keep our communities vibrant.

Signing off for now from nippy, drafty, misty, muddy, squishy, blooming Wisconsin!

Joy