During my recent visit to the US, I attended my brother's wedding in Phoenix, Arizona. Our hotel was in Tempe, a university district and while the weather was quite hot, almost 30C, the early mornings were more comfortable for exploratory strolls round the area.
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| desert plants |
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| shade sails over the vegetable beds |
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| municipal offices of tempe, arizona |
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| xeriscaping |
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| wild west cactus, actually saguaro or Carnegiea gigantea |
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| no boggy ground or bull rushes here... |
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| three blacktail jackrabbit sculpture in tempe, the grass is rake but the water is real |
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| tempe is a fairly pedestrian friendly area |
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| at first i thought this was a modern sculpture, but its some sort of water pipe system |
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| shade sails are everywhere in the phoenix area |
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| stone cobbles in gabions used nicely to divide public / private space |
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| major construction in tempe |
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| notice all the solar panels on the roofs, there to power air-conditioning |
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| arizona wildcats football stadium and car park, more solar panels |
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| a beautiful mosque in tempe, looks like a scene from the middle east.. |
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| nice simple water fountain in a shady place |
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| part of the shady garden 'under' the municipal buildings in tempe |
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| more shade sails, i was studying these closely as i have to build something similar soon.. |
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| monster truck! |
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| a rare thing in the US, public transport... |
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| the oldest building in tempe, monti's restaurant, built in 1871 |
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| these trees were planted everywhere but i didn't find out what they were... |
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| another public space with an emphasis on creating shade |
