Frida Khalo at the Tucson Botanical Garden

Frida Khalo and Diego  Rivera were artists and activists.

They were gardeners, too.

Who knew?  Not I, that's for sure.  Yet Scarlett and I spent a lovely Tuesday morning with Tucson's recreation of their Casa Azul.  The blue was a perfect match to our summer skies, a perfect reminder on a cooler winter day.  The orange is echoed in every other house here in The Old Pueblo.  It all felt very close to home, tempered with a bit of I-could-never-live-so-bright-a-life.

They had a ziggurat, or is it a pyramid, or is it an artists rendering of the search for heaven?

The Botanical Garden made one just for us, and adorned it with the plants that they (and we) could grow.  There was fauna to accompany the flora, with real frogs living above the ceramic toads in their pond.

Though their walls probably didn't have explanatory posters

I'm sure the windows were exquisitely placed, just as these were.

The Botanical Garden engages the community in their programming.

These skeletons were created by Senior Citizens (sic) in one of their Outreach Programs.

They were a little creepy for our taste, but they did make me smile.

We walked past the "plant these in your garden" beds and the model railroad layout and sat on several of the lovely benches while we waited for a pause in the endless stream of high school students on a field trip to the Butterfly Exhibit.

We agreed that Frida is not our favorite artist, but that the Tucson Botanical Garden had represented her well.