One of the usage examples for this week’s word was from Caitlin L. Gannon’s Southwestern Women: New Voices:
In southern Arizona, it rains in summer, and I’m impatient for the monsoon torrents of August, for an indulgence of water, a baptism that will roister over rocks and swell profluent down the mountainside, roll through the rubble of the canyon floor…
This immediately brought to mind an August afternoon in our first summer in Santa Fe, and our introduction to “monsoon season.” The sky got dark very quickly, followed by cracks of lightening and thunder, followed by a 30 minute torrential downpour. The rain came down so hard we ran inside and watched from the porch as the arroyo running along one side of our house filled almost to the brim. And as soon as the rain calmed, we donned rain jackets, pants and boots to see if there was any damage. Luckily not.
It’s winter now, so the arroyos are dry. But I took some pictures (that’s one above — the water came almost to the top of the stones in the lower left of the picture that August two summers ago), printed a few and propped them up next to my computer to look at. I also took pictures of arroyos around town.
What I love about the southwest are the muted colors, especially the browns of adobe houses, against the brilliant blue sky. The paintings below, all by Georgia O’Keeffe, give you an idea of that contrast of brown and blue. 
Besides brown, the other prevalent color is green — the dark green of pinon pines and the sage-gray-green of chamisa. After looking at my photos for a week, I wanted a structure that would mimic the pictures I had taking of arroyos, but emphasize the shapes and colors. So I made a tunnel book, trying to use the layers to show the depth in the photos.
Next word: carp, n; a peevish complaint.
carp, v; to peevishly complain (!)
Mary, thanks — that’s what I get for blindly cutting & pasting too early in the morning! I’ve changed it to a noun…. But the word of the day usage examples are for the verb form, so probably that’s what I should concentrate on. Also, wonder why they don’t include the fish “carp” in the definition?
Well, now you know I’m reading every word, every letter of your blog. Great lighting of the tunnel book, by the way. I’m always a bit saddened by at how little light penetrates the deeper layers of a tunnel book. I normally find myself squinting to make out the most interior details.