This will be the centerpiece on today’s holiday table. God bless those brave souls that paved the way to our freedom with their blood. Have a great holiday, everyone. Click image to enlarge.

Our new town features a very Western motif in the downtown area. The Desert Caballeros Western Museum is at the corner of Wickenburg Way and Tegner which is the intersection of U.S. Hwys 60 and 93, right in the heart of the old downtown area. The bronze sculpture in the center is called “Thanks For The Rain” and features a cowboy reverently kneeling next to his horse. Click on the image to enlarge Damsel’s photo.

By the way, if you’re interested in nerdy 3D images, we put an anaglyph image of the sculpture on the family site. You will need red/cyan or red/blue 3D glasses to view it.

I look forward to late spring and early summer in our patio garden when the cactus flowers bloom. This flower is open today on my Bishop’s Cap cactus which is so named because of its shape. Click on the image to enlarge.

The early spring flowers that I had in the planters on the front porch were pretty much done for the year, so I went to the garden shop and got some Asian lilies for the planters. Yesterday, I went out the front door and I was greeted by this colorful flower. There will be more like this. Click on the image to enlarge.

From Planet Gore:

House Approves ‘Black Boxes’ in Cars
By Greg Pollowitz

This picture says it all:

There was some bipartisan agreement — hybrid cars will now be made noisy:

The bill calls for hybrid and electric cars to be equipped with “alert sounds” that would “allow the pedestrian to reasonably detect a nearby electric or hybrid vehicle.” Some safety advocates have warned that the near-silence of electric and hybrid vehicles could make the cars silent killers.

Out of curiosity, how can Waxman call that a nose? I saw the guy once a long time ago, and yes, his schnoz does look like that.

Via The Patriot Post:

“The fact is, Mexico has two big exports: Oil, and their second biggest export is poverty to the United States — from which, in remittances sent back to Mexico, they get $21 billion a year. Mr. Calderon has a stake in illegal immigration to our country.” — columnist George Will

We stopped in at the local home improvement center to get a few things for the garden. I just love going in the flowers and shrubs area in the springtime. There are always plenty of beautiful flowers on display. These flowers, according to the label, are Dahlia Dahlinova hybrids. Whatever you call them, they are sure beautiful flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.

While we were visiting Wickenburg, we stopped in the small town’s only gun store, The Gun Trader. List of services:

• BUY—SELL—TRADE
• Shotguns
• New and Used
• Good variety of Accessories
• Rifles
• Handguns
• A large selection of AMMUNITION
• We sell Hunting & Fishing Licenses

I introduced myself to “Roger,” the proprietor, and took a look around the shop. There were a lot of long guns, both rifles and shotguns. The ammo shelves were very well stocked.

There are a couple of photos of the interior of the shop here.

The Gun Trader isn’t the only store in town that carries ammo. We found some for sale in the local hardware store although the selection was sparse - sort of like it is everywhere.

We are glad that there is a local outlet for firearms. We will be making the occasional trip down to Cabela’s in Glendale, about 45 miles, but we’re happy they aren’t the closest dealer to our new place.

While we were in Arizona earlier this month, Damsel and I went to take some photos of the new property. I took a series of images and stitched them into a 360° panoramic view of the lot and the neighborhood. In the thumbnail above, Damsel is standing on the pad where the new house will stand sometime this fall.

Click on the thumbnail and use the scrollbars on your browser to view the entire panorama.

We visited the South Coast Botanic Gardens today to view the exhibits of the annual bonsai show and sale. This Foemina Juniper is one of the many interesting and creative exhibits. Click on the image to enlarge.