When the clouds finally parted after a storm passed through here last night and this morning, there were dozens of poppies in the garden. I took this photo of one that was starting to open. It almost looks like a paper flower. Click on the image to enlarge.

Tonight, we’re back in Stormy Southern California to attend to some business and appointments here this week. As we were leaving the Arizona Outback headed for Interstate 10, I took this photo of three saguaros on a hillside with some early spring wildflowers in the foreground. Click on the image to enlarge.

Maybe if the cloud cover burns off here this evening, we will be able to see the perigee full moon. I looked at the weather maps for here and the old house in California and it appears that we may not get to see much of it, if any. We did see it big and bright last night when it was at 92% of full, though. It sure was pretty.

We are planning to depart tomorrow morning for the old house. We have some business there this coming week. The weather report says that we’re going to encounter rain, perhaps along the entire route. We’re not looking forward to driving in the rain, but c’est la vie.

Moon widget lifted from moonconnection.com

A crew from the “Sawmill” installed my beautiful custom courtyard gate yesterday. It looks better than I had imagined now that it is hanging in the archway. “The Sawmill” is the name of the business owned by the artist that carved and painted the petroglyph images on the gate. Click on the image to enlarge. Click here to view the before and after images of the courtyard archway.

We have a compost bin at the California house and we want to try to compost in Arizona as well. In California, when you set up a compost heap, the worms find it since they’re already in the soil there. Not so much in Arizona, though, so you need to supply the worms to the new bin.

Last week we set up a compost bin that we purchased at Lowe’s. We assembled the bin and put it on the west side of the house next to where we keep our trash bin. On further review, however, putting the bin where it can get direct sunlight is a bad idea since the worms can’t take extreme heat.

Image: 250 worms just after they were introduced to the compost bin (inset). Click to enlarge.

This morning, we moved the bin to the north side of the garage where sunlight is seldom seen. We put three bags of topsoil and added some kitchen scraps in the bin and wet it down. That’s where the worms come in - today we received our shipment of 250 red worms from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm. I ordered them last week on-line, and today the post office delivered them. Literally, a bag of worms.

The worms were in a cotton bag packed in dry peat which keeps them protected from heat and cold. The instructions said to introduce the worms to the bin as soon as possible and cover with some wet newspaper. They will dig their way into the earth within 24-48 hours and start doing their thing consuming decomposed scraps and such.

By next spring, we will hopefully have a nice compost heap from which we can extract nitrogen rich soil for Damsel’s desert garden.

When I went outside just at dusk, I saw this very colorful sunset. I took several photos and we both liked this one the best. The courtyard arch and the front of the house silhouette against the gorgeous sky. Click on the image to enlarge.

The love affair between leftist politicians and labor unions has been hurting business and taxpayers for years. Ramirez again demonstrates his insight and talent as he makes this point . . .

We try to write a blog post every day, but some days are too beautiful and warm for us to be inside. So this will have to do for today since we stayed out on the patio until almost dark enjoying the 78° temperature and a couple of cool ones.

The Mailbox Project is almost complete. We brought an antique milk can from California and had a hole cut in the bottom to allow a mailbox supporting post to pass through the milk can into the ground. The landscape crew, when they were working here, dug the hole in the ground and poured some concrete to secure the post in place.

We added some finishing touches to the project. First, I got a Stars and Stripes magnetic mailbox wrap to continue the patriotic theme. Second, we bought some brass numerals to put our address (inset) on the post.

We didn’t stain the post because natural aging process will eventually make the wood look rustic which is what we want. The brass numerals will also acquire a patina over time.

Click on the image to enlarge.

I hung this birdseed bell on one of the mesquite trees in our back yard to attract cardinals, and other birds, but today, this desert chipmunk jumped onto the seed bell to help itself to the easy pickins. Click on the image to enlarge.