Hat tip to my Buddy and former colleague, Frank. Click on the image to enlarge.
Afterthought: He’s also the World’s Biggest Liar.
March 2014
Beavertail Madness
This beavertail transplant sure is going crazy in its new place in the rock and cactus garden. I suspect that it benefits from some nearby citrus trees irrigation runoff. It is one of several we transplanted a couple of years ago from the unimproved part of the lot and is, by far, the most prolific in terms of paddle and flower production. Click on the image to enlarge.
Richard Milhaus Obama
. . . and the mass media ignores it. Ramirez, however, pens this insightful editorial cartoon:
Wildflowers In The Desert
Wildflowers are popping up all over the desert according to what we see locally and read in Arizona Highways. We see them growing along the roads, in the hills and in some very unusual places, like this poppy in a block wall down the road from our little desert cottage. Nature perseveres in natural and unnatural places. Click on the image to enlarge.
We may take a drive one of these days to where the flowers are known to grow in abundance in order to get a wildflower photo-op. Stay tuned.
Freesias in the Planter Box
Some of the bulbs I keep in the courtyard planter are starting to have flowers. This week. these freesias opened up. I expect to have paperwhites and daffodils soon. I will also have amaryllis and hyacinth flowers to post soon. Click on the image to enlarge.
Circumhelical Arc
I went out onto the courtyard this afternoon to try and photograph sunspotsbut had no luck since there was a thin overcast layer of cirrus clouds. Damsel noticed that there was an arc around the sun so I positioned myself underneath the big saguaro out front and took this image of the phenomenon.
The halo around the sun reminds me of some of the halos around the heads in medieval art works such as “Madonna y Bambino” and other halo-worthy holy figures that we saw in The Vatican, Rome and Florence, Italy a few years ago. Click on the image to enlarge.
Claret Cup Cactus Flowers
The red flowers on the hedgehog cactus down the road by the bank are opening. We were shopping today and I took the time to walk over to the landscaped area where these were in bloom.
I hope everyone likes cactus flowers because this is the time of the year when we will be posting a lot of cactus flower images. Click on the image to enlarge.