Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Environment

Buckhorn Cholla Flower Season

Not exactly an Easter Lily, but . . .

This is one of the many flowers or flower buds on the various buckhorn cholla (Cylindropuntia acanthocarpa) cacti around the yard. Some are open like this one and some are still in the bud stage waiting for their turn.

I was finishing filling the bird feeders today and stopped to snap this shot with my Samsung S23. (I know, I have better cameras, but this one turned out OK, didn’t it?) Click on the image to enlarge.

We have been a little slow on getting blogs to post, and there is a good, but, undisclosed for now, reason. We’ll try to do better over the next several weeks as the disturbances are abating somewhat.

With the season of Easter upon us, may we wish you and yours a very Happy Easter!! HE IS RISEN!!

04 Apr 2026 by Arizona Environment Flowers Home & Garden Photography Religion

The Raging Hassayampa River

The local weather has provided us with much needed rainfall, but not without some flooding in certain areas. We have been OK here in our domicile, but some have had minor flooding in town, with some more major incidents throughout the state. The normally-dry Hassayampa River (clickable image) had running water on Wednesday when Damsel took this photo.

We’re high and dry here and the rain storms are expected to subside into our regular sunny fall weather after this coming weekend. So, we expect to be OK for the Thanksgiving holiday next week. Our retirement itinerary has us shopping tomorrow (Thursday 11/20/25) and stocking up on groceries such that we won’t need to shop during Thanksgiving week.

We’ll post about our Thanksgiving Holiday next week.

19 Nov 2025 by Arizona Environment Notions Photography

Excursion Progress

Image: Weather in the Albuquerque area this evening – courtesy Damsel – Click to enlarge

It has been over two weeks since since posting about our progress on the big summer RV excursion. At this point, to make a very long story short, we’re on the last couple of stops before returning to our home. In the image above, you can see the weather in the area where we’re camped.

Damsel has been posting some photos on social media, but we have been remiss in doing that here. A major reason for the lack of posting is some adversarial conditions encountered, which I won’t elaborate on now. Perhaps I will in our trip summary to be posted when we’re settled in at home again.

We got as far as the Atlantic Ocean in North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. We made our way back to our present location by following several interesting locations and finally along historic route 66.

Meanwhile, we’re making progress and will be done with the excursion real soon.

10 Aug 2025 by Environment Wanderlust

Revival of the Compost Bin

In the post on Imbolc Weekend, I mentioned that our compost bin needed rejuvenation by virtue of a new bag of worms. I ordered 500 wrigglers from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm at that time; today, the worms arrived and I followed the recommended instructions to introduce them to the heap within the bin. I assume that they are happily getting busy with their program of converting our compost items into vermicast.

When we replaced our old compost bin with this one, I predicted that it, also, wouldn’t last very long in Arizona, like it’s predecessor, but it has hung in there for nearly 10 years now. Here’s a photo of the bin then and now:

As you can see, the lid is a little warped and needs to be secured with a bungee, but the ol’ bin is still doing its job of keeping the compost heap, worms, castings and soil contained within.

05 Feb 2025 by Arizona Environment Home & Garden

Cardinalis Cardinalis

I took my Canon EOS Rebel SL3 camera with me on my morning walk, when this Cardinal lit atop the anti-squirrel cone on the bird feeder crook. Zoom lens set to 250mm in the camera’s “program” mode, which is the setting for automatically adjusting aperture, shutter speed and ISO speed. Clickable image.

It is a nice, sunny morning here with temperatures in the 50s F. The forecast is for possible rain over night and for the next few days. We need it.

UPDATE: [02/05/25] In the interest of being fair and balanced, I took an image of the Female of the Cardinalis species in a mesquite tree out back near the birdfeeders. Click to open the image viewer.

26 Jan 2025 by Arizona Critters Environment Home & Garden Notions Photography

First Day of Winter 2024-2025

Today marks the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere. It is also the shortest day for us with only nine hours and fifty-six minutes of daylight.

In Wickenburg, we’re enjoying a nice sunny day and expecting a high temperature today in the mid-70s Fahrenheit. It is also The Sabbath, God’s Day of Rest. We will be preparing our feast of “Gumbolaya,” which is a combination of Gumbo and Jambalaya, two very favorite Southern (Cajun) stews. If we add okra to the Jambalaya, it becomes Gumbolaya.

Tomorrow, for Sunday Dinner, we will be having Crockpot Roast Top Round of Beef. Check the Food Blog for photos of the eats.

Clickable Image above: Waning Gibbous Moon over the big Saguaro Cactus in front of the Garage.

21 Dec 2024 by Arizona Environment Food & Dining

Second Spring

The weather outlook in our little patch of Arizona looks to be cooling off somewhat; that is, high temps of less than 100°F. In our experience, this indicates not autumn, but our “second spring” for the next few weeks. As you can see in the image above, cactus flowers are now appearing on our “Devil’s Tongue” (ferocactus latispinus).

My camera caught some other interesting things as seen below . . .

This is a Black Hawk which soared above our place yesterday. They look similar to turkey buzzards, but they lack the bright red head the buzzards are known to have.

And, as fall advances, the fruit on our lemon tree are beginning to ripen. We will be making Limoncello around year’s end.

Some of the most commonly seen birds in the area are doves. This Mourning Dove perched in the mesquite tree where we place bird feeders year around.

Click on any image to enlarge.

14 Sep 2024 by Arizona Critters Environment Flowers

Categories

Archives