We were on the road today to the West Valley and back. The trip is scenic in the areas where the saguaro and teddy bear cholla grow. These saguaros are on a hillside above the little pass on US 60 between Morristown and Wickenburg. Click on the image to enlarge.
More than a month after the first day of spring, a cold front is passing through Arizona today. We’re having breezy, showery weather with temperatures sub-sixties. Both of us (and the dogs) have bundled up a bit, since we’re already getting used to the eighty and ninety degree days of late spring. Shorts and tank tops gave way to sweat pants and hoodies.
The weather in Flagstaff, AZ, shown above, is not typical of this time of year, even at their 7000 foot elevation. Yarnell, AZ, just eighteen miles north of us, is forecasting snow showers this afternoon at their 5500 foot elevation. We don’t expect snow here at 2000 feet above sea level, but the windchill had us scrambling for our winter wardrobe having already been put away.
The good news is that we’re going to see a warming trend in the coming weeks. Tomorrow will be fair enough for me to do some outdoor grilling. We’re looking forward to that.
Meanwhile, the GREENBATS® will blame the weather on CO2, no matter what the actual climate engine brings us.
Some of the best things about living in the semi-rural desert is watching the wildlife and seeing the beautiful cactus flowers. There is always something going on.
I was out in the front yard spraying for weeds yesterday, when I noticed a curve-billed thrasher suddenly flush out of a nearby cholla cactus. I put down the spray bottle to investigate and discovered that the thrashers had restored their nest in the cactus from last year. I peeked in and saw three eggs in the nest. Luckily, I had my Canon SX40 still strapped around my neck and held it above the cholla to get this shot of the eggs in the nest. Click on the image to enlarge.
Just like the President who is jetting to the Pacific Northwest and Asia today, we are celebrating Earth Day by cranking out as much CO2 as possible. We started by taking the 6.0 liter GMC truck in for service and firing up Damsel’s car to transport me round trip to take the truck in and pick it up later. We’re just sorry that we have to stick around home this week and can’t load up the dogs and go for a 200 mile scenic tour of our beautiful desert.
This evening, we will celebrate by watching two baseball games on our two big screen TVs simultaneously. Although we seldom do this, we will turn on the outside sconces (all seven of them) three in front, three on the garage and one on the back patio. We might even turn on the four RV drive floodlights.
To understand our motivation for doing this, we invite you to visit the Climate and Global Warming Resources Page which will direct you to several works that expose the Global Warming Hoax for what it is – a political sham. Read this page to see why the sun is the major factor in climate determination.
The first day of spring is finally here, although we already have longer days than nights (12hr, 10min of sunlight today) and the temperatures have been spring-like for weeks. The wildflowers and cacti are in bloom and the garden flowers are open. The Red Bird of Paradise shrubs in the courtyard are sporting their seasonal growth. We expect to see their colorful flowers as early as May or June.
The image above is a screen capture of the dynamic depiction of the grand octal earth orbital clock at Archaeoastronomy.com. I captured the image when planet Earth paused briefly at the Vernal Equinox position in the orbit. Click on the image to enlarge (slightly).
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.
Since about a week ago, we have observed several turkey buzzards (vultures) circling above our area. These scavengers seem to migrate away from us during the colder months, but they are back in force.
Damsel took this photo of a gaggle of the buzzards overhead as we were driving down US 60 on our way to town for an appointment and to do some shopping at one of the “bigger” stores down in the west valley (Wal Mart). Click on the image to enlarge.
It seems to us that this many buzzards would indicate nothing but warm temperatures ahead. We’re still waiting for our favorite time of the year when the daytime temperatures go into triple digits. We think the buzzards like it too.