Many of the flowers are gone this late in the season, but the rosemary bushes we planted five years ago along the RV Drive still have their tiny blue flowers. This butterfly was kind enough to pose while this photo was taken a couple of days ago. Click on the image to enlarge.
Now that the really hot daytime temperatures have abated, we have what we call “second spring” here in Arizona. That is the time when there are still flowers blooming, bees buzzing and of course hummingbirds and butterflies browsing the remaining flowers.
I captured this image of a black and yellow butterfly alight on one of the red bird of paradise flowers in the courtyard. The butterfly browsed there long enough for me to get my camera, go out into the courtyard and take several images of it before it flew away in the late morning breeze.
Second spring will be over within just a few weeks, giving way to actual autumn-like weather with leaves turning or falling and the red bird shrubs going dormant for the late fall and winter. Although we love the summers here, it will be nice for some cooler weather to prevail and, as we know, harsh winter weather seldom comes our way. In nearly six years of living here, we have seen snow stick to the ground only once.
Click on the image to enlarge.
Late this morning, I noticed a butterfly in the courtyard among the Red Bird of Paradise flowers. I quickly got my Canon EOS camera and went out front to see if I could get some shots of the butterfly before it flew away.
The butterfly flitted here and there for a while after I got out front, but it finally settled on one of the flowers long enough for me to capture it and its pollen laden wings in this image. Click on the image to enlarge. I also got some other good images here and here.
I did not have the camera handy when the hummingbirds and butterflies were browsing the red bird flowers in the courtyard, but I did manage to get this big black bee doing its thing. We have pollinators of all kinds including this guy, the afore mentioned hummingbirds, bees of all kinds and yellow-jackets that frequent these beautiful summertime flowers.
We saw, but did not manage to photograph more critters today. We had the usual little ground squirrels, cottontail rabbits, black-tailed jackrabbits, a bunch of lizards of varying species and one lonely coyote crossing the north property line eastbound. We hope he keeps moving on . . .
Click on the image to enlarge.
This is the little Mammillaria yaquensis fishhook cactus that our friend Crotalus presented to us last fall when we met in Palm Desert. The cactus had this flower open yesterday and there are two more buds that may open soon.
This cactus and the other two Crotalus brought to the RV campground now reside in the courtyard in front of our house. There are several other cacti out there plus some tomatoes, squash and basil that we hope to be able to use in the kitchen.
Click on the image to enlarge.
I took the Roadrunner (our 32 foot Georgetown RV) to top off the fuel tanks yesterday in anticipation of a planned excursion this month. On the way back in the RV drive, I noticed that the large mesquite adjacent to the concrete was hanging in the way and I made contact with some of the small branches as I drove up to the back of the house.
Damsel and I cut a lot of the tree down before, but it has grown a lot since then. We cleared the tree in June when we brought the RV back, so it must have grown a bunch in less than a complete month since then.
We removed three large branches and sawed the closest to the driveway trunk flush to the ground. The remaining part of the tree is growing away from the RV drive and shouldn’t be a problem anytime soon.
I didn’t take a before photo of the tree, but the after is the image on the left above. On the right is the pile of branches that we drug across the road to be further cut up and disposed at another time, possibly later this week or next. Click on the images to enlarge.
All three of my Caesalpinia pulcherrima shrubs in the courtyard are now producing flowers. I took this close-up of one of the flowers this afternoon.
The individual flowers only last a day or two, but the racemes have dozens of flower pods opening from bottom to top which gives the appearance of having perpetual orange, red and yellow flowers in the courtyard. We have the colors all summer and into the fall.
Click on the image to enlarge.
