With the advent of the Christmas Season, each year, I put out our usual ornaments and decorations. The red balls on the green palo verde tree, the poinsettias around the mailbox, the wreath on the courtyard gate and the Nutcracker Guards on either side of the walkway.
Inside, we have a little Christmas tree, some Christmas troll dolls and a chili pepper wreath, among other various and sundry Christmas items. We are ready for our fifth Christmas in our wonderful retirement palace.
It has been quite cool here for the past several nights. We actually found some ice topping one of the rain barrels this morning. It was then that we decided to harvest the lemons from our little lemon tree. The tree will be covered afterward to prevent any frost damage.
This harvest was a bit smaller than last year, but there are plenty of lemons to provide for our needs as well as for giving away to one of the senior care centers. One of the ladies on the staff makes lemon pies from scratch, so they appreciate them.
As for us, we will be skinning a bunch of lemons for Limoncello, and freezing “juice cubes” to be used as needed for cooking this coming year. Click on the image to enlarge.
For several years, I have had a collection of cacti in pots in and behind the patio. This week, I moved several of them into the courtyard where we will be able to enjoy them more than out back.
The potted cacti include some recently acquired ones courtesy of Crotalus, our friend in the California desert. Thanks to him for those. Several of these will await next spring to display their flowers, while others will continue to grow to the point where We will need to re-pot them or put them in the rock and cactus garden.
I was in the courtyard today with my camera intending to take some photos of Bob planting a couple of new xeriscape acquisitions when I noticed this little goldfinch taking seeds from the front feeder. He was not startled by my appearance in the courtyard and just stayed perched on the feeder taking the Nyjer seeds. I approached him and got several shots like the one above before he finally took off.
I looked up goldfinch on Wikipedia and found that there are several varieties of them. The ones that come around here are called the Dark Backed “Lesser” Goldfinch. They are a very small songbird according to the Wikipedia Article:
The lesser goldfinch or dark-backed goldfinch (Spinus psaltria) is a very small songbird of the Americas. Together with its relatives the American goldfinch and Lawrence’s goldfinch, it forms the American goldfinches clade in the genus Spinus sensu stricto.
The American goldfinches can be distinguished by the males having a black (rarely green) forehead, whereas the latter is (like the rest of the face) red or yellow in the European goldfinch and its relatives. North American males are markedly polymorphic and 5 subspecies are often named; at least 2 of them seem to represent a less-progressed stage in evolution however.
The second spring seems to have come to an end since the lows are now in the mid-forties and the highs rarely get above 70. Fall is upon us, I’m afraid.
The porch thermometer was at 48° after nine this morning when we took the dogs for their first morning walk. With the little breeze blowing, it felt more like 38°.
The forecast is for warmer on the weekend when we will be attending our annual Bluegrass Days festival up at the rodeo grounds. More on that later. Meanwhile, enjoy the image of a nice cool afternoon in our corner of the desert. Click on the image to enlarge.
When we walk the dogs for their daily trip up the road, we pass a neighbor’s property which is still unimproved/unmaintained natural desert, complete with creosote, mesquite, cat’s paw and a host of native cacti. There is this one little shrub that we have been passing and not paying much mind to it. Recently, seed pods resembling blowfish have appeared. Out of curiosity, I went to our desert guide to see if I could find a match. I found Sacred Datura to be a match for what we were seeing.
I looked up sacred datura on Wikipedia and found that the binomial name was Datura Wrightii which is a hallucinogenic herb used by some native American tribes.
Datura wrightii or sacred datura is the name of a poisonous perennial plant and ornamental flower of southwestern North America. It is sometimes used as a hallucinogen. D. wrightii is classified as a deliriant and an anticholinergic.
It is a vigorous herbaceous perennial that grows 30 cm to 1.5 m tall and wide. The leaves are broad and rounded at the base, tapering to a point, often with wavy margins. The flowers are the most striking feature, being sweetly fragrant white trumpets up to 20 cm (7.9 in) long, often tinted purple, especially at the margin. Five narrow points are spaced symmetrically around the rim. It can bloom from April to October. In clear weather, flowers open at nearly full dark and wither a few hours after sunrise the following morning; in cloudy weather, they may open earlier and last longer.
The seeds are borne in a spiny, globular capsule 3 to 4 cm in diameter, which opens when fully ripe.
D. wrightii is found in northern Mexico and the adjoining U. S. states, as far north as southern Utah, in open land with well-drained soils. It is also commonly planted as an ornamental, especially in xeriscapes.
The name commemorates the botanist Charles Wright.
Given that it is used in xeriscapes, we might try and obtain some of the seeds to cultivate new plants we can use for the rock and cactus garden.
Today was a busy day for us. Actually, the whole week has been an entire disruption to our peaceful little retirement routine. Monday, I went to the dentist for my regular cleaning and check-up and the exam showed I had a broken molar that should be crowned. Wasting no time, I went back in on Tuesday to get that work done. Wednesday, we took a trip down to the northwest Phoenix metro area to do some shopping and what not. All the while under stormy skies. I think this might be a record-setting October for rainfall in recent years.
Back to today – we went grocery shopping for our coming weekend meal preparation (the whole week, actually) and afterward, we both had appointments with the dermatologist. The “derm” eradicated several skin lesions on each of us with oversized Q-tips dipped in liquid nitrogen. He did not find anything that could be considered a health risk like skin cancer, but he did say to come back every six months or so for a check-up. Too many years in the desert sun without sunscreen (not available in our youth) takes its toll.
The stormy weather cleared up today and we got considerable sunshine as we went about our business. The yellow roses in the flower concession were beautiful and I now have a dozen in the vase on the sofa table. Click on the image to enlarge.
