In about five weeks or so, I expect to have gorgeous flowers on this hedgehog cactus. This is one of two cacti that are out in front of the house close to the road. Both had flowers last spring.
One of these days, Bob will be moving a couple more hedgehogs from the back hill to locations also near the road. Hopefully, those cacti will also have flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.
Technically, the first day of spring is not for over a month from now, but we have our first daffodil coming up in the bulb planter in the courtyard. I went out to water the flowers today and was surprised to see this lovely miniature yellow daffodil opened up. There are several more coming as well.
We have been enjoying spring-like weather since after some rain came through here a couple of weeks ago. Today’s high temperature was 72° with forecast for up into the 80’s by next weekend. Nights are still cool, but well above freezing. Click on the image to enlarge.
About a month ago, I received some hyacinth bulbs we ordered on line. I have four of them growing in bulb vases forcing the roots out and the plant to grow.
This one started opening a week ago and smells wonderful. I have three others coming up and it looks like another two are going to be pink as well. The bulb vendor said various colors so I’m hoping to have some red, blue, yellow and white hyacinth flowers this spring.
There is this interesting story about these flowers originating from Greek mythology on Wikipedia:
In Greek mythology, Hyacinth was a beautiful youth loved by both the god Apollo and the West Wind, Zephyr. Apollo and Hyacinth took turns at throwing the discus. Hyacinth ran to catch it to impress Apollo, but he was struck by the discus as it fell to the ground, and died.
A twist in the tale makes the wind god Zephyrus responsible for the death of Hyacinth. The youth’s beauty caused a feud between Zephyrus and Apollo. Jealous that Hyacinth preferred the radiant archery god Apollo, Zephyrus blew Apollo’s discus off course, so as to injure and kill Hyacinth.
Apollo did not allow Hades to claim Hyacinth. Instead, Apollo made a flower, the hyacinth, from Hyacinth’s spilled blood.
Click on the image to enlarge.
I wandered around our little patch of desert this morning taking photos. I captured pictures of cacti, critters, rock garden, etc.
My original purpose was to get up on the hill out back and take pictures of the top of the RV to see if there would be any problems installing the new cover we ordered for it. It looks like there are no objects to adversely impact the installation.
The slideshow leads off with “the big guy,” our saguaro cactus out front, followed by Damsel’s rock and cactus garden, one of the hidden hedgehog cacti up on the hill, a view of our neighbor’s house on the hill across the little wash, quail and a squirrel snacking on critter crunch, a compass barrel cactus on the hill, beavertail prickly pear cactus in the landscape cover, a place on the hill under a palo verde tree, a desert lizard and another hedgehog in the river rock landscape cover.
On our weekly shopping trip, as usual, we bought some flowers for the house. During the winter season, tulips are generally available. We bought these nice, mostly orange tulips with bright yellow highlights. Most of the dozen stems are in the vase on the dining room table with one in a bud vase in our bathroom. Click on the image to enlarge.
I took this image of our little desert house just after sunset this evening as we were walking the dogs. The light from the fiery sunset in progress at that time gives a wonderful glow over my little dream home.
The temperatures have been mild for the last month, but there is possible rain coming over the weekend, The temperatures are forecast for a little cooler in the wake of the rain than the nice 70 plus degree days we have recently had. Click on the image to enlarge.
For most of January, we have enjoyed warmer daytime temperatures, like in the high 60’s and low 70’s. It is still quite possible for winter to hit here again, but in the meantime, we’re enjoying “faux spring.” Some of the cacti on the lot also seem to be responding to the warm trend.
I was up on the hill behind the RV drive hanging the bird feeders that Damsel refilled yesterday afternoon. I walked over to inspect some of the buckhorn cholla cacti because I saw some cactus wrens and a couple of curve billed thrashers hanging around them. I thought I might see evidence of a nest or two being built, but all I saw was some new buds starting to appear on the cholla. Damsel reminded me later that the cholla on the hill always seem to get flowers sooner than the ones down on the front of the lot. Click on the image to enlarge.