Home & Garden

Early Spring Cholla Buds

Cholla Buds

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.

Gerbera Dasies

Gerbera Dasies

On our trip to do grocery shopping yesterday, I bought two bunches of Gerbera daisies for the vase in the great room. They had several colors, but I bought the orange and yellow ones because the colors blend nicely and brighten up the room. Click on the image to enlarge.

Weekend Flowers

Daisies

Before we did our usual shopping on Thursday, Bob brought home some white daisies for the vase, When we did go shopping, we bought some yellow ones to go with the white. These now grace our great room on the sofa table. Click on the image to enlarge.

Christmas Butterfly

christmas-butterfly.jpg

Every once in a while, I get to capture an image that ranks right up there with some of Damsel’s best photos. This time, it was purely unintentional, in that I went out to photograph some shrubs with a before photo before I started on trimming them. When I got out to the palo verde where Damsel had decorated the green tree with some red Christmas ornaments for the season, a butterfly suddenly came out of nowhere and posed on one of her ornaments. Chalk this one up to luck – AND the fact that there are still butterflies, songbirds, humming birds and other critters that remain here in spite of the cooler temperatures. We LOVE Arizona! Click on the image to enlarge.

Christmas Mailbox Flowers

Mailbox Flowers

I like to decorate our mailbox with plastic flowers. I just changed out the autumn colors with these pretty poinsettias for the Christmas season. There is an antique milk can surrounding the mailbox post that is filled with sand. It makes a handy place to put the stems of the flowers into. Click on the image to enlarge.

Christmas Decorating

Christmas trolls

Since we have a smallish house, we won’t be putting up a massive Christmas tree as we did in the old house. Instead, we have a little tabletop tree with lights and ornaments miniaturized. I always like to bring out a couple of my cute little troll dolls to add to the festive mood. Click on the image to enlarge.