Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Photography

Outback Mail Boxes

Outback Mail Boxes

We pass a lot of mail box clusters when traveling along US 60 in the Arizona “outback,” between Wickenburg and Interstate 10 near Brenda, AZ. This particular cluster is near Hope, AZ. There is nothing particularly interesting about mail boxes except this cluster has one mail box that is eight feet off of the ground. What’s up with that?

I took this photo today on our way to Palm Desert, CA. We are amused by the maverick mail box and as we have passed this spot dozens of times in our travels between home and California. We wonder if there is a big rig RV or truck that uses that box or if it is simply a joke. It is just plain weird and funny at the same time.

28 Oct 2015 by Arizona Humor Photography Wanderlust

A Beautiful Yellow Rosebud

A Beautiful Yellow Rosebud

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.

22 Oct 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

A Landscape Waterfall

Waterfall

We took a little detour today along the street just to the north of our little road. We have lived here for almost five years and had not driven through this segment of our very local neighborhood. We were stunned to see several beautiful homes and landscapes, but none of them compared to this one where the homeowner installed a water feature on the front of the lot.

This working waterfall must have been ten to twelve feet in height from source to the pond below. This property is similar to our situation where the house is on a berm above the road, but the similarity ends there. This place had giant boulders stacked in front with embedded cacti, trees and this waterfall. I looked at some of the photos that I took and there appeared to be accent lighting on the property. It will be interesting to take the short walk some evening this fall and see if they’re all lit up. Click on the image to enlarge.

08 Oct 2015 by Arizona Home & Garden Photography

Weather Changing in Arizona

Rainbow

Over the past few days, the weather has played a role in the changing of seasons here. I’m not ready to call it Fall just yet, but we have had a pretty wet week thus far. The forecast has it warming up again toward the rest of the week, so I’ll assume we’re going to get into “Second Spring” for a few weeks before the really cooler weather settles into the desert.

Bob and I were out and about several times today; we had an early MD appointment, a post office PO box check, shopping at two different stores for last-minute specials that expire tonight and, finally, to pick up my pair of glasses that the O.D. office repaired. That was late this afternoon when the rainfall had moved east of town and the sun came out to form this beautiful arcing rainbow. Click on the image to enlarge.

06 Oct 2015 by Arizona Environment Photography

California Cacti Acquisition

Cactus Number One Cactus Number Two Cactus Number Three

On our recent excursion to the California Desert, we were honored to meet up with long-time reader and commenter Crotalus, who was kind enough to present us with these three beautiful examples of cacti from his collection. We transported them to the Arizona desert where they seem to be doing quite well.

In our hasty meeting (we were packing up to head home) I was not able to record their proper binomial names, so I will (for the time being) just refer to them as our California Cacti number one, two and three. You can click on any one of the three images above to enlarge to full size.

We are already planning our next visit to the Palm Desert area to meet with our kids and the other set of Grandparents to the new little grandson. By then, we may be able to meet up with Crotalus again to properly identify the varieties of these cacti.

26 Sep 2015 by Blogosphere California Home & Garden Photography

Second Spring

While most of the northern hemisphere marks the beginning of fall, we, here in the Arizona Desert celebrate the beginning of “Second Spring.” The summer monsoons are gone and the flowers are opening again.

Here are three open flowers on my Devil’s Tongue Barrel Cactus with several more flower pods set to open:

Devil’s Tongue Flowers

This Star Cactus flower was open when we got home from California:

Star Cactus Flower

Finally, a lone flower blossomed atop one of the Buckhorn Cholla in the west cactus garden:

Cholla Flower

Click on any image to enlarge.

25 Sep 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Late Afternoon and Evening Cumulus Clouds

Late Afternoon

Damsel took this photo late this afternoon of the homestead framed by some really big cumulus clouds building up over the mountains to the northeast. As of this evening (nine PM) we stepped out on the courtyard and saw almost continuous lightning to the east through southeast. Monsoon season isn’t over yet.

Looking on the NWS radar website, we see lots of the area down toward Phoenix/Tempe with severe thunderstorm warnings. Hope they will be OK.

The first year we were building the house, there was a severe microburst down that way that took out a large number of old palo verde trees lining the median along a road down in Glendale. We were there the day after, buying granite for the kitchen and bathroom counters and saw the terrific damage to the beautiful old trees. Branches eight inches in diameter were snapped off and laying on the streets.

As I said, we hope everything will be OK tonight.

31 Aug 2015 by Arizona Environment Photography Retirement

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