Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

First Spring Mini Daffodils

Mini Daffodil

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.

11 Feb 2014 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Desert Dawn

Desert Dawn

Well, we don’t see this too often since we’re late risers, but this morning Damsel snapped a pre-sunrise photo of the eastern sky over the desert near Morristown, AZ. We were enroute to Phoenix for an early appointment.

These colors were very pretty, but as the sun came up and the road became eastbound, the glare was brutal. We’re glad we don’t have to make the early morning treks as often as we before retirement. Click on the image to enlarge.

10 Feb 2014 by Arizona Environment Photography

Pink Hyacinth

Pink Hyacinth

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.

09 Feb 2014 by Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Scenes From Around Our Desert Home


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.

08 Feb 2014 by Arizona Critters Home & Garden Photography

Death Panel

From The Patriot Post: CBO Finds Out What’s In It

The reduction in CBO’s projections of hours worked represents a decline in the number of full-time-equivalent workers of about 2.0 million in 2017, rising to about 2.5 million in 2024.” The estimate is nearly triple CBO’s original one.

That brings us to Ramirez‘ tongue-in-cheek look at the jobs devastation caused by this POS . . .

Death Panel

07 Feb 2014 by Beltway Kabuki Whacko Politics

Agave

Agave

Much of the planted gardens here in our town (as well as throughout the desert) is xeriscape. This agave is in an area surrounded by a staircase from the parking area to the specialist clinic at our local medical center. This lush desert succulent, rendered in sepia, is a nice still-life showing the artistic nature of our gardens. Click on the image to enlarge.

06 Feb 2014 by Arizona Photography

Imbolc – Halfway to Spring

Imbolc

Today marks the cross-quarter event of Imbolc, the halfway point between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. Here in Arizona, we are having a mild winter thus far; today’s high was 59° with broken clouds and no precipitation hitting the ground, although we could see virga several times today as we were out and about.

The image above is a screen capture of the dynamic depiction of the grand octal earth orbital clock at Archaeoastronomy.com. I captured the image when planet Earth paused briefly at the Imbolc position in the orbit. Imbolc and the other cross-quarter names come from the Celtic to describe the seasonal mid-points in ancient times. Click on the image to enlarge (slightly).

03 Feb 2014 by Astronomy Environment

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