Yesterday, my Mom, Kate, passed from the Earth to her heavenly repose. She was 93½ years old. Ironically, she departed on what would have been my Dad’s and her first husband’s 99th birthday. Damsel and I will miss her charming smile and vibrant personality. Click on the image to enlarge.
These are two of my favorite things; a short-tailed black swallowtail butterfly was browsing on a red bird of paradise (Pride of Barbados) flower today. I quietly approached and got a few shots of the two before the butterfly departed. It was another beautiful day here as Second Spring commenced. Most other places had fall start today, but here, that’s a few weeks away as more flowers are opening and butterflies abound. Click on the image to enlarge.
Actually, the ONLY Chinese food in town.
Last week, we decided to try some of the other restaurants in town instead of patronizing the same one or two. We have a “junk food” day about once a month when we get Mexican enchiladas or Cheeseburgers with fries.
I took Damsel to lunch yesterday at the Sizzling Wok, a Chinese cuisine restaurant less than a half mile from home. The sampler appetizer we ordered was pretty good. The penalty, of course, is the deep-fried goodies are anything but health food. Once a month, we figure, isn’t going to clog our arteries that much. Next time at this restaurant, we might try the Won Ton Soup, or something a bit less fatty. Click on Damsel’s image to enlarge.
Most of the saguaro cacti here have already had their flowers come and gone, but this one cactus at the Community Hospital had three new flowers this week. One bloomed yesterday and today, these two (the last ones) were open. Goodbye to our Arizona State Flower until next spring. Click on the image to enlarge.
Damsel took this photo of Vulture Peak today, just after we were at the dog park with the pups. This magnificent mountain peak is visible here in the Hassayampa Valley and all the way down to the Phoenix Metro area. The peak is not far from Vulture Mine, which is where Henry Wickenburg discovered gold and eventually lead to the establishment of the town of Wickenburg, AZ. Click on the image to enlarge.
We saw this colorful dragonfly perched on an auto antenna as we were parking. It stayed there long enough for me to get this close up photo of it before flying away. We saw a red dragonfly near the hospital courtyard koi pond in July and another one out in California in October of 2007. Click on the image to enlarge.
Our dance card is pretty full these days, so blogging will be intermittent. We will post something here, just to keep the site alive.
I took a photo of a sawed-off tree stump I found near a parking lot a couple of days ago and thought it might make for an interesting still-life when rendered in sepia. Click on the image to enlarge.