We drove down to Sun City to visit Mom in the rehab center today. Driving on the 25 mile segment of US 60 between Wickenburg and just outside of Surprise, is where you will see beautiful Sonoran Desert scenes like this one that I shot on the trip home.
We don’t really know that the name of the mountain in the background is really “Castle Rock,” but it lies up near the end of Castle Hot Springs Road, so that’s what we call it. Click on the image to enlarge.
Damsel has two hummingbird feeders that hang below the eve of the patio roof right next to the RV drive. We used to get a few hummingbirds now and then, but lately, they literally swarm both feeders. We have seen up to a dozen at a time visiting the area (it’s hard to get an exact count because they move so fast).
A lot of the little birds seem to be territorial and we often see several of the tiny birds chipping away at each other as they attempt to light on the feeder. Damsel notes that the chipping noises they make reminds her of sounds made by the Star Wars robot R2D2. The sound of their wings as they fly by, also reminds her of the Jedi light sabers from the same movie series.
I’m just glad that there are no critters that make sounds similar to the C3PO droid. That would necessitate a shotgun blast or two.
I took the video late this afternoon from inside the patio screen. You can see some of the birds competing, but then a bunch of them feed at once. There are five perches and five feed holes on each feeder.
On the way back from the valley a few days ago, Damsel snapped this photo of the front wheel of an eighteen wheeler. The operator had replaced the lug nuts with this exotic array of spiked cones that reminded me of the Ben Hur Chariot Race where the evil Massala had extended axles on his chariot designed to rip out the spokes of competing chariots. Click on the image to enlarge.
Several of the Devil’s Tongue Cactus Flowers have opened with the coming of Arizona’s “Second Spring” season. And, as you can see, there will be a lot more flowers soon. Last year, we didn’t get to enjoy the flowers because the rabbits and squirrels (and javelina) find the flower pods to be a delicate snack. This year, I enclosed the cactus in wire mesh and thus far all of the flower pods seem to be surviving. Click on the image to enlarge.
The Hassayampa River that flows through town is an underground river (normally), but today as we drove down to the Valley and back, Damsel captured several images of water flowing above the river bed. There was rain in the mountains where the Hassayampa originates and a lot of water was going through today.
The first image in the slideshow above is the river flowing under the pedestrian bridge that used to be US 60 before the new bridge and bypass were built. The second image is of the BNSF railroad bridge over the river near the point where the river departs company with US 60 as it flows toward the confluence with the Gila River. Damsel took the third image just as we had our last glimpse of the river from the highway. The fourth and fifth images were taken as we were coming back into town with the camera pointed northeast toward the headwaters. Click on the slideshow to advance to the next frame (of five total).
Last night, we got a couple of inches of rain in the time span of about a half hour. As usually is the case when we get that intense of a rainfall, the little wash that runs in front of the house flows like a small rapid river. It flowed strongly enough to move most of the rocks we had stacked in front to prevent erosion. Some of them carried downstream some 150 yards before settling in.
Damsel and I have discussed building a retaining wall between the RV driveway and the little wash on the west side of the house. I snapped a picture of the area the other day and, as it turned out, it became the “before” panel in the slideshow above. Click the slideshow image to see the “after” panel. You may also click these links for a large before view and a large after view.
We bought flowers at the supermarket last week. The label on the bunch of red roses read “Forever Young.” These lovely roses are in a vase on the sofa table in the great room. Very pretty! Click on the image to enlarge.
