I bought a dozen of these “Gelato” roses at the supermarket today. They have the same name as the Italian ice cream. I believe we saw a shade of gelato similar to the color of these roses when we were in Rome. Click on the image to enlarge.
Oh, that bowl with daffodils that I posted about the other day, the daffodils have all opened.
I took this photo of the patio clock’s temperature readout today at about 12:30 PM AZ time. It actually got up to 83 ° today with a forecast for 87° tomorrow and Friday. Happy days! Winter appears to be over.
If this weather trend continues, I will be *forced* to fill the spa and get it ready for occupancy. We’ve missed dipping in our spa all winter and can’t wait until we are soaking in it again.
Damsel reports seeing butterflies today, the bees are buzzing, collecting nectar from the rosemary flowers and the lizards are all thawed out and romping on the rocks all around the lot.
We haven’t seen any snakes yet, but we are careful to watch out for them, too. I read last week that in addition to gopher snakes (non-venomous) and diamondback rattlesnakes, we also may encounter sidewinders (ugh).
Bob ran to the store today to get a few things for us this week. While he was there, he picked up four more bunches of unopened daffodil stems and brought them home. Simce all the bud vases are currently busy with the daffodils I brought home last week, I had to get out my Waterford rose bowl to contain the new stems. Some a r already beginning to open. I love spring. It was 80 ° today and I think that warmer temperatures won’t be far away. Click on the image to enlarge.
All the foolishness the administration uses to paint this miniscule spending cut as a nightmare will hopefully backfire on the Nazi-in-Chief.
Today was nice and clear, with no clouds to make a red sunset. However, this one from last Tuesday was quite nice. Click on the image to enlarge.
The Town of Wickenburg contracts an Arizona firm specializing in planning and economic development to prepare a general plan for the town. Since I subscribe to the RSS feed from the town website, I got notice of the town’s new General Plan 2025, which outlines plans for business, residents, tourism, growth and so forth.
Image – General Plan 2025 Cover Sheet – Click on the image to enlarge.
I browsed through the 168-page PDF document looking for things that may affect our lives and property, both positively and negatively (from our viewpoint). The plan includes background information on climate, topography, soils, hydrology, environmental assets (vegetation and wildlife), air quality, noise, major land ownership and demographics. It is quite thorough in its presentation of those topics.
There is also a section called “Wickenburg Planning Vision.” The vision recognizes Wickenburg’s desire to become a strong, sustainable community that is diverse in economic and employment opportunities, attractive to new employers and businesses, yet faithful to its historic and natural assets.
As I skimmed through the document, there were a couple of things that I note here that attracted us to Wickenburg in the first place. The town and surrounding area are largely isolated from the Phoenix urban crawl by virtue of the Vulture mountains to the south and the Wickenburg mountains to the east. The former isolates us from the I-10 corridor and the latter from the I-17 corridor. That’s all good.
The only fly in the ointment that I noticed is the proposed I-11 “Hassayampa Freeway,” that is supposed to connect I-10 and Las Vegas, which will come through Wickenburg. I don’t like that at all. The only thing about the proposal that causes me a little hope is the time frame; it will take over twelve years to get the project approved and perhaps another six years to implement it. By that time, we may not even be here.
Meanwhile, retirement is good.
We had a rather un-spring like day today, but it felt like spring in the flower vase in the little bathroom. I bought these lovely daffodils while grocery shopping on Thursday. How pretty! Click on the image to enlarge.
