Spring Part 2

The major spring bloom has come to an end and below are some of my favorites (most are from our yard).  Some of the pics are a bit psychedelic in their coloring b/c they were taken with my old camera (Adam had our nice one in Greece) and something seems to be malfunctioning.  Pat and Karen you should take a look back through your pictures from your visit - I did and it's kind of neat to see the yard with and without the blooms.

This was out at Red Rock - alien flower??

Bird of Paradise (apparently one of many plants with that name)

Blooming creosote

Nice little natural arrangement.

We totally thought this guy was dead - but it actually grew some new paddles and had beautiful blooms!

Palo Verde in bloom

I have her a heck of a haircut.  Here's hoping it doesn't die!

Notice the hummingbird in the center of the pic.

Tiny nest

Babies!

Happy hiking partner!

Gratuitous Oscar shots.

He's an aggressive waker-upper.  His favorite thing is to sit on your head.

We had a visitor in our yard!  Oscar found him and was scared to death.  I hope that means he'll be scared of a snake too if he encounters one.

Mother's Day Weekend

While I wish I could have spent Mother's Day with my Mom and Mom-in-Law, I had a pretty good day with my dog baby.  We went for a hike in Red Rock and I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of flowers that are still in bloom!  All pictures are from my cell phone and unedited.

About half way through the hike you cross a small stream and Oscar was determined to get the stick stuck on the bottom.  We were just about at his heat tolerance limit, but we stopped at any shade we could find.

Super tiny flowers!

I've been doing lots of pruning and watering lately, and Oscar's been a big help unstacking my stick piles.

And I got a hammock!!  I've been wanting one for years.  Not sure about my rigging but it hasn't failed yet!

Flower pictures from our yard coming soon....

Spring Part 1

This is our first spring at the new house and we're lucky enough to have tons of different desert plants.  Many of them are in bloom right now, or right on the verge.

The pictures above are Beavertail cacti I believe.  I'm not sure if we have a few different subspecies or something (I haven't investigated that closely) but different plants have different colored blooms (though most are the pink color)

I'm not sure what this is - some sort of sage?

Hedgehog cactus blooms.

Cholla (it's hard to pick, but I think these are my favorite)

This is a bush in our side yard...

(Below) we are really happy to see that many of our cacti have buds on them - we're especially happy that the couple that weren't looking very good seem to be growing as well.  

Not sure what this is but it was a nice surprise out of what looked like a patch of weeds!  That's one of my favorite things about the desert, things can look completely dead or uninteresting most of the year and then all of a sudden they bloom!

I hope all is well for all of you.  I'm looking forward to summer, not for the heat, but for all of the fun stuff that lies ahead!  (except for the fact that I'll probably only see Adam for about a total of 2 weeks :().

Lots of Love and keep in touch!

Pat and Karen Visit

By now you've seen quite a few posts from the visit so I won't bore you with the same stories, but here are some pictures from a slightly different angle?  Thank you for making the trek Pat and Karen!  We had an amazing time!

Amazing Time Lapse for you Fungus (and all-around-nature) Lovers