Since Verna and I both have some Irish heritage, we seldom fail to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with a traditional Irish-style corned beef and cabbage dinner. Verna makes a delicious horseradish sauce to compliment the meat. We didn’t have any Irish beer, so I enjoyed my meal with a Samuel Adams Alpine Spring beer.
Hi – this is Cabela. Last night the Mama tucked me into my blankie when I was getting ready to take a nap while the hoomins were watching movies on TV. I like to nap and be close to my hoomins. 🙂
It’s a real shame that only freight moves along this section of BNSF’s rail between Surprise and Morristown, AZ. A dome car on a passenger train traveling along this route would be treated to this scenic panorama of desert vegetation (Teddy Bear Cholla, Saguaro Cacti, Palo Verde and others) with jagged Arizona mountains in the distance.
If the hypothetical passengers were to continue along the BNSF route to Las Vegas, they would also be treated to scenes along the Hassayampa River and then on into the Joshua tree forests of northwest Arizona. If you don’t like the scenery (who wouldn’t?), just wait five or ten minutes and one kind of beautiful scenery will be replaced by another.
I can’t take credit for the panoramic image since I cropped it from one of Verna’s photos from yesterday. Click the thumbnail above to see the full-sized panorama.
Bob and I went to do some shopping in Glendale and Surprise, AZ, today and ran across this colorful trailer with the dark “Day of the Dead” paint job. Click on the image to enlarge.
We went shopping for a few things today and found ourselves down in the “touristy” part of town. We have a favorite shop in that area, and Bob got a birthday present for his Mom’s 92nd birthday next month. I also got a pair of shorts and some really cool dangly earrings.
Walking back to the truck, I noticed a bush with pretty little yellow flowers (I don’t know the variety). Upon closer examination, I found that the bees also like the yellow flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.
Last spring, I rescued a leaf of Cow’s Tongue Cactus (Opuntia engelmannii var. linguiformis) from the wash behind McClure Park here in town. I planted it in native soil in a pot and within a few weeks it had grown two new leaves. As winter approached, it seemed to go dormant, producing no new growth. Just the other day, I saw that the long-dormant cactus has started to grow three new leaves (red arrows in photo).
As soon as the new leaves grow large enough to be covered with the spines that protect them from the rabbits and squirrels eating them, we will try and return this cactus to the ground along the west fence of the property. This variety of opuntia does very well in the Sonoran Desert providing they are protected from the critters. Click on the image to enlarge.
