It’s late spring and the Red Bird of Paradise colors are coming back to the courtyard. A.k.a Pride of Barbados, our Caesalpinia pulcherrima shrubs are beginning to show their summer colors of red, orange and yellow.
Flowers are currently open on the western most shrub but with others rapidly forming on the other two shrubs in the courtyard. Click on either image to enlarge.
The Cartoon Caricatures mural on the building at Yavapai and Frontier near the Chamber of Commerce Train Station has some improved graphics and colors these days. I took this photo on Friday. You can compare it to the one I took in November of last year (at the link above). Click on the image to enlarge.
Just before we departed for an errand this afternoon, we noticed some solar rainbows positioned to the left and right side of the sun. I took my camera behind the big saguaro out front and used it as a shield to capture the image above.
Click on the image to enlarge.
We put our astrophytum ornatum (star cactus) in what will be our xeriscape plot next to the south side of the garage. The cactus was in a clay pot and needed to be transplanted soon, so we did it today.
The plan is to plant several small barrel cacti, like the star, to form a border along the walkway with taller cacti and other succulent plants behind the barrel border. We have identified a number of cacti we already have that we want to plant there and will add others as we acquire them from time to time.
It’s just another slow retirement project we will enjoy doing. Click on the image to enlarge.
This wall art on a building on Frontier Street just east of the Yavapai Street Railroad crossing is just one of the many interesting things to see in Wickenburg. The caption is “HOWDY,” and depicts cartoon caricatures of a horse, some six-shooter packing cowboys (one with a lasso), a lady and a couple of other townfolk. Although they are cartoons, they are not too far fetched from what you might expect to see in town during roping season which is currently underway.
I took the photo this afternoon when we were on our way to the clinic for a medical test (nothing serious). Click on the image to enlarge.
As the summer season winds to a close, the Red Bird of Paradise Flowers continue to attract hummingbirds, bees and butterflies. I captured this lovely black butterfly in my camera as the little critter lit on one of the flowers in the courtyard.
Click on the image to enlarge.
