While we were visiting in Palm Desert last week, we exchanged belated Christmas and (my birthday) gifts with the kids. We got a hand made and painted clay bowl from them for our joint Christmas gift and I got a framed set of photos of the baby. We hung the new picture frame over my desk in the office at home. Click on the image to see the full office context.
Last year, our neighbor who does construction work removed several Ocotillo shrubs from a job site where he was building a barn. He offered a couple of them to us to plant in our yard for added landscaping. We did plant them in the rock and cactus garden area west of the house. Oddly, they don’t show much in the way of signs of life except for flower buds growing on the ends of some of the canes (the branches emanating from the base of the ocotillo).
I took this image of one of the flower bud clusters still growing on one of the ocotillos. Click on the image to enlarge.
The hot weather is mostly behind us for the year. We are still using shorts and summer apparel during the daytime, but, come nightfall, it’s time for the sweats again.
I took this photo of Verna the other day while we were still in warm weather mode. She had been taking pictures of our local flora, fauna and other photogenic objects in the neighborhood.
One of the best things about our home here is that you can always be sure to see some critter or something in the sky that is worth pointing and shooting the camera. There is a never ending variety of desert goodness to be recorded by her camera.
IN the background, you can see the flowering plum tree in the courtyard behind the gate and wall enclosing the area. Click on the image to enlarge.
I went up on the hill behind our house to hang up a birdseed block and bell yesterday. I had my Canon EOS Rebel SL1 camera with me fitted with a 75-300mm lens. This little guy perched on a rock near the feeders so I snapped this photo of him. Click on the image to enlarge.
We do not know the name of this cactus variety. It is in a pot in the courtyard in front of the house. When the flower first started to open this morning, it looked like a rosebud. When it fully opened this afternoon, it was clearly typical of cactus flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.
Since late spring, the eastern most of the three Red Bird of Paradise (a.k.a. Pride of Barbados) has outpaced the other two shrubs in the courtyard by quite a lot. Last year, this one was also the largest after getting a slow start, but this year, it took off right at the start to be the biggest of the three.
The big shrub looks to be about six feet tall by eight feet (or more) across. We planted some small bottle brush shrubs late last year to replace the sage bushes that didn’t do very well. At this time, the one bottle brush shrub is almost completely covered by the giant Red Bird.
The Red Birds will start to fade out this fall and we will, as usual, chop them nearly to the ground to await their return next summer. Click on the image to enlarge.
