Verna and Bob's Weblog

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Before the Monsoon Panorama

Before the Monsoon Panorama

You can already see the mid-afternoon cumulus clouds building up over the house in this panorama. Two hours later, it was pouring rain on this sunny location as the clouds continued to build into what turned out to be a nice, but badly-needed rain shower.

So far this summer monsoon season, we have only had the bare necessity rain without the flash flooding in our area. We think that if the heavy monsoons hit that we will be OK with our retaining walls and the new little creek that Verna and I fashioned out of rocks on the west side of the lot.

July 30, 2016 by Arizona Climate Home & Garden Panoramas

White Wing Dove on the Saguaro

Dove on Saguaro

I was looking for rainbows in the area since the rain was falling all around us. When I went out of the courtyard, I saw this dove light atop our big saguaro cactus. We have several species of dove that come around; mourning doves, the most common, white wing doves, not as many and collared doves, few and far between. Click on the image to enlarge.

July 25, 2016 by Arizona Critters Home & Garden Photography

More July Saguaro Cactus Flower Buds

Cactus Flower Buds

To our delight, the big saguaro cactus out front has three new flower buds. We thought that the flower season might be over, but these three appeared. Two on the lower stalk and one on the upper stalk. A few of the withered older flowers on top of the saguaro fruit can be seen.

This image was taken from thirty feet away in the courtyard. Out of focus in the foreground is the arch over the courtyard gate and the top of one of the ocotillo canes to the right of the cactus. Click on the image to enlarge.

July 13, 2016 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Backlit Barbados Blossom

Backlit Barbados Blossom

With a little poetic license, the alliterative title works for this Pride of Barbados (a.k.a. Red Bird of Paradise) flower as the sun strikes it from behind. The lighting at this time of the day (late afternoon) augments the yellow tones in these beautiful flowers. All three of the Caesalpinia pulcherrima shrubs in the courtyard are doing their summer thing constantly making these delightful flowers that we love so much. Click on the image to enlarge.

July 8, 2016 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography Retirement

Nest in the Palo Verde

Nest in the Palo Verde

We discovered a bird nest in our little palo verde tree by the driveway down near the road. It might be a hummingbird or verdin or other small bird since the entrance to the nest is rather small. When we first started building our house here, we found a verdin nest in this tree.

We haven’t noticed any activity in this nest, having only noticed it a couple of weeks ago, probably after the nesting season for this year. Maybe the little bird will come back next time so we can watch what happens. Click on the image to enlarge.

June 24, 2016 by Arizona Critters Home & Garden Photography

Avalon 1998

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