Yow! It’s hot outside these days, especially after taking the morning walk to go do our doody. When we get back, the Mama and the Daddy have this nice wading pool for Cabela and I to cool off in.
Today, I was trying to swim in the water to cool off my back and belly. Cabela got in after I was done. Click on me to make me big.
When I posted about these tomatoes before, I could not identify the variety. Now, however, I see that they are probably heirloom tomatoes, which are a very tasty variety.
In a few weeks, I can harvest these two and a bit after that some more that are currently sprouting on this vine. We’re looking forward to having these sliced up and in one of our many favorite dishes for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Click on the image to enlarge.
The paint crew showed up here again today to renew the faded reddish stain that was applied to the beams and posts almost five years ago. This sort of maintenance is necessary in the desert due to the intense sunlight and extreme temperature changes. Click on the image to enlarge.
We will probably have the whole house repainted within another two years, but we’re good to go for now. We also need to get the roofer out here to inspect and repair the roof as may be necessary. More on that later.
Many of the cholla cacti around the area are in bloom for the second time this season. Some of them did this last year and many of them are at it again.
This cactus flower (click on the image to enlarge) is one of several that opened today on the cholla immediately outside of our courtyard. This is the same cactus where the Curve Billed Thrasher chicks were recently fledged from their nest here.
This is the Devil’s Tongue Barrel Cactus that we bought in California a long time ago. We had it in a pot out there and transplanted it into the rock and cactus garden shortly after bringing it to Arizona.
It had two flowers open today, which is nice, since the local desert critters think the flower buds are tasty and tend to eat them (see the bud between the two flowers) before they can open. The cactus has natural defenses with all the sharp spikes and rigid “tongues” that abound, but the critters get to the buds, somehow.
I have the same problem with the golden barrel that is planted nearby. We recently took the chicken wire fences away, since the cacti were getting pretty big. We will just have to deal with not having as many flowers, but, as you can see, some of them make it and are pollinated anyway.
