Verna and Bob's Weblog

Home & Garden

Property Improvements now in Progress

Wall work started

I took this photo last Friday evening from the neighbor’s place across the road. Along the front of our property, just across the road, the footing for the new block wall has been poured and is now curing.

The purpose of the front wall is to divert runoff from the west road away from our landscape and RV drive. We are also having a wall built in the little wash at the right of the photo in the distance, the purpose of which is to divert runoff from the little wash away from the RV drive and onto the west side of the lot where there is a little creek that runs down to the road.

The third wall, which will run the length of the RV drive behind the house will divert runoff that comes down the hill in back. Upon completion of the walls, the entire RV drive will be paved in concrete. Click on the image to enlarge.

March 1, 2015 by Arizona Home & Garden

Verna in the Courtyard

Verna in the Courtyard

We’re having a little (well, maybe a lot) of work done around the house. Three new concrete walls and a paved RV drive are in the works. Verna paused at the courtyard wall to look at the progress being made on a nice 70° afternoon in beautiful Wickenburg. Click on the image to enlarge.

February 26, 2015 by Arizona Family Home & Garden

Nectar Collector

Nectar Collector

The little blue flowers on the rosemary bushes behind the house are very popular these days. There are usually a lot of honey bees and a few occasional goldfinches browsing. This is a very pretty black and gold butterfly that was one of several different varieties of butterflies gathering nectar yesterday. Click on the image to enlarge.

More images: a bee, a goldfinch and another butterfly.

February 25, 2015 by Arizona Critters Home & Garden Photography

Signs of Spring

Flower Buds on Beavertail Cactus

Several of the beavertail cacti around the property have sprouted flower buds, even though the first day of spring is over a month away. We have been fortunate to have spring-like temperatures for most of the last three weeks.

The beavertail cactus in the photo above was transplanted from the back of the property around four years ago and is usually the most prolific flowering cactus we have. We can hardly wait for the vivid pink flowers that are coming soon. Click on the image to enlarge.

February 15, 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Panoramic Image Before Wall Work Starts

Before Panorama

Next week, if all goes according to schedule, the masonry crew will show up to start building four walls on the property. Two of them, a short one on the left of the RV drive and a longer one to the right will fortify the front of the landscape against the rushing waters we seem to get annually in monsoon season. The panorama above (click to enlarge) is the “before” view of the property.

The other two walls will be behind the RV drive out back and a shorter one in the wash itself to divert runoff to the little creek on the west side of the lot. Both walls are to prevent runoff from coming onto the RV drive in back.

I will try to post an “after” panorama when the work is complete.

February 10, 2015 by Arizona Home & Garden Panoramas

Flowering Plum Tree

Flowering Plum TreeThe replacement flowering plum tree has been in the ground for about a month now, and it’s doing great. In a month or two, it will come out of its winter funk and start producing the beautiful purple leaves and delicate pink flowers that we enjoyed with our old plum tree which was snapped off at the bottom of its trunk when we had the monsoon microburst last summer.

When we asked David, our landscaper, to replace the tree, we asked for a more substantial, mature tree, that would withstand our harsh monsoon weather when, and if, we get it. David’s crew chief, Rigo, adjusted the irrigation so the tree could adjust to the transition to its new home.

Click on the image to enlarge.

February 9, 2015 by Arizona Home & Garden Photography

Avalon 1998

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