Verna and Bob's Weblog

Chillin’ in the Courtyard

Dogs in the Courtyard

The Mama and the Daddy have let Cabela and me go out into the courtyard without leashes or being carried. This is good. I can lay down in the sunlight and be warm and relax. Cabela just runs around sniffing everything. Click on us to make us big.

The Daddy says that we still don’t have the back gate but he is trusting us to be good dogs and keep away from there. Daddy also says there will be a new gate soon and that we might be able to just run around the courtyard to our heart’s content. Cabela and I will like that.

April 19, 2015 by Arizona Critters Family Home & Garden

Teddy Bear Cholla Flowers

Teddy Bear Cholla Flowers

We took a short road trip today out to visit a touristy little mining town about 25 miles west of town today. When we got there, we found out that the facility was closed because of a special event. It seems that they had rented their park to a “photo shoot” group and no other visitors could be admitted. Bummer.

However, they had no problem with us wandering around the nearby mostly unspoiled desert. In one area, there was a large patch of Teddy Bear Cholla cactus. I managed to get close enough to photograph some of the pale green flowers that grow on this variety of cactus. Click on the image to enlarge.

April 18, 2015 by Flowers Photography

Prickly Pear Cactus Flowers Again

Prickly Pear Cactus FlowersIn the springtime when all the cacti bloom, there is a wonderful sequence that we have become accustomed to. First, the beavertail cactus blossoms appear, followed shortly by the hedgehog cacti. As those begin to fade away, they are replaced by cholla and then prickly pear flowers.

The photo at the right is of a cactus a few steps west of our yard along the roadway that leads to our neighbor’s house up the hill. This cactus is more mature than those in our yard which do not seem to be developing flower buds this spring, except for one lawyer’s tongue variety of prickly pear near the west side of the property close to the fence.

I will continue post photos of cactus flowers as long as they bloom in the spring, summer and fall. The giant saguaro flowers are going to open in a few weeks and we are really looking forward to that.

April 16, 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Verna’s Close-Up Photo Secrets

Cleveland Sage Flower Making a Close Up Photo

When the desert breezes briskly blow the flower you’re trying to photograph around, you simply get a grip on the flower stem out of the camera’s field of view and then take the image of the now stabilized flower.

We were both in the courtyard today taking photos of this and that, when Verna grabbed a flower stem on one of the Cleveland sage bushes, pointed her camera at it and managed the close-up photo she was looking to get. I just happened to be in a spot where I could capture the moment when she was shooting her close-up with my camera.

At the left is the image she got of the sage flower; on the right is my photo of her getting the shot. Click on either image to enlarge.

April 15, 2015 by Arizona Family Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Quail on the Courtyard Wall

Gambel’s Quail (male)

The local quail seem to make themselves at home on the courtyard wall which spans somewhere around 50 feet long as it curves around the front of the house. Bob took this shot of one of the males as it walked along the wall yesterday. Click on the image to enlarge.

Well, the quail will have another 300 feet of walls to commandeer: two more out front and two out behind the RV drive totaling around 350 feet altogether including the courtyard.

The new walls are in place already, but not painted and they won’t be until after the RV drive concrete gets poured possibly this week. However, we observe that the quail are already testing out their new “quailing walls.”

April 14, 2015 by Arizona Critters Home & Garden Photography

Jewel Thief

Jewel Thief

Verna keeps some interesting artifacts in the Rock and Cactus Garden west of the house. She has a variety of items including statuary, bric-a-brac, rock piles, native dead wood and a few marbles placed here and there. There has been a mystery as to why some of the marbles get displaced from their assigned spots.

Well, today, I got this telephoto shot of a little jewel thief in action. It is a white-tailed antelope ground squirrel that lifted one of the marbles out of a depression in a decorative rock where Verna placed it some time ago. Evidently, the little guy thinks it is something that might be cracked open to eat, or, it likes shiny stuff.

It is still a mystery, since we went out later and found the marble laying on the ground nearby to the original placement. Verna replaced the marble in the crevice in the rock. How long it will remain there is unknown. Click on the image to enlarge.

April 12, 2015 by Critters Home & Garden Photography Weirdness

Avalon 1998

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