While in California last week, I collected some more wind chimes and other trinkets to bring to the Arizona house. I put some of them in my “musical mesquite” tree. When spring comes, the tree will again bear leaves and seedpods. Click on the image to enlarge.
Bob transplanted several paddles from a beavertail cactus that was growing up on the hill behind our house. It has been about a year and a half and all of the transplants seem to be doing well. This individual has grown from a few paddles (maybe four to six) to all of these paddles in that time. The cactus is about a foot and a half tall and is spreading nicely on the area by the RV drive west of the house. Click on the image to enlarge.
Some readers may recall that I missed the 64th Annual Parade due to falling on my head early the morning of the parade. Fortunately, that did not happen this morning. Verna and I walked to the parade route (about a quarter mile from home) and thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle.
Billed as the fourth largest parade event in Arizona, we witnessed the passage of some of the usual and some of the most unusual entries in the event. The American Legion Color Guard (local chapter) led the parade with a herd of Watusi Longhorn Cattle in trail. Popular character actor Wilford Brimley rode in the stagecoach along with the Riders in the Sky western music ensemble and several other “Grand Marshalls.”
Many of the classic cars we saw yesterday rode in the parade along with some we had not seen. There were bands, dancers, cowboy poets and a bunch of the local merchants and businesses that passed by. A couple of unusual entries were the Watusi Bull in a Cadillac and the “Poodle Posse” toward the end. We had fun and although we could see traces of snow on the foothills, there was no rain on our parade.
Some white puffy clouds floated across the sky this afternoon. I captured this image of the sun’s rays as one of the clouds passed in front of it. Click on the image to enlarge.
I jumped up on the Mama’s office chair. She covered me up so I could be all cozy and maybe take a nap. Click on me to make me big.
There are a pair of curve billed thrashers who are expressing an interest in nesting in our big saguaro. When the crew installed the cactus in August, it had a couple of abandoned bird nests in the arms. Today, the thrasher was on the cactus singing a different tune. Instead of its usual wit-WEET call, it was making a warbling, squeaky, hurried song, which we think is a mating call.
We had thrasher chicks last spring and summer in a nest in a nearby cholla cactus. It was low enough that we could walk over to it and take photos with eggs and then chicks, in the nest. The saguaro is a different proposition; this nest is eight feet above the ground, so we won’t be able to get a camera up there. Click on the image to enlarge
