Sometime last few days, something bit me or stung me on my snout. My hoomins didn’t notice when it happened, cause I am always sticking my nose in holes wherever I find them.
The Mama took this picture of me to show the bumps on my snout just behind my nose. They don’t seem to be causing me any pain or discomfort. Click on me to make me big.
The first raceme (see below) on one of our red bird of paradise is rapidly having flowers open. This is the first several flowers opening in the courtyard this season. We will have more, of course, as summer progresses and the shrubs open up to their full potential.
More information on these beautiful flowers from Wikipedia:
Caesalpinia pulcherrima is a species of flowering plant in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to the tropics and subtropics of the Americas. It could be native to the West Indies, but its exact origin is unknown due to widespread cultivation. Common names for this species include Poinciana, Peacock Flower, Red Bird of Paradise, Mexican Bird of Paradise, Dwarf Poinciana, Pride of Barbados, and flamboyant-de-jardin.
It is a shrub growing to 3 m tall. The leaves are bipinnate, 20–40 cm long,bearing 3-10 pairs of pinnae, each with 6-10 pairs of leaflets 15–25 mm long and 10–15 mm broad. The flowers are borne in racemes up to 20 cm long, each flower with five yellow, orange or red petals. The fruit is a pod 6–12 cm long.
I say “huge” tongue-in-cheek because these little green tomatoes are barely an inch in diameter. However, with any luck, the little vine out in the courtyard will produce more of these as these first ones become ripe on the vine.
There were no store-bought seeds used here. These are all growing from seeds that I harvested from tomatoes in the kitchen. The exact name for this variety of tomatoes is not known, but I bet they will be good in salads or in sandwiches.
I have other garden vegetables starting up on the back patio. I am hoping for a good crop of all kinds of home-grown stuff this summer and fall. Click on the image to enlarge.
Many of the saguaros in the area are flowering. This one, a couple hundred yards up the road, had its crown low enough that I could get my camera up close and get a couple of shots of the flowers.
Camera information: Canon EOS REBEL T3, 1/800 sec, F6.3, ISO 100, Focal length 55mm. Click on the image to enlarge.
I was standing with my camera near the retention wall at the bottom of the little wash when I saw the red cardinal in my peripheral vision. I turned the camera toward the redness and was surprised to see the rabbit in the viewfinder.
I see cardinals in my periphery due to their color. In order to see a rabbit or other critters that blend in with the surroundings, they have to exhibit some movement. I was lucky that the rabbit was in this shot because it was motionless and didn’t get my attention until I saw it there with the cardinal through the viewfinder.
The critters were about 20 or 30 feet away from where I took this photo. I had the lens set to its maximum focal length of 300mm. Both critters were kind enough to remain in my field of view while I took several images at 1/400 sec, ISO 200, F6.3. This was the best of them. Click on the image to enlarge.
Maybe tomorrow the first of my courtyard red bird of paradise flowers will open. The flower buds are growing larger and the lower ones that typically open first are showing the colors of red and yellow already.
We get these all summer long, so expect to see a lot of photos with red birds. After all, they are my favorite desert flowers. So pretty. Click on the image to enlarge.
UPDATE: Just as we thought, the first of the flower pods opened this morning.
