The hedgehog cactus out front is in bloom. The bees are taking advantage of that fact by browsing the colorful flowers. Click on the image to enlarge flower and bee.
I managed this shot from about 20 feet away from the cactus with the Canon SL1 using the 75-300mm telephoto lens. F7, ISO 100, 1/500 exposure, 300mm focal length. I sure like my new camera.
The spring season not only brings out the wild flowers and cactus flowers, but some of the landscape shrubs also start to bloom. These are flowers on our Cimarron Sage bushes that line the west side of our driveway. Click on the image to enlarge.
These shrubs have not been doing too well for some known and some unknown reasons. We may replace them with a variety of flowering bushes that have a trunk like a small tree, so when the boy dogs come to call they won’t be able to do their marking on the foliage and flowers.
We spotted our first spring lemon blossoms on the tree in our “orchard.” This little flower was one of several making an appearance on the little lemon tree today. Click on the image to enlarge.
Last fall, we had a bumper crop of lemons, most of which were harvested and used to produce our homemade Limoncello. We still have a lot of the bottles that we need to ship out to family and friends. We have given several bottles to friends here in town, but there are a lot of bottles left over.
As fall approaches, we expect many more lemons to appear on this tree. This year, we plan on using the skins for Limoncello and freeze the juice in ice cube trays to then store in bags in the freezer until we need lemon juice for cooking or lemonade, whatever.
The masonry crew completed the basic construction of the front wall today. We walked out front after the workers went home where I snapped two images of the work-in-progress portion of the radius that turns up the RV drive-to-be. The retention wall should deflect most of the runoff from up the RV drive and from the higher elevation hills to the west. Click on the image to enlarge.
You will need your free pair of 3D glasses to view the image (click image to enlarge). As usual, I have posted a 2D version here
The masonry crew staged all the blocks yesterday for the three walls we’re going to build on the property. Today, they started on the construction of the wall behind the RV drive.
When the walls are finished, they will be stuccoed and painted to match the color of the house. The wall in the image will be three feet high, the wall in the wash to divert runoff will be four feet high and the wall in front of the house and along the lower part of the RV drive will be two feet high with raised portions to match the courtyard wall and the southwestern territorial style of the house.
It’s gonna be nice when we finish all the masonry and concrete. The whole job should be complete by the end of March. Click on the image to enlarge.
In another sign of early spring, we found three or four new flower buds on the Argentine Giant cactus in front of the house. This cactus has reliably given us flowers every spring since it has been here. The flower buds are the fuzzy, swirling prominences on the crown of the cactus. Click on the image to enlarge.
