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.
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.
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.
Cabela and I get to go walking with the Mama and the Daddy several times a day. When the Mama and Daddy eat lunch, they give us treats and then we get to go for the long walk. The Daddy took this picture of the Mama and me on our way back home from the walk. Click on us to make us big.
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.
The 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.
