Photography

Photo Update

It’s been eleven months since we did a photo update. Here we are in the courtyard enjoying a nice spring day with the temperature up to about 72° with an expected high of 76°.

Today, we’re going to grill up a couple of Filet Mignon steaks and Verna will fix a nice salad to go with the meal. Yes, the dogs will be getting some of the scraps.

Image taken with my ancient Canon Powershot A710 IS using the delayed exposure timer. Click on the image to enlarge.

Vernal Equinox 2023

OK — the first day of Spring and the Equinox are here. The nights of darkness and days of sunlight are of equal lengths, according to the official astronomical ephemeris. However, at our particular latitude and longitude here in Arizona, the day length grew to just over twelve hours last Wednesday per the actual observed sunrise to sunset times. So, we can look forward to longer days peaking at the Summer Solstice and then on to the Fall Equinox when they fall back to be less than 12 hours again.

As of a couple of weeks ago, the Turkey Buzzards have begun to migrate back to Arizona and other northern places, I assume. These vultures bring the promise of warmer conditions for us, although there is still some cooler weather and precipitation still headed our way.

Even though it will be a month or more before the Pride of Barbados or Red Bird of Paradise shrubs to return from their winter slumber (we cut them back to nearly ground level in the fall). We expect that the hummers will begin to take advantage of the nectar when the gorgeous flowers return to our courtyard.

Enjoy the warmer weather and longer daylight. We know we will be enjoying the spring weather, birds and flowers.

Images courtesy of Verna.

In Like a Lion

I know that other regions in our Nation have had much colder winter weather than we’re currently experiencing and, in fact, so have we here in past years. However, this is the coldest we have had this winter and it’s happening in accordance with the March Proverb. Supposedly, this is the time of late winter when we’re beginning to have cactus flowers blooming and other signs of impending spring.

In the image above, you can see the Weaver foothills covered with snow which is fairly rare here. The snow will be gone tomorrow and then we will expect to revert to the late winter conditions we’re used to. I hope.

Verna snapped a bunch of snow photos today and this one shows the lower foothills and the snow proximity. Click on the image to enlarge.

Happy New Year — 2023

Happy 2023!

The photo in the image above is of “Hieroglyph Ridge” (a name I made up) taken from the road that runs in front of our house. The original without the graphic greeting can be seen here.

Vulture Peak

12/15/2022 — Verna and I took a drive out to the Humane Society yesterday to drop off a few pet supplies that we no longer needed. On the way back, Verna took this photo of Vulture Peak on the drive back to town for the rest of our errands. The unique profile of this particular ridge is a symbol of our town and a reminder of the adjacent Vulture Mine discovered by Town Founder Henry Wickenburg.

Prior to dropping off the pet stuff, we stopped at the barber shop to drop off some Lemons and a quart of homemade Limoncello. We also did our grocery shopping a day early since we have a doctor appointment at our usual shopping time.

It was a good day of retirement and we got a lot of stuff done.

Roadrunner Catching a Bee

We saw a roadrunner behind the RV drive this afternoon when coming home from our daily walk. I took several photos of it after going into the house and coming back out with my camera. At one point on its trek on the little hill back there, it caught a bee. I guess insects are part of their daily diet.

From Wikipedia — Greater Roadrunner (Geococcys Californianus) Food and foraging habits:

The roadrunner is an opportunistic omnivore. Its diet normally consists of insects (such as grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, and beetles), small reptiles (such as lizards and snakes, including rattlesnakes), rodents and other small mammals, spiders (including tarantulas), scorpions, centipedes, snails, small birds (and nestlings), eggs, and fruits and seeds like those from prickly pear cactuses and sumacs. The roadrunner forages on the ground and, when hunting, usually runs after prey from under cover. It may leap to catch insects, and commonly batters certain prey against the ground. Because of its quickness, the roadrunner is one of the few animals that preys upon rattlesnakes; it is also the only real predator of tarantula hawk wasps.

Image above: Catching a bee. Image below: Greater Roadrunner. Click on either image to enlarge.