Verna and Bob's Weblog – Page 56

East View Panorama

We took a walk after lunch today down the road to the east about 500 feet to the pavement on Mariposa Drive. While we were down there, I snapped a pair of images to make this panorama of the view we see.

At the left in the image is a local hill with natural desert vegetation topped by a saguaro cactus. Moving to the right side of the image, you can see lower Casandro Wash as it flows toward the east. Above that in the intermediate distance is the town water tank next to a cell tower. In the far distance, the Hieroglyph Mountain Ridge dominates beyond town limits.

Click on the image to view the full sized panorama.

Early Spring

We have been fortunate to have had spring-like weather since mid-January. The cactus flowers are blooming and the desert critters are out and about acting as though it were spring.

In the composite photo above, a curve billed thrasher looks around while sitting atop one of the bird feeders, a courtyard cactus is having many flowers and a house finch is trying out the new bird feeder in the mesquite tree in the back yard.

Moving to Arizona was one of the best things we’ve ever done. Click on the image to enlarge.

February 5, 2018 by Bob Arizona Critters Flowers Home & Garden

Dusk in the Wash

At dusk every evening these days, we take a bunch of bread, veggies and fruit up to the retention wall in the back yard and toss the goodies out for the quail, rabbits and other creatures that inhabit our back yard. The rabbits come running when they see us and begin devouring the stuff. The Quail, being a bit more wary, will snap up bread pieces and run up the hill with them without getting too close to us humans. A few of the bunnies will come very close to us in order to get the goodies. However, when there is a sharp noise or other disturbance, they quickly retreat to shelter in the underbrush.

Click on the image to enlarge.

January 24, 2018 by Bob Arizona Critters Photography Retirement

Cactus Transplant

We put our astrophytum ornatum (star cactus) in what will be our xeriscape plot next to the south side of the garage. The cactus was in a clay pot and needed to be transplanted soon, so we did it today.

The plan is to plant several small barrel cacti, like the star, to form a border along the walkway with taller cacti and other succulent plants behind the barrel border. We have identified a number of cacti we already have that we want to plant there and will add others as we acquire them from time to time.

It’s just another slow retirement project we will enjoy doing. Click on the image to enlarge.

January 15, 2018 by Verna Arizona Home & Garden Retirement