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| Our favorite mesquite has leafed out this past week, returning shade to the barrio garden |
The weather has been unseasonably warm this weekend -- yesterday it was 95, today a little cooler. Moving on towards noon it might make you retreat to a cool house, open all night and closed up early to keep from having to turn on the A/C (something we resist as long as possible). But it is finally spring after the hardest, most damaging winter we've experienced here in Tucson, and it is so wonderful to see things flowering, leafing out, and taking off.
With warmer weather comes the return of outdoor eating. The back porch is the morning destination of choice with coffee, binoculars, camera, and bird books in hand. We hold court there for a couple of hours, watching the bird circus, having breakfast, taking pictures, and generally congratulating ourselves for living in the gorgeous Sonoran Desert.
Some of our breakfast companions:
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| Me and my shadow |
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| Ocotillos make the best perches for birders ever! |
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| This Abert's towhee sang to us during breakfast |
After a while we decided to get a few things done, and took a tour of the yard, checking for signs of life in plants badly damaged by the Big February Freeze. Most things survived (a moment of silence for the galloping cactus please) and some are clearly thriving. We won't be throwing in the gardening towel any time soon, though we might fine tune our native plants to those that can take temps in the teens and still bounce back.
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| This hedgehog cactus came through the chill just fine |
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| Cactus wren nest, extra padding |
I had gotten a new bottle of meds for my dog with a huge wad of cotton under the cap (why on earth do they do that?). Rather than throw it in the trash I pulled it apart and took it out to the garden last week, hanging bits on several of the plants around the yard. Sure enough, it was salvaged by a cactus wren to use in at least one of his several nests in our chain fruit cholla cactus just outside the garden wall. Maybe now he'll quit stealing stuffing from one of my outdoor pillows!
Happy Sunday!
Hey Debbie, I can just see you and Bob outside in your yard enjoying life in the desert. Sounds fabulous. You two know how to have a good time. I really like the picture of the towhee. Hi to Bob and a pat for Bump.
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