Colorful nature

The desert continues to bring color to my life! Here I am with Debbie and Beth on my 30th out of 70 hikes for this year. The trees are really leafing out and you can see the blue sky reflected in the stream behind me.

The prickly pear cactus is one of the most common native plants here, and the one above has sprouted glowing yellow flowers.

These next two beauties are hedgehog cacti. I spotted them blooming in my neighborhood a few days ago.

Aren't these pink ones amazing?

On today's walk I spotted a desert willow's beautiful new purple blooms.

Besides flowers, I've been looking at birds. These ones were all in my yard. The one above is a Hooded Oriole and is a much brighter orange in real life.

Hummingbird at a yucca stalk

Desert Cardinal

Gambel's Quail. The male can be identified by his rust colored cap.

And, since it's been awhile since I've published quotes I'm including these two. The first one is how I reassure myself that it's okay to while away the morning sipping coffee outside while watching the birds.

The second one reminds me, when I start to get anxious, to find something to look forward to. This morning was a walk with a friend and her puppy. Tonight will be a free outdoor concert.

Have a colorful day

Spirit dolls, book club and birds

 

I finally got back into the studio the past two days, and it sure felt good! I made two more spirit dolls -- "Garden" and "Deep Forest" -- to take up to Absolutely Art Gallery.

I used some fancy threads that have been languishing for years in my thread bins. The sparkly blue one is WonderFil Dazzle. The doll's hair is silk ribbon that I painted about 10 years ago (!) and the beads are wooden.

I used the variegated Eleganza to embroider a chain stitch around some flower petals and added a little sparkle with beads.

Don't the colors in the Eleganza thread look like the colors in the fruit salad that I brought to book club last night? Here we are before diving into our excellent potluck meal and discussing "The Life Impossible" by Matt Haig, which I loved.

On the nature front, the yuccas in my yard have all sprouted their annual seed stalks, which are well over 10 feet tall. The birds love to perch on them, and the seeds will feed them for quite awhile. We're well into summer here in the desert.

Have a colorful day

The green challenge

Green trunk of a palo verde tree

Palo verde means "green stick"

I decided to photograph shades of green on yesterday's walk because I haven't done anything creative with color lately and because green is my favorite color.  Here's what I found in 20 minutes.

Bright green on a new prickly pear cactus pad

Grey-green on the chunks of cholla cacti, above and next two

 

Tiny leaves on a mesquite tree

Bright green leaves of lantana

Yucca 

Lady slipper

Desert spoon sotol

Leaves on an orange tree, above, and olive tree below

Have a colorful day

Juniper comes to visit Grandma!

My little munchkin granddaughter and her parents came to visit from Washington this week, along with my son and his wife from Wisconsin! This is the sunhat she picked out herself for her first visit to Grandma's house in the desert.

We had record-setting highs in the 90s, so much of the time was spent on my shady patio drawing with sidewalk chalk, squirting off with the hose and having rainbow popsicles. She loved making wet footprints and then watching them disappear.

We spent some time at Tohono Chul gardens, again seeking shady spots.

But she did stop in the sun to gaze at the metal horse sculpture.

Here's more color from Tohono Chul, which means Desert Corner.

We watched the ground squirrels at the neighborhood pool and took her to see the animals at the zoo -- her first zoo visit. She already knew what they were from all of her animal books.

She loves animals, and she befriended each of my yoga bunnies, wooden birds and plastic unicorns. We'd been FaceTiming with them for a month before her visit, and she couldn't wait to see them in person! She kept track of each one for the entire visit.

Her last night we went to an outdoor concert, where she got to run around on the grass under the stars in the cool desert evening. I already miss everyone and can't wait for our next visit!

Have a colorful day

Welcome spring, 100 degrees!

We hit 101 yesterday in Tucson and Oro Valley and are headed to 100 today on this first day of spring! We're in uncharted territory, according to meteorologists.

Update: at 1this afternoon we hit 101!!!

For the first time since they started keeping records in 1894, we just made it through an entire winter without having a single freeze. That made it our warmest winter on record, averaging 59.3 degrees.

It's the first winter that my bougainvillea plants didn't freeze and have to be cut back! The first winter that I didn't have to cover my other flowers when we got frost. (The bougainvillea are too tall and thorny to cover.) It made for a very pleasant winter with a lot of hiking in shorts, but I think this summer will be hell.

My bougainvillea and my giant prickly pear.

Here are some spring photos

from my neighborhood walk:

 

Green bark on a palo verde tree.

My neighbor's cactus just bloomed.

Can you see the red cardinal flying away from where it was sitting on the matching red ocotillo blooms?

Two of my succulents.

My kids/spouses/granddaughter are visiting next week and we'll be seeking out cool spots. Since they're all vegan, I made vegan chocolate chip banana muffins for them and put them in the freezer. And I only ate one!!!

And for a St. Patrick's Day party on Tuesday I made Baileys' Irish Cream chocolate truffles! Not vegan. And I ate way more than one!

Have a colorful day