Sharp Focus

The beauty is in the details. The light catching the spines, the cobwebs shimmering and the seed head suspended, a piece of softness amongst the fierce sharpness.

It's The Little Things........

that make me smile. Like this tiny little cactus, significantly smaller than a golf ball putting forth three splendid flowers. Perfection.

The Promise Of Things To Come

We have had so many blossoms on so many of the plants in our yard this year and now it is the turn of the king of them all. The mighty saguaro hints at it's moment of magnificence.

Palo Verde

This has been a wonderful spring for Palo Verde blossoms, at one point our entire property was a sea of gold.

The endless bounty of yellow blossoms has also kept the bees very busy. In the heat of the day all we could hear was the industrious pollen gatherers buzzing away everywhere.

Pretty Prickly

These two organisms are both pretty prickly, one by design and one in nature but teamed up together they look simply beautiful.

More Charms of the Chollas

The Chollas are bursting forth, they look beautiful this close.

They look even more beautiful when you get this close.

OK that is quite close enough. This little beauty is still pretty fierce.

Rainy Day Gems

A long soaking rain is rare in the desert so when it occurred a few weeks ago it stimulated a lot of growth of species we rarely get to see. One of which is this beautiful, delicate Desert Hyacinth Dichelostemma capitatum.

The bulbs of this species are deeply buried, dormant until stimulated by soaking rains. The bulbs were also eaten by Native Americans.

Spring Colour

It has been a mild winter with some good rain and now we are seeing the results, early spring blooms. This beautiful Verdin seemed quite taken with the aloe flowers.

Moss?

Being English I am very used to seeing moss growing all over the place. But it is just not something I associate with the desert. That is the delight of watching a natural environment year round, there will always be a surprise tucked away somewhere, waiting to be discovered.

Mistletoe.

My goodness, this is proving to be an exceptional year for mistletoe. Our land seems to be covered with it and every sprig of it is smothered with fruit right now. With this bounty of course comes the great dilemma, I know many animals love the fruit and it is quite likely that I wouldn't have seen the Cedar Waxwings or the Western Bluebirds in my yard if it wasn't for the mistletoe but what about the poor old trees that it is growing on? How many bunches of mistletoe can they handle before they start to die? I think I will wait until the fruit is pretty much done and then do a little thinning out. Hopefully that way both the trees and the mistletoe loving species will be OK. Oh the responsibility!

How Do They Do That?

You can't follow this blog without realising I love cactii. I suppose in all honesty it is a bit of a love hate thing because it really doesn't matter how careful you are when doing yard work, sooner or later you will get spiked, stabbed or pierced. But hey, that is what tweezers were invented for right? One of the things I love most about these armoured beauties is their ability to grow in the most impossible of places. Like this one, a pile of rocks with a teaspoon of soil (and when I say soil, that is a pretty generous term, I am sure gardeners in most other places would consider our soil to be one step removed from building rubble!) and yet here is this Barrel Cactus flourishing.

Unicorns!

Another new species that has appeared on our land this monsoon season is mythical indeed, the Desert Unicorn! How cool is that? I never expected to have unicorns for neighbours. This strange plant develops a large tuber underground and when the rains come they grow leaves, lovely yellow flowers and the long curved fruits that give them their name.

Still Liking The Lichen

Another of the little details that I love, the palette of colours provided by lichen clad rocks.

Inside Out

The saguaro never fails to fascinate, even when life has long gone. What lurks beneath the green skin, armoured with spines? This amazing wooden ribbed structure.

Hello

Is it my imagination or is that Saguaro looking at me?

One More - Sunday Desert Blooms

How could I have been so remiss? A series of blooms without including the Saguaro? Silly me. It is not easy when most of the blooms are twenty to thirty feet up in the air but 'when there is a will, there is a way.' So here it is, for real this time, the final image in the Sunday Bloom series.

Sunday Desert Blooms - Part Seven

The last one in the series as most of the blooms are gone now. This is the Chenille Prickly Pear, one of the most prodigious producers of blooms.

Sunday Desert Blooms - Part Six

Another variation of Cholla, this time with sunshine yellow blossoms lighting up an otherwise inconspicuous plant.

Sunday Desert Blooms - Part Five

Another Hedgehog Cacti, this one is more delicate than some of it's more brash neighbours but no less stunning.

Sunday Desert Blooms - Part Four

Staring deep into the cup of a Santa Rita Prickly Pear blossom, such vivid colours.