Spring Time in the Desert ~ the saguaro flower

 

In honor of “every day should be Earth day” ~ the giant saguaro's blossoms courtesy of Mother Nature!

One of the many pleasures of living in our local environment – here in “Hadesville” AZ, Sonoran Desert, USA - is the spring time blooming season.

Our current home is so unusual in contrast to anything we have experienced before (Northern CA, and North Yorkshire UK) that when we first moved here we almost crashed into several cars due to staring at this awe inspiring, ancient, and huge desert icon – the saguaro.

As it starts to warm up we see a variety of colors dotting the stark landscape. The last to appear is this waxy and insect attracting flower. So beautiful to see, they almost make the oven-like heat we experience in the dead of summer bearable (116 degrees plus!) This year, due to some pre-spring deluges, many of the blooms that would normally appear are a little latter than usual. Here are some photos that we have taken in the last few years – giving you a vicarious spring visit to our desert home.

Please enjoy! 

Happy Christmas! ~ As they say in England

 

“God made the Grand Canyon, but he lives in Sedona”  ~  local Arizona saying

I do have to say the we entirely agree about the above quote, even though we are not a religious pair. Although we love the amazing and majestic Grand Canyon, we acknowledge that Sedona is a small step above  - it is so so beautiful! 

Needless to say we are off for our Christmas holiday trip to this magical place and it does look as pictured above. We also think that Sedona is a place that every person on the planet should visit at least once in their lifetime!

We will be returning in a few days, for a few more posts before the New Year. In the meantime we want to extend our best wishes to all our readers, new and old, friends and family, for happy and healthy festivities whatever your religious inclinations or belief systems.

Wishing we could help you all celebrate with a wonderful toast of the beverage of your choice!

Happy Christmas Everyone! ~ John & Shellie

And just in case you’re bored and don’t have enough to read while we are away ~ here are a couple of interesting multicultural holiday links (I wish I would have had time to find more):

• Druids gather in the snow at Stonehenge! ~ there are some great pictures here.
• A post on Finnish Christmas traditions from Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell.

Fall Colors from the Spring ~ Desert Blooms

 

A taste of Spring for the Fall!

Needing a break from books, I thought I would share these Spring flowers since they have a “Fall-ish”  tone to them. All were taken from March through May of  2010. 

As you can see, our desert landscape turns to a sea of yellow for the season.  These were taken in a local park in the city of Fountain Hills. It is about 20 miles East of Phoenix AZ. This park borders on Native American Reservation land where there are no buildings to block the glorious views.

 

It is truly amazing when walking in all this color, you feel like you could be the color yellow itself or perhaps that you are hallucinating. An incredible experience which is truly indescribable.

 

 

Here are the local desert mallow on the right and the native Mexican poppies to the left which are tiny compared to the Californian poppies I am familiar with. 

 

This is one of the desert’s most beautiful flowers – the saguaro bloom (desert rose). It appears just as it starts getting very warm here. They are big and waxy and full of buzzing critters of all sorts. 

Lastly, on the left is the flower of the buckhorn cholla, which can vary from deep purple to light yellowish green and any combination of the spectrum in between; on the right is the lovely prickly pear which also varies similarly in color.

Please enjoy the Spring 2010 flowers in all their “Fall-ish” hue and have a wonderful weekend!

Mexican Poppies and Purple Lupine – Desert Blooms March 2010

Although not as beautiful as in real life, here are the flower pictures from our last weekend hike. They were everywhere, huge fields of them.

According to the local newspapers, its been an unusual year here…with quite a lot of rain but late in the season. This in turn has created a profusion of delicate flowers. Mexican poppies and lupine are what I believe these are called.

What is amazing is the combination of orange and purple. They are, according to color theory,  compliment colors. If you look at the color wheel below, orange and purple as well as their various shades are directly across from one another.

It’s very interesting if you think about it. Fun too, since you can create your own color combinations which work amazingly well if you use the color wheel. There is tons of data on color theory all over the web – just a short Google ride and you can be inundated. It can become quite complex, however complimentary colors are one of its easier and more useful concepts.

Lastly, here is an up close shot of some poppies … so delicate. We can’t help but wonder how long they will last.

More flowers to come, we can’t wait to show you those from the saguaro cactus… amazing! And the various colors of the prickly pear… And the amazing peachy shades from the buckhorn cholla.  Please stay tuned!

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As you may have noted, we are trying to “unplug on weekends” since both JD and I are at  computers for hours and hours each day (flat expanding bottoms are not attractive) and the weather is so wonderful here in the desert right now. We intend to make the most of it since, sadly, it will not last for long.

Have a fun weekend everyone!

A Non Book Post – March Desert Blooms

(Hedgehog cactus flowers - left, Ocotillo flowers - right, and desert daisies – bottom. Do not quote me!)

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I don’t know about you but we need a book break. I love books but… you can’t miss something unless it goes away (Grandma Bozeman.)

Fat chance here… Anyhow thought we would share a bit of the desert from our most recent hike last Saturday. Just a few flower pictures which John took from our trustworthy crummy camera. Being such an unusual place in terms of flora, fauna, its amazing landscape and weather, it’s something which everyone should experience. Albeit this one will be vicarious for almost everyone. (Charlie excluded, from whom the idea for this post was pilfered – link on his name for  a hilarious and informative post about Phoenix!)

Although not natives, unlike the flowers, we are causally observant. The cactus here seam to bloom in phases – each lovely in its own way and time. One type of flower which was a big surprise on Saturday and blooming very early – I believe - is called the hedgehog cactus. This is the one which has the gorgeous papery fuchsia flowers in the photo above. Our favorites are the ‘night blooming’ saguaro flowers, with their beautiful white waxy blossoms. They should be open at the beginning of May.

We have about two more months of pleasant hiking weather (it is currently 70 here at the warmest part of the day) during which we should have a profusion of amazing flowers. Sadly after that we are on the treadmill in an air-conditioned room and it will be just us, the cacti, and the dry dry oven like heat.

Hopefully, if we remember the camera (memory is not the best of our qualities), there will be several more posts like this with some beautiful updates. Please stay tuned for  more desert flowers and the BNBB (badly needed book break.) Don't worry, more bookish stuff is on its way!

Have a great weekend everyone!