it's like magic!

So, my birthday was Tuesday... not sure yet how I feel about being 45-  how does that happen?!? It seems like just yesterday that I was somewhere in my thirties... Anyway, this afternoon I was doing some magic after work in our front yard: 

(you should be able to click on any of them to make them larger)

Magic Trick #1

Magic Trick #2

Magic Trick #2b

Magic trick #3

Have you figured it out yet? Tom's birthday present to me was something totally unexpected, and quite thoughtful- I said a couple posts ago that I'd kind of like a macro lens for my camera, and now I have one! He didn't even read that on the blog, he just knew I was getting more interested in close-up photography of insects, flowers, and the like, and thought I might like it. And he was right! (Now I just have to figure out exactly how to use it... although the little bit of messing around with it that I've done so far is pretty cool, I think.)

The#2 photos are of a smallish saguaro cactus (about 2 1/2 feet tall) in our front yard. The first one is the very top of the cactus, where all the new growth happens, and the second one is an older established grouping of spines farther down the plant. These areas on a cactus, when looked at closely, make some really neat abstract patterns. (fyi, from my internet searches, the spines on a cactus help to shade the plant from the sun-- and protect it.)

This is #3: a flower off our spruce cone cactus.
The photo above is a close-up of the pollen grains
 (pollen grains!!! how cool is that!!) inside the flower. 

I called it 'like magic' because with this lens, I can see things that I can't (or don't really pay attention to, at the very least) with the naked eye. I've always been fascinated with stuff like that, even when I was little- I spent plenty of time outside in our yard: laying in the grass watching ants, examining maple tree helicopters, acorns, and the like, and carting home pockets full of rocks that didn't really look special at all, except, I guess, to me. I don't remember how old I was, but Mom and Dad even got me a microscope set one year (for Christmas, maybe?) and I remember spending lots of time looking at what was in a drop of water from a puddle, that sort of thing. This is kind of the 'grown up' version of that, I guess- I can take a photograph of something and look even closer at it than I'd be able to otherwise (especially with the limitations of my bad eyesight). 

This is the zoomed-out version of what's in pic #1;
it's a withered-up flower from the golden barrel cactus.
Not all that interesting, maybe, except for in the close-up
it takes on a more abstract sort of form. 

He also gave me two bottles of Vitamin D gel-caps, which was also quite thoughtful, since I needed it- and it made me laugh, besides! 

Hopefully you liked my 'magic tricks' and hopefully I'll have more of them to show over the coming months!

a weekend recap in photos

It was a beautiful weekend for a drive!! On Saturday, we headed to Scottsdale for lunch on Saturday-- we enjoyed lunch at the newly opened Portillo's. Finally, now we have an authentic Chicago-area hot dog place here in the Valley!! It was pretty weird to walk into the place; it looks just like the ones in the Chicago suburbs... the greeter asked, 'have you been here before?' and the answer, is, well- yes, and no-- lol!! They were really hopping, but as efficient as I remember. 

And the food tastes just like we remember, too! Here's Tom's Italian beef with extra sweet and hot peppers. It's something to do with the particular combination of seasonings in the beef, and the bread they use, I think... whatever it is, it's nice to have 'a bit of home' here in the desert!

And here's my chicken sandwich, with crinkle-cut fries, just like I remember it. It was definitely worth the drive! (and after this lunch, neither of us needed dinner Saturday night, either.)

a gorgeous fountain outside a resort hotel along Scottsdale Road... after having lunch, we headed south into the Old-Town Scottsdale area.

Tom needed to replenish his humidor, so we stopped in at the Cigar Warehouse to see what they had in stock. I love walking into this place-- the entire store is a walk-in humidor, and the aroma of tobacco and cedar is like nothing else there is. 

This smell, too, is like nothing else-- orange blossoms. It's so hard to describe- sort of like grape soda, but not quite... sweet, and very heavy in the air when it's humid, or late in the evening when the air is still. 

It's tourist season right now in the Valley, since major league baseballs's spring training season is just winding down. Driving through Old-Town Scottsdale, you never know what you might see!! There were horse-drawn carriages giving tours.. and then there was this! Seeing this Segway tour go by made me chuckle- not something you expect to see driving by on the road, that's for sure. Of course, there's probably lots of things about Scottsdale I still don't know, so then again, maybe taking a tour wouldn't be such a bad thing. (I don't think I could do it on a Segway, though- I'd feel silly!)

back on the home front, this prickly pear cactus in our backyard is finally starting to take off-- it didn't seem to like where it was planted and was extremely slow to start growing, but this season it will more than double in size, by the looks of it. 

Here's a close-up of the new growth-- the pads / spines start out so soft and innocent-looking, don't they?? The problem with prickly pears is, there's the spines you can see, but there's plenty more of them that are too small to see easily with the naked eye. Those are the ones that cause the problems! You can sure feel them when they stick you! (There's just enough room between this cactus and the wall for the dogs to sneak through that space- it makes me nervous every time I see them do it, but so far, so good.)

We spent most of Saturday evening and a good part of Sunday enjoying the spring weather, relaxing on the patio-- here's Ariel having fun playing in an empty box I got on my last trip to Costco. It's so funny-- just like with kids, they can have all the toys in the world, but what they like playing with is the empty box, right?? lol!

Of course, Bisbee and Prescott had to have some fun with Ariel in the box, too... haha!! 

And on another pet-related note, Krista is going to the vet on Tuesday for a dental procedure: teeth cleaning, x-rays, and possible (more likely probable) extraction of at least 2 or 3 teeth. Think good thoughts!! 

(and lastly, how did it get to be April already, by the way?!? where does the time go??)

home and family pics

just a few pics from the last couple weeks:

I know this pic is a bunch of tiny white blobs, but if you click
on it, you may be able to see that they're birds. 

with all the rain, the wash that goes through our neighborhood was flooded, and attracted plenty of birds-  I took these couple photos in the afternoon on my way home from work, but that morning when I drove past on my way to work, there were at least thirty of them out there. (I regret not stopping to take the photo then!)

a bit of a closer view

I believe they're cattle egrets, an 'uncommon visitor to the Sonoran Desert: the most likely place to see them is in an agricultural field during irrigation.' That about describes this area to a T! (except for the agricultural part, that is.) The water has since dried up, and the birds have moved on.

Tom and Lefty, our Saguaro cactus

It's been a while since we've measured our Saguaro, so we did it a couple weeks ago. Tom used the retractable metal measuring tape, and just about ran out of tape; it's 9 1/2 feet tall! I guess he sure likes where he's living now, because we don't water him at all! I named him Lefty because he's got a couple gunshot scars; I figured that makes him a cowboy-gunfighter sort of a cactus, so he needed a cowboy-gunfighter sort of name! His companion is the Argentinian Toothpick cactus in the left-hand part of the photo; its name is Pancho (sort of a South American cowboy kind of name)... Pancho doesn't like his new home quite as much (he hasn't grown much at all since we moved him to this house), but hopefully with all the rain we've been getting, he'll start to grow again soon. (by the way, the Argentinian Toothpick's name comes from the fact that the cactus spines can be a few inches long, and could be used as a toothpick, I guess- you wouldn't catch me doing that, that's for sure!)

Tom and Lefty: Christmas 2008

For comparison's sake, here's  a pic of Tom with the Saguaro from Christmas 2008. We had it all decked out with white lights and a Christmas hat; not sure if we'll be able to do that again this year- at the very least, we'll need a bigger hat, and more lights!

too much of a good thing makes for a good news story, apparently

so, we've been having a decent monsoon season so far this summer. We've had a number of storms miss us altogether, some small, quick moving storms, and a couple storms that last for hours and result in more than an inch of rain accumulation. And, since the ground is so dry here, the rain doesn't always soak in, especially if it comes down exceptionally fast.

Because of all this moisture, we've actually got some humidity (ick), lots of mosquitoes (double ick), and some other things going on, as you'll see below:

lush green grass (which = mosquitoes), and some
mysterious white objects... ??

they were mushrooms! not something I would
ever expect to see in the desert, that's for sure.

I removed them from the grass-- I have no idea
what kind they are, and I didn't want the dogs
getting into them. They are cool looking, though.

All the rainwater drains through the west side-yard, which means this
cactus has been in hog heaven. Too much of a good thing (all the water)
has resulted in an explosion of growth-- this arm couldn't hold up its
own weight any more, and slowly sagged down to the ground
over the course of a few days. (so, I had to do some pruning.)

too much of a good thing (Tuesday evening's rainstorm)
led to flooding in a neighborhood on the northeast
side of town that actually threatened a few homes. 

Which led to Maricopa being the lead weather story on the local news, a news helicopter hovering over town shooting live footage, and space on the front page of today's Phoenix newspaper! Apparently seasonal flooding (and a state of emergency being declared by the mayor, just in case it got worse) meant that Maricopa even warranted a few seconds on CNN this morning, as well!
 

(while I do feel bad for the people who were worried about their houses being inundated with water, I really think it must've been a slow news day- lol!)

it wasn't exactly on time...

...the night blooming cereus, that is. It looks like this bloom opened very late at night / very early in the morning, so it was still fully open when I took the dogs outside on Thursday at 5 am. 

while I'm glad I got a chance to see the flower in its 'full glory' due to its late-night bloom, I think this means it opened too late to be pollinated (since these flowers are usually pollinated by moths). I really need to get a yardstick or measuring tape out here, to see how much this cactus has grown- it has to be at least a foot since last winter! (apparently cacti like hot, dry weather! and perhaps, the overspray from the sprinkler doesn't hurt it either- haha!)

AZ spring flowers- a couple snapshots

not the best photos, but wanted to get a couple snapshot of spring blooms in our backyard flowers to show my Mom-- here you go!

one of our aloe plants- it's very reminiscent of how hostas bloom, to me. 

(notice the group of pups around the main plant? yeah, I think we'll have to keep an eye on this one, for sure!)

 a close-up of the flowers- it looks like only a few of them are actually blooming at any one time, and they bloom from the bottom (again, very reminiscent of a hosta) We have seen the hummingbirds at them, although I think I'd have to sit for hours to actually get a photo of it.

a web photo close-up of the aloe flowers 

 a poor photo of our backyard ocotillo- the gray canes against a brown wall doesn't photograph too well! (fyi, I did some funky editing with the photo, too...) if you look up at the top near the top text, the small orange dots are actually the flower clusters, at the top of the canes. 

here, I was trying to get a close-up of the flower clusters- kind of hard to do, considering they're 7 or 8 feet up!! Like the aloe, these are also small, tubular flowers that the hummers drink from. (I can't imagine they get too much from any one flower, though!)

this photo I found on the internet is a bit lot better: web photo of ocotillo with bee

so yes, there are flowers in the desert-- you just have to look a bit harder for them!

then and now--

Then, December 2008... we'd already had the saguaro for about a year here (not sure when exactly we bought it; I could look it up, but the receipt is upstairs). It was 5 ft tall when we bought it, and Tom is 5 ft 8 inches, so it's already grown maybe close to a foot, here? (This saguaro was "rescued" from the desert by the landscaping company, probably from a construction site-- they do that here: saguaro cactus flowers are the state wildflower, and saguaro cactus in the wild are protected, so permits must be obtained before moving or destroying them. Anyway, when we bought it, it was 5 feet tall, but had some "character" due to having been used for target practice- which is also illegal in AZ- at some point in its past.) Below is the Now pic, taken just this morning... Tom hasn't shrunk any, so that means the saguaro has grown quite a lot... we (okay, he) measured it last weekend with the tape measure, and it was 8 1/2 feet tall. !!!!! We had it moved from our first house to this one, and when the landscaping guys saw it, they asked if we watered it: Nope, not since it was planted and got settled in. Apparently, it just likes us!

...now if it would just bloom... which hopefully will be in another couple feet!! (for a few facts: saguaro are native only to the Sonoran Desert, take up to 75 years to develop a side arm, and their growth rate is dependent on the amount of precipitation they get. They can live as long as 200 years, and can get up to 50 feet tall. ...so ours has a ways to go, yet.)

we set the alarm for 12:30 am last night...

--what would get us up in the middle of the night, you ask?? This: This is a variety of "night-blooming cereus," an unusual cactus that has huge, striking blooms. You can read about it here, and scroll to the bottom of this page (bottom left photo) to see a picture of a mature specimen. Only problem is, they don't bloom during the day! We got our cactus from a friend of Tom's a couple months ago, and have been keeping a close eye on it the last couple weeks once we saw the flower buds start to appear. Yesterday afternoon, it looked like these two were going to open-- we checked on it a couple times throughout the evening, but no luck, by the time we went to bed. So, the alarm clock was set.

The flowers are 6-7 inches long, and about 5 inches across. I'm assuming they're pollinated by some sort of moth, but I can't find any info about what kind. According to the internet, the flowers are very fragrant, but I couldn't smell a thing. Maybe my nose wasn't awake yet?? The internet also says the plant will eventually grow to be a branched clump 30-50 feet high, but that it's a slow-grower. (thank goodness!! But it will eventually make a very impressive statement in the backyard.)

Although I was perfectly willing to stumble back to bed and save looking at the photos for this morning, they were definitely worth waking up for!

the rest of the story (in pictures)

the pic below is why it was hard to spell last night...

this is our newest cactus-- Murray brought it over yesterday when he came to finish up the framing... he showed Tom a pic of it, asked if we wanted it, and Tom said, "heck, yeah!" I think Murray may have said what kind it is, but I don't remember... he DID say it came off a plant in his yard that was over 7 feet tall, and a really nicely grouped specimen.

I love the look of it, with the wavy pleats... Murray also said his gets very large, white, night-flowering blooms that are very attractive to moths, bees, and hummingbirds. Now, we just have to wait for it to settle in and grow!

random photo catch up

the contrast in most of these photos is horrible since they had to be taken during the day in really bright sun; I apologize in advance... these gorgeous flowers were on one of our newest cacti, a cholla (jumping cactus). I can't remember which variety just now, but the flowers were totally unexpected, since it's still small, and we only planted it last fall. They are called jumping cactus because they have a reputation for doing just that-- not literally, of course, but the segments break off easily, so they seem to "jump" at you.

here's what the entire thing looks like-- it's about 1 1/2 feet tall, and should get to be 4-5 feet tall eventually.

This gorgeous peachy-yellow flower is from the prickly pear... it was transplanted to this spot last summer, and has gone gangbusters ever since. If it keeps growing at this pace, it will need to be pruned back eventually, but for now, we're letting it grow.

This shot is the entire prickly pear-- I tried to count the flower buds, but lost count around 39 or 40. They open for a day or two, only a couple at a time... there will be a lot of fruits on it this year! (and no, I'm not going to try to make prickly pear candy with it... I'll leave that to the experts.)

This pic is a closeup of the sculpture below. It is outside our local casino (Harrah's AkChin; we went there last Friday for dinner), and is quite impressive- It's called "Desert Oasis" and is by the same sculptor (Snell Johnson is his name- I can't find much about him, though) who did the huge lions outside the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas. The statue is really impressive. (the dinner buffet was pretty good, too!)

It depicts the harvest of the saguaro fruit, which is what the woman in the foreground is doing, with the long pole/hook (click on the photo to see it larger). And darn it, I know I read a story about this sculpture somewhere, but now I can't find it again! I'll let you know if I do. (sorry, it was getting dark when I took it.)

this just made me laugh-- he's waiting to go for a ride, I think! It was taken outside Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale last Saturday. There was a class going on, and the little paperclay creatures were drying out in the sun.

and this fellow was on the sidewalk down the street from the store... he made me laugh, too, for two reasons: 1) because he's sitting on one of those resin lawnchairs, and 2) because he looks like he has a bit of indigestion! Just goes to show that I never know what I'll see when I'm out and about! --or maybe it shows I have a warped sense of humor?? :D

spring in the desert

spring has been busting out all over in the AZ desert... for the first time, some of our cactus have actually flowered! It seems like a long wait, but really, they've only been planted for a few years. This odd-looking specimen is a spruce cone cactus (aka turd cactus- that's what we call it, anyway, since that's sorta what the pieces look like). It surprised us with some beautiful white flowers!

a close-up of the flower... these flowers are just gorgeous, although they don't last- each flower is only open for a few hours, then disappears.

One of the prickly pear flowers; these were even harder to catch while they were open, since they only seemed to open in the mid-afternoon, and were already closing by the time I got home from work.

The lantana are definitely "busting out all over" next to the driveway... I've already pruned them once, and will soon have to again!