I took such a long walk yesterday morning and took so many pictures (over 100) that I didn’t have enough time to sort through the pictures AND write the blog post. So this is being posted a day late. Actually, this is the first time I missed a day’s posting since I began The Mommytography’s 365 Project. Pretty amazing!
It was a gorgeous morning yesterday and quite a bit warmer than last Monday. We’ve been having temps reach the 80s for the past week, which is about 10 – 15 degrees warmer than is normal for mid-March. It has made it rather warm in our house, since our evaporative cooling system is not turned on yet (and won’t be for at least another month), so I’m hoping it will go back down to more seasonable temperatures.
Even though it’s been warmer than usual, though, I was surprised that I saw only a few more signs of spring.
Signs of Spring
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A front yard being Irrigated. I love how the sun caught the water drops spraying around.
If you want anything to grow in your front yard, other than cactus, you have to irrigate. During the winter I run our front yard system twice a week for about 20 minutes each time. Now that it has warmed up, I should run it three times a week, but I really only remember to do it on trash pick-up days, so that is two days a week (Tuesdays and Fridays) and so I run it for about 50 minutes each time. You would think it would make a huge impact on the water bill, but it really didn’t. What impacted it more was watering the back yard grass, something which I need to begin doing again also.
I don’t know what this plant is (lantana?), but it is a lovely combination of yellow and green.
More tree blossoms.
This and a willow were the only trees I found that were greening up and leafing out.
Willows are not very common around here; usually we only see them near the San Pedro River. The owners must spend a fair bit of money paying for water for this tree!
Magnolia tree leaves close up. My dad has a beautiful magnolia tree in his yard in Alabama and I always found it curious that the tree blossoms at the same time that it drops its leaves. But it stays green all winter and only drops a portion of its leaves in the fall and another portion in the spring. A mess y tree, but beautiful too!
No sign of spring here! This is an ocotillo cactus and it will grow very small green leaves when it receives some moisture.
The snow is almost gone on the mountain top. Compare this picture to the Monday Morning Walk March 7th picture. Last year we had a very visible covering of snow on the mountain until mid-May, so you can see that we have had a much milder winter this year.
Wall Art
I received several comments about the lizard picture in last week’s Morning Walk post that I decided to capture some more creatures on camera. Here you see a road runner, which is a popular decoration. Probably one third of the houses have some sort of ceramic or metal decoration on their outside walls.
Another lizard.
Two very pretty butterflies.
A havelina family.
And yet another lizard.
And this guy isn’t exactly wall art, but part of a pair of foxes sitting one on each side of a driveway. Cute, isn’t he?
More Freeze Damage
Another succulent that didn’t survive the zero temps last month.
And one that did survive!
A weather station that I am sure was busy recording temperatures during last month’s freeze.
A very common sight here. Many houses are roofed with ceramic tiles, but an equal number use shingles and with the prevalent west wind and occasionally fierce storms, we’ve seen many houses reshingled since we moved here a year and a half ago.
Fun walk – very different to mine! That yellow and green – looks like a Euphorbia, no idea of which type tho’.
You are right, Missus Wookie. Euphorbia rigida, or gopher plant. A winter-hardy evergreen shrub.
Very nice walk and signs of spring!
Looks like it was a wonderful walk! My Monday morning walk was in the dark. 🙁