Spring in the Desert - An Archival Edition Post

Throwback Thursdays, the Facebook meme which has my friends posting their school pictures from 1958, never caught on with me.  I'm more interested in sharing the here and now than in reliving the past.  

But some of the past may be worth revisiting. 

This, the first in a weekly series of Archival Edition posts, will explore The Burrow to see if that's true.

*****

First published on April 28, 2010, this lightly edited post could have been written today.  

I am, as Pantagruel suggested, tending my own garden.  

Here are the results of a lovely early morning and late afternoon walking around my yard and admiring the work that the creator (need a capital C?  whatever floats your boat... today, I'm not arguing with anyone about anything) and I have achieved. 

The commentary is minimal.... I hope your joy is exponential.

*****

Yellow is the predominant color right now.

These damianitas have finally shown their true beauty.
I must give myself some credit for their showy display; I pruned them carefully after their last bloom.  Mini-Marie gave me instructions at Master Gardeners one day, and everything she said was true.  I just snipped off the dead blossoms and left the leggy, woody, ugly branches alone and, as if by magic (but isn't that just the way with gardening?) here they are.

Forgive me for bragging, but they're gorgeous.  Simply gorgeous.  Someone slowed down to look at them while driving by yesterday afternoon.  I love sharing the joy.

This brittle bush is a volunteer; she just arrived last Fall and established herself.

I am eternally grateful to the animal who excreted or brushed off her seeds near the drainage berm.

The Prickly Pear Cacti I showed you earlier this year have bloomed

and the mesquite trees

are just getting started. 
In a few days, there will be no greenery on any of their branches.
They will all be covered in those yellow pods.
Let the sneezing commence!

 The lantana

has also joined the party.

The barrel cacti blooms are long spent

and their detritus  has become food for the ground squirrels.

 These tunas litter my yard.  The little rodents sit in the shade (of the garbage can waiting to be emptied, of the gate, of the barrel cacti) and munch away happily.  Then, not having been schooled in mannerly behavior, they leave their trash and jump up for more.

Yellow is not the only color that is sprouting from the ground.

 The Staghorn Cholla

 has these soft buds

amidst those awful thorns and those blooms have opened to that deep red. 

I'm fixated on the pollen.  Am I crazy or is that really sexy?

The yuccas' (hesperaloe parviflora) long red shoots have been up since March, but the buds

are starting to open

 and I'm loving their delicate yellow insides. 
The hummingbirds and the butterflies and the finches all seem to like perching on their sturdy limbs and drinking.
The birds and the bees, indeed.

Finally, just in case you think that everything in the desert is prickly and pointy and harsh and sharp and ouchy, look at this

It felt as delicate and dewy as it looks.

Oh, frabjous day!