FALLEN CACTI

Who knew that a Barrel cactus would break off and fall over if they leaned too far? Who knew Barrel cacti had a tendency to lean? We found it out the hard way. Dear friends of ours gave us the cacti and even planted them for us over 20 years ago. They were tiny then. They grew and grew, and then one day we saw one of them laying down on the rocks. A short time later (probably about a month) the second one bit the dust (or I mean rocks). Now, how to get them moved was the question. They are EXTREMELY heavy. And those needles are sooo sharp.

Clif is good at figuring out how to fix things, so he set his mind to figuring out what to do. Here's the result.

Cut (saw) them into "manageable" size chunks.

Haul them around to the side of the house to await their turn in the trash can.

Then take a little break in the shade with a glass of ice water.

The goal: Get them all moved before the forecast high of 112º.

That Totem Pole cactus is leaning too. Is it just a matter of time? The Saguaro cactus is nice and straight.  I don't think it is in jeopardy. The Saguaro is "king of the cactuses (cacti)" These cacti were all planted at the same time about 22 years ago.

We love our desert - even when there are problems.

Picturesque

So I was just playing around with a program called Picturesque. I think it is interesting how you can rotate the photo, put color around it and reflection below. You can just about turn a picture every way but loose and get an interesting perspective. Just thought someone might find it interesting. I do.

I took this picture this morning of our "Home in Arizona". 

Sneakers and Bougainvillea

Went to my first Silver Sneakers exercise session this morning. I was able to go through the routine better than I thought I would since I'm so out of shape. I'm excited about going back and also about going back and using the exercise equipment and work out in the pool. I'm happy to say that Hubby will be joining me.  I joined a gym when I was a teenager and just went a few times and lost interest. I'm determined this time to carry through with it. I am a little older and a little wiser now. LOL Make that a LOT older and wiser.

Just went out in the back yard and snapped these pictures. The bougainvillea is taking over out there again. I guess if we didn't keep cutting it back it would take over the whole yard, pool and all.

You can barely see the bird bath. It's covered by the bougainvillea. I hope the birdies can find it.

From a Hot Tub to a Pool

After I posted the photos of our hot tub in CA a few days ago and mentioned that now we don't have a hot tub but we have a pool, I decided to post a picture of that pool. Do I look young in this picture? It was taken about 5 years after the hot tub picture - about 20 years ago. No, I thought about posting a more recent picture, but decided "no". lol.  Notice the sea gull at the back of the pool? It was also in the hot tub picture. It is still out there by the pool looking a little weather worn by now. Oh, and the blue and white umbrella came with us when we moved as well. It lasted a long time. I just noticed the bird bath and cement bunny. They came with us too. Bet they wonder what happened to that nice cool shady back yard. Actually this back yard is pretty shady now, and it's cool (in the winter time). We planted a small tree in the corner behind the grass. Now it has gotten so large and the palm trees have grown so that the whole pool is in the shade in the mornings (for awhile).

Thanks for humoring me and reading this post. My Spiritual Sundays post is on the Charlotte's Weblog blog this week. If you have not seen it I invite you to go there. http://char72.wordpress.com/

MORE BOUGAINVILLEA

The tall plant is an ocotillo cactus with pretty orange blooms way out on the ends. If you look closely you can see the oranges on the neighbor's tree (at the left).

Here's a closeup of the pretty lavender flowers in the neighbor's yard.

This pink bougainvillea is under a huge tree and gets way too much shade so it isn't usually this colorful.

And here is some more bougainvillea at the back of our house.

LOVE THAT PINK

I took the following pictures in the back yard yesterday. Love that pink bougainvillea.

The ice plant in the strawberry planter survived the winter but we were beginning to doubt if it was going to bloom. Now it's blooming big time. It's blooming even more today but I'm not going to go out and take another picture. This one will do.

Happy Spring!

WOBURN

Where in the world is Woburn you ask? If you are familiar with the northeast you probably know. This "western" woman had no idea until we started looking online for someplace to stay when we went to Boston. After considering many many options, we decided the Residence Inn in Woburn would be the place for us. We certainly were not disappointed. Besides being a nice place to stay they served free full breakfast every morning and dinner Monday through Thursday nights. We were 12 miles from Boston and a shuttle from the hotel took us to the train station in Woburn where we enjoyed the ride into Boston. We made about 3 stops at small towns on the way and enjoyed the scenery. Here's a photo I took of the Residence Inn.

I've mentioned in a previous post that we did the trolley tour thing and walked and walked and walked. As we started out walking in Boston, we went through this beautiful garden.

This park reminded me of the parks in London.

Statue of George Washington

We saw plenty of beautiful fall foilage, but a lot of it was on the ground as pictured here. We enjoyed that too. We don't see too many leaves that have fallen in our neighborhood. LOL

After that, we walked by Cheers. It was early and wasn't open yet so we didn't go inside. We were told it doesn't look anything like the Cheers place on TV.

CHEERS & CHEERIO!

Charlotte

HIGHWAY TO SEDONA

I snapped this picture as we were driving up to Sedona a few days ago. Isn't it beautiful? I also took a new picture for the header of the Spiritual Sundays blog. It's the same chapel on the side of the hill but this one I took standing outside the car. The other one I shot through the side window as we were driving by it.

fPhoto Friday

I just recently discovered fPhoto Friday and thought I'd join in today. Here are recent photos of the pair of quail that were living in our back yard. I'm sad that they and their 12 little ones have moved out into the big world. I loved it when they were in our yard, but realize they couldn't stay there forever. Sigh. I'll have more to say about this in another post in the future, probably on my Charlotte's Weblog blog.

For more fPhoto Friday pfun click right here.

THE QUAIL FAMILY

I just saw the cutest thing and I just have to share it with you. I looked out in the back yard and saw a mother and father quail along with 8 or 9 tiny baby quail. I grabbed my camera and took a picture through the window with the zoom.  Now you know what? I'm gonna go post this on my Charlotte's Weblog because pictures post larger there. You can't see the babies very well here. They blend in with the rocks. They're about the same size as those rocks in the yard. Go look on the other blog if you haven't already seen them there.

Wow! I just enlarged the picture and counted 13. You can click on these pictures to enlarge.

Arizona Sun

I would say this little guy has been out in the sun too long. He’s been sitting out in our back yard for about 18 years. I bought him at a yard sale when we first moved here. He was painted bright colors and looked new. This is what the sun has done to him. Actually, part of the time he has been sitting in the shade, but almost anywhere I put him, he gets sunshine sometime during the day. He has also survived many monsoon seasons. What a guy.

He has a good view though (if the sun hasn’t blinded him). The roses are just starting to bloom and these flowers that come up from bulbs every year are right in front of him. I’ll bet he does hate to see another summer coming though. It’s very pleasant out there this time of year.

Yes, I've thought about a new paint job, but decided to stick with the "weathered" look. I can identify with that.

More Bunnies

A note about the chocolate rabbit in yesterday's post. No, it's not chocolate. No, it's not plastic. It's ceramic. If anyone tries to bite his ears off they will end up in the dentist's office.

These "outside" bunnies are pictured here in our backyard in California.

When we moved here these bunnies were in the back yard until this one found his way to the front. The other one is still in the back yard.