Thursday, May 13, 2010

Desert Spring

I expected to get fried during lunch duty on the playground today. It was forecast to be 88 degrees. Out I went and it was slightly overcast. Warm but nowhere close to getting fried. I liked that!

I dream of my own ocotillos blooming like the ones above. Really I do. Love these plants like almost no others.
Desert marigolds and..... oh, I know this one and my mind went totally blank on the name!
Jumping Cholla in bloom. Took me for a loop when we encountered this. I'm familiar with cholla. It has a nasty reputation. It's said that if you come near it the thorns jump out at you. I've never had too close an encounter to find out for myself. Never noticed such a pretty bloom before either.
Poppies! I swoon over poppies. The Chicklet is started to get embarrassed by me. I guess we're even. I felt the same way with her and the Jonas Brothers. She's outgrown them. I haven't outgrown poppies or desert marigolds, etc.All the plants above were part of our hiking experience a few weeks ago. We met at the North Moutain Visitors Center. The sad thing is, due to budget cuts, the center is closed for the time being. Luckily, we still had plenty of desert to enjoy.Taking pictures made me the slow poke of the bunch...We came across this rider and his horse. A real beauty. The girls gathered around to pet the horse and were offered the opportunity to mount her/him, the horse... Look at those beautiful eyes! The Chicklet and her green eyes were getting some competition.
We came across a few other creatures. Mr. and Mrs. Quail. Only caught one of them on film.
Here we are. The temps rose into the 90's that day. It was our second day out in the sun with Girl Scout activities and we were wiped out. Well worth it though. Abunch of us went out to breakfast after and then it was home to take showers and relax.

My school laptop is in the process of getting re-imaged. everything is going to get wiped out. I'm going to have some problems logging on at home due to not being able to find my password to my wi-fi network. Brilliant, huh?
Marissa

3 comments:

  1. Love your blog and fun to see how grown your daughter is getting. Yes, the desert is warming up here too.

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  2. Hi Marissa,
    Beautiful pictures and I am with you on the poppies. Could use some of that valley sun up here in Pinetop!

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  3. Chicklet is growing up...! So amazing when they become as tall as we are and begin looking down on us...

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