small pleasures at home

 

a view taken on Vulture Peak road

We've been enjoying quiet times at home, mixed with a little local desert exploration.

so beautiful - so painful.....

 Dave is, as usual, puttering around, keeping busy refinishing cupboards that have irritated him since we moved in, adding a small safety fence in the back yard for a possible future event, and getting Beluga ready for a little, two-week trip to Palm Springs and Lake Havasu on Monday.

I even persuaded him to "relocate" an unusual, night blooming cactus that is rarely seen in the desert.    

off he goes, shovel and pail in hand

 The Peniocereus greggii greggii, commonly known as the night blooming cactus, is ugly.    Sorry, but it is.    It looks like no more than a bunch of dry twigs or sticks growing at the base of a Mesquite or Palo Verde tree, but once a year, at night, it produces a spectacular and extremely fragrant bloom. 

there is one in this picture, believe me...

 By morning the flower is gone.   Cool, eh?      I always get cross-eyed looking for one as we drive along in the desert (never actually finding one....) but this lady was discovered behind our very own house!

The other unusual thing about Queenie (that's her name now, don't judge) is that she doesn't have a normal root system.    Her "root" is a huge, turnip shaped tuber that reaches deep into the ground.      Poor Dave, he had quite a time digging a new hole deep enough to accommodate her turnip!    He's a prince.

on hands and knees

And, here she is!    Can you see her?    I placed a gargoyle next to her, to protect (and so that we wouldn't accidently step on her) the new site.    Now, to see if we will be able to catch that flower when it arrives in June!   Keep your fingers crossed.

The weather has turned fall ish.   We're finding ourselves enjoying happy hour in front of the fireplace instead of outside more often these days.     The skies are still beautiful and blue but by 5 o'clock it is a little chilly, so the warmth of the fire is welcome.

Most people notice fall has come when they see squirrels squirreling away nuts for the winter or caterpillars growing wooly coats.     One of our interesting heralders of fall are ants.....not the biting kind of the summer (eww), but the industrious kind that carry and stash away things.

For days we had a long, orderly line of them marching diagonally across the driveway carrying dried, yellow blossoms from a bush in the front yard to a chosen spot in a cement crack.     Others would then swarm out and take over the duties while the transporter ants went back for more.   

  Remember, I titled this post "small pleasures".   We spent some time watching this procession, wondering why these bits were so valuable to them - food, nesting material?     Ah well.     Then they were gone, not a scrap of debris to show how hard they worked.     

even Dave got in the act!

down went the blossoms.

As I said, the weather has started to change.    We even had a bit of rain the other day.      

It didn't last long, but the clouds that brought it here left us with a beautiful farewell display.

And.....if those pictures aren't beautiful enough for you......here's little Annabelle!

sitting is a skill not completely mastered yet.