Everything Is Coming Up Roses

 I hate to be so repetitive, but it rained again last night.  The storms come in about 8:00 and hang around all night.  This one was more of a light show with less thunder.  Too bad it wasn't enough to scare away what was chewing at the head of my bed.

It was so loud, it was hard to tell where it was coming from, but I suspect under the house.  Just to be sure, I ran outside with a flashlight.  Nope ... nothing.  Back inside I kicked the wall and slammed the floor several tines before it finally stopped.  I imagine it's a pack rat ... one smart enough to sidestep the traps and apparently not a connoisseur of peanut butter.  

Whiling away the hours sewing and watching death and mayhem on TV wasn't all that time consuming, so I took a walk down the hill to see what might be in bloom.  Everything was the answer ... just about everything.

These little white flowers show up in clumps all across the landscape.  

I did notice that my landscape has changed quite a bit.  All that water running down the hill has moved not only sand and gravel, but whole trees and cactus.  I have several barrel cactus like this one just trying to bloom.  It's almost three feet tall.  I think sometimes too much water is as bad as not enough.

Here's one beauty that hasn't bloomed yet, but they are on their way.  Just look at the leaf coverage on the ocotillo.  I've never seen them so fuzzy with growth.  These are usually very dead looking sticks, not so attractive.

Here's a happy camper.  As many pictures as I took, these guys are few and far between.

This one I have not a clue.  There are bushes of these growing everywhere, now covered in yellow fluffy dandelion-puff type flowers.  Don't be fooled, absolutely everything growing in the desert has big spines and needles that will get you when you least expect.

I suppose they all need protection from the critters that will eat them into extinction if they weren't prepared.  It seems even the rabbits like cactus.

Here's an up close and personal one.  I may have to enlarge this one for the wall.

As I walked along saying ouch and darn that hurt followed by it's your own fault, you wore shorts and sandals .... I almost stepped on this baby.  It's only about an inch tall, having survived the flood by hiding behind this dead root.  There are many tiny ones, so you have to watch your step.  Mostly because if you step on them, you will carry all those spines into the house and deposit them on the carpet, where you walk barefoot.  Ask me how I know.

I spent most of the day sewing on a scrap quilt.  I have so many scraps left over from it I could make three more, which I probably will.  It's a quilt-in-a-day type pattern ... very fast to throw together.  I'll post pictures when I get a little further.

In other fascinating happenings, don't believe everything you read.  The fabulous story about how they will never eat Tostitos again since they learned the secret to tortilla chips is false.  It sounded good, so lets experiment!

Cut up tortillas, dip them in salt water, then throw in the air fryer at 390 degrees for 5-6 minutes.  I suppose CORN tortillas might have made a difference, but I only had flour.  After dipping in the water, I had a big fat mess on my hands, but I threw them in the fryer anyway.  No oil, no nothing.  

Six minutes later I had this.  It's a good thing I didn't use the entire bag-o-torts.  I guess they were edible since they all finally disappeared, but flour doesn't hold a candle to corn.  They might have been better were there some salsa or guac to dip them in.

I was extremely disappointed so I ate a cookie to compensate.  There goes my strict diet AGAIN.

The good news is it didn't rain enough to keep the bats away.  I've experienced this before.  They will come back night after night to suck the hummingbird feeder dry if I don't take it in.  That would probably be okay, except sugar is now pretty expensive.  I'll post those videos tomorrow.  You will most likely be as surprised as I was!!