My Favorite Friend Stopped By

Occasionally while sipping my morning coffee on the patio in the cool morning quiet, something interrupts the silence.  Sometimes it's the howling coyotes or maybe a car far off in the distance.  On this day it took me awhile to figure it out.  It was loud ... almost like a chain saw.  Suddenly I recognized what it was.

I scanned the horizon.  Yup ... there's a parachute with an engine attached.  I'm semi familiar with these since my ex-husband had one with actual (although flimsy) wings.  His second trip out he flew off into the wild blue yonder and crashed.  It took me over an hour to find him.  So much for that pastime.

This one whined up our little canyon sounding like an I-think-I-can engine going straight uphill.  I rather doubt his landing in the cactus was a good one.

Having noticed a little color out in my acreage of cactus, I went for a walk in the park.  I should have worn Levis.  With so much water, the desert has expanded in double time.  Everything takes advantage of the water and grows twice as tall and twice as wide.  That means slipping between spikes and pointy things.

The fishhook and barrel cactus are blooming like mad with almost fluorescent colors.  Right below that were all these holes.  Makes you wonder what made them ... and what lives down below.   You will never see anything here during the day, so I may have to set up my critter cam and see what's moving around.

More happy cactus as I stepped back and got stabbed in the leg. 

Orange and yellow seem to be the colors of the desert.  Even without more water, those little yellow flowers are blooming like crazy everywhere.  It's a little daunting to be walking around in knee high green growy things.  Snakes and all that ......

As you know, I'm always looking out the windows.  Rarely do I see critters in the daytime any more.  I imagine most of them are at higher altitudes where it's cooler.  Then I saw THIS.  My camera is always at the ready.   

This is one of the beauties that visits me almost every night.  The markings on his or her back just behind the front legs are a dead giveaway.  At least during the daytime you can see their colorings.  I think this is a female.

Always alert, she must not be hungry.  There is a covey of quail in the bushes just off to the right.  

Those eyes .........

After drinking for quite some time, she was off, disappearing into the desert.

All the while Dad Quail kept a watchful eye from his perch while two kids ate from the quail block.  Not two seconds later, an entire covey came out of the bushes right next to the water.  They didn't seem to be too worried about the coyote.

That's when I was rudely interrupted by a rather large spider crawling up the wall.  WHERE'S MY FLY SWATTER??  I made a mad dash for the closet, got the swatter and hit the wall.  The entire end of it broke off while I frantically tried to locate the spider.  Little ones I can deal with.  One inch or bigger and panic sets in quickly.  THINK!!  I took off my shoe and dispatched him before he escaped to realms unknown.

Duct tape is my new friend.  I don't even know if you can buy flyswatters any more ... I wasn't going to let this one go.  Just like brand new!!

For all those people who purchased electric cars in California, here's the latest message from the power company.  Seems to me there have been black and brown outs in California for many years.  Determining that people should only be allowed electric cars in the state when they already don't have enough power for existing homes, just seems irresponsible to me.  What happened to common sense?

People ask me why I would go to Arizona in the summer.  It's cooler for one .. no kidding.  It did rain yesterday for a short time, but no big downpour here.  I love the smell of the desert when it rains.  As to critters, I haven't seen any ..... yet!

Except for ..... wait for it ..... the bats are back!!