A Day Out Before the Break

I am not fully back but I wanted to start getting in there a bit again.  This summer has been a lot of staying inside out of the heat.  There haven't been too many appointments of any kind to break that up.  I am packing and writing and resting a lot.  But I had a little fun recently with my friends from church and I wanted to share with Willy Nilly Friday Five with Tanya....

1.  This is Tohono Chul, a bird sanctuary and wildlife area off of Ina Road in N Tucson.  It is very popular for bird watching, and the old home there has been turned into a restaurant and an education center and shop.  Check out their website HERE.

 

2.  We church ladies had a reservation for brunch two Saturdays ago. The food was scrumptious! The company was great!...

3.  This is the outside seating that is available.  Isn't it lovely!

4.  We hit the gift shop and then a couple of other shops in Oro Valley before our excursion was over.  I went home very tired but happy.  I wanted to try to get a nap before we had to head out again later on a separate excursion, but was unable to sleep.  You see, one of our friends from Virginia was coming through town and wanted to take us out to dinner.  We had a wonderful visit with him....

5.  Here are a couple of butterflies and a bee from the park for Saturday Critters with Eileen:

I will try to be "fully back" some time next week.  Unfortunately I will have to take breaks fairly regularly over the next two or three months.  Pray for us to get the loan and get the perfect house for us in Oregon!  I'll keep you updated!

Saguaro National Park

Visited a friend from church who is ill yesterday and on the way home we had to drive through a section of the Saguaro National Park (our fortunate friends live in a great place! :-) ) so we stopped and took a few pictures.  Saguaros (SAW-WAH-ROH)  are the cacti only found in the Sonoran Desert areas of Arizona, and Mexico (maybe a few strays in far west NM and far east CA, but it's doubtful).  Whenever anyone films about any place in the west, including Texas, they tend to include Saguaros in the scenery, but that is not correct.  Southern Arizona has many and they grow to 25 to 30 feet tall, and can live over 200 years old.  Hope you enjoy the photos; sharing with Through My Lens and Tuesday Treasures, since Saguaros are actually TREASURES! :-)  And also connecting with NF Trees & Bushes. Thanks to Mersad , Tom and Monica for these awesome memes!

In my friend's yard is a saguaro with its "nurse tree."  The new seedling cactus grows at the base of a young tree, in this case a mesquite, to protect it while it is vulnerable, then as the cactus grows tall, the tree ages and eventually will die.  You often see dead trees right next to Saguaros in the desert.

An example of a dead nurse tree with its Saguaro, all grown up.

There are unopened flower blooms at the top of the Saguaros right now...when they open they will be beautiful white flowers, and I will try to share some with you all!

A bit of an odd one

OK...yes, I am going to miss Arizona! :-)

Trees of the Great Dismal Swamp

It's been four and a half years since we left Virginia.  One of my favorite places to visit in the years we were there was the Great Dismal Swamp located close to the North Carolina line [info from online source:  The Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is the largest intact remnant of a vast habitat that once covered more than one million acres of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina].  It covers more than 112,000 acres.  To learn more about this amazing swamp, click HERE. These are some tree photos from my archives for NF Trees & Bushes, all taken at the swamp.  I am also joining in with Through My Lens, sharing these photos.  Note too the wood duck boxes along the Washington Ditch Canal.  For that photo particularly also read the story that accompanies, where I also link to Wednesday Wit & Wisdom.

It was getting crowded in the box with his brothers and sisters stepping all over one another, and he was tired of it. Besides, where would Mama Duck go for so long?  He could see the light coming in through the opening in the wood, and sometimes catch a glimpse of things moving about in the air, and he wondered about the world outside.  Maybe it was a good place to be.  After all, that's where Mama was most of the time.  He struggled over the fuzzy bodies beneath him to climb onto the edge of the opening and gaze at the watery world beyond.  Then he heard her calling.  It was scary thinking about going to her, but he could stand the box no longer.  He wobbled, and hesitated, and shrank back inside a bit.  She called again.  Ok, he thought...ok, I'm coming!  And in a moment he was falling, falling toward the water, flapping his inefficient little wings briefly, splaying out his feet to break his fall, but somehow landing with a plop that took his breath away!  He hesitated just a moment and then began paddling with great purpose toward the sound of his mother's voice.  Behind him he heard another plop as his sister hit the water.  On he swam.  He was finally free of that warm, safe box that had become so crowded.  His Mama was just ahead.  His life in the swamp had begun.

Purple Martin at Audubon Center

While walking along one of the trails at the Audubon Center off Thornydale Road I heard this wonderful singing and saw that I was approaching a bird high on a dead tree branch.  I stopped every dozen steps or so and took a photo but even as I got closer, the bird never flew away and kept right on singing. At last, I sat on a bench just a few yards from what I now realized was a Purple Martin.  He was practically right above my head.  Sharing him today (one of two bird shares) with Anni's Bird d'Pot and Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday:

And I have some poorly focused video that at least will give you a chance to hear his wonderful song:

Desert Light

I am happy to say that I have been invited to join in with another of Monica's memes, Catching Light. nfverk.blogspot.com

Thanks to Monica for these wonderful opportunities to share our photos.  I am a little late, but joining in for the first time....

I dropped the grandson and great nephew off on their first day of school, and because I was out early I decided to take a short walk in the Audobon Reserve nearby.  The morning light was like a halo on the cholla cactus:

And sculpted the massive saguaro against the sky

And cast deeply cut shadows into the desert sands.

Mersad at Mersad Donko Photography also mentioned his meme, and invited me to join in there as well...Through My Lens is his wonderful new photography meme!  Thanks so much Mersad for the invitation!  Join us for both of these.

Agua Caliente picnic

I hope everyone had a blessed, wonderful Easter weekend!  For Wild Bird Wednesday and Bird d'Pot I have some ducks to share (I know, I know, they are waterbirds not songbirds! I may never live that down! :-))   This past week was our grandson's spring break, and he and I went to Agua Caliente to enjoy a picnic there.

Located on the NE side of Tucson, this park has a rich history.  The internet info includes the following:

"Agua Caliente, literally meaning hot water, is a unique 101-acre park with a perennial warm spring. An artificial stream links together three ponds within the park. The ponds are fed by the spring water and support diverse wildlife and fish populations. The spring flow fluctuates during the year—at various times, due to drought, visitors may see the lower ponds dry. Human habitation has been found to date back about 5,500 years. The site makes for a perfect place for a picnic or day hike. In 1873, a ranch and health resort was developed to promote the curative properties of the warm springs.....The ranch bunkhouse, which dates back to the 1920s, was used by ranch hands"

The palm trees surrounding the ponds make the place a natural oasis in the desert.  There is also an art gallery and gift shop but both were closed because we were there during the week.

Our picnic spot.

Our first duck sighting

Prickly Pear cactus that has taken root in the bark of a palm tree.

A Yellow Trumpet flower now in bloom.

Mesquite "blooms" which will spring forth into mesquite beans later in the year.

Ducks on the little island.

And for a comparison, our grandson feeding the ducks in Texas when he was small. :-) So cute!