Cactus Kate

It’s been a while since I have posted, and that is because I have been SUPER busy – with work AND fun!

Rich and I went camping May 16/17 in Ten Mile Wash, and did some exploring, and had a great time.  Here are some photos for you to enjoy.  You can live vicariously through my pictures, and see why there are still SOME things I like about the Moab area…it’s absolutely beautiful, when you get far enough away to appreciate the lack of tourists.

The first photo below is a little double arch in the Ten Mile Point area.  It was great, and we climbed up on top of it.  The second is an incredibly bright ball of paintbrush (Castilleja chromosa).  After that is a GREAT photo Rich took of some Rough Mule’s Ears (Wyethia scabra) near Tombstone Rock.  Last is a Yucca harrimaniae that I just thought looked nice in its surroundings.

There were SOOOO many birds in the morning!  I got to add a Blue Grosbeak to my life list, although I didn’t get a very good picture of him.  I am posting the pictures I DID get, though, because it’s the only way I can convey how BLUE he was!  There were lots of Say’s Phoebes around where we camped, and lots of Ash-Throated Flycatchers.

There were Yellow Warblers everywhere, too.  I only managed to get a decent shot of Mrs. Yellow Warbler, though.  Mindy had a GREAT time running around, chasing lizards, getting in the wash and getting soaked, etc.  The first photo of her below is after one such wash experience, and she looks utterly annoyed that I would dare to photograph her looking goofy and skinny-legged.

Below are some panoramic photos I took and pieced together.  They turned out alright, and they show the area a little better than a single picture can.  The first is of the Rainbow Rocks area, the second is where we camped (if you look closely, you can see the red 4-Runner near the right side of the photo), and the third is from one of the MANY ‘Ten Mile Point’ areas.

We really did have a good time, and took lots of great pictures.  It had been years since I went camping, and I forgot how much I love sleeping out in the wild, where it is so quiet your ears ring, and so dark it’s amazing, and you can see every star.

Thanks for reading!

The desert is finally coming alive with beautiful flowers!  I love wildflowers.  They are everywhere here in the spring.  What you will see in this post are flowers that are blooming right now.  I took all these photos within the last week.  I apologize for the gross lack of scientific names, but it’s late, and I don’t want to look them up.

Slender Cryptantha, Yellow Cryptantha, and Yellow-eye Cryptantha:

1 Crescent Milkvetch, 2 Rimrock Milkvetches, and a Funnel Lily:

Common Paintbrush in habitat and up close, and 2 views of Western Peppergrass:

A TINY flower that I can’t identify, Dwarf Evening-Primrose, Pale Evening-Primrose, and the first of 5 Cisco Woodyaster:

4 more Cisco Woodyasters.  The last one was pink, and of the hundreds we saw today, this was the only pink one.  All others a lovely white.

3 Penstemon utahensis (the whole plant, up close, and in habitat), and one Desert Parsley:

2 Prairie Wild Onions, and 2 Rock-Cress:

A forest of Bottle Plants (AKA Desert Trumpets, AKA Eriogonum inflatum), a solo Bottle Plant (well, I guess it has a friend…), and a can in the midst of the forest for scale:

Yes, I know.  “Whew“, you’re saying. “That was a PLETHORA of photos“.  Enjoy your own area wildflowers!

Spring actually is here!  I am basing this on the fact that not only do I have a garden full of blooming stuff, but I have wonderful, wonderful hayfever as well.

Here are some photos of my grape hyacinths with bees checking them out:

My tulips were a bit tardy this year, thanks to the cold winter – but they have managed to produce more buds and blooms than usual, thanks to the WET winter.

I also have some very pretty blooming weeds in my ‘lawn’ (*yes, it’s ALL weeds.  Please don’t tell anyone*).  There is a dandelion, an unidentified but lovely pink-flowering weed, and our hayfever-inducing favorite, mustard weed:

I usually only have one or two Aliums come up, but this year, I have a BUNCH, and most of them have buds:

My outdoor in-ground cacti seem to be doing very well.  They are plumping up now that it is warmer, and some of them have some nice buds!  Right now, all the buds I can see are on Echinocereus species (Hedgehog cactus, for you laypeople).  Below is one of my Echinocereus triglochidiatus (claret cup) clumps, with a photo of a bud, and a bug that is MUCH too close to the bud:

Here are two of my Echinocereus viridiflorus v. viridiflorus.  These two plants will be the first cacti of the spring to bloom.

…and finally, there is Echinocereus ‘Pinky’.  He’s a hybrid, and is doing very well in my front flowerbed.  He even put out a bud.  I can’t wait to see what his flowers look like!

Opuntia basilaris v. aurea made it through the winter, and is trying to grow a LOT of new ears:

The new-ish trees in our yard (4 yellow buckeyes and 2 horse chestnuts) are not doing as well as I had hoped.  This was a long, COLD winter, and they had only been in the ground for one year prior.  So far, only 2 yellow buckeyes have leaves, and neither of the horse chestnuts do.  Here is one of the yellow buckeyes.

Thanks for looking at my flowers!