Cactus Kate

Hi, folks.

I have been doing a little birding, along with just enjoying the nice weather.  Here are some recent bird sightings:

A Downy Woodpecker, a Western Scrub Jay – thinking he’s funny (actually, I think he was looking under that rock), and a pair of Mountain Bluebirds (why does the male always get to be the flashy, fancy one?!):

A Lazuli bunting, and a Say’s Phoebe:

Seems to be a lot of blue in the bird world right now.  …guess ‘blue is the new gray’, eh?

Also, there was an American Goldfinch in one of my trees the other day.

Enjoy your birds!

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!