Sonoran Desert Flowers

Here I said I wouldn't be doing anymore posts! Oops - Doug actually found we have wired internet in our new house. I guess they haven't shut off the previous owners' service yet so I am enjoying it while I can! Today we had cooler temperatures finally and a few light rain showers. It was only 85 degrees today after nearly 2 weeks of 90 degree and higher days. Two days last week were over 100 degrees. One  day was 103 degrees. Now that was hot!! At least we know the air conditioning works in the new place. We went out to our RV park today to put the furniture back in the MH. We had the carpets cleaned yesterday and they sure look good! We also put the new chesterfield in the MH and it looks great also. It is ready to sell when we get home. Once we got that all done, we went on an ATV ride with our friends Ann & Trent. We wanted to see if any cacti were blooming yet. There were wild flowers to be seen every where you looked. Many cacti were just budding out so we won't see them flower but what was blooming was incredible.

 We have started personalizing our place, added some rocks we found in the mountains, our pottery and my barrel cactus in the pot against the front of the house

 Domesticated prickly pear flowering in a neighbor's yard

 Domesticated hedgehog cactus in neighbor\s yard

 Flowering ocotilla bush

 Desert hedgehog

 Hawk sitting on top a saguaro cacti

 A close up of an ocotilla bush flower

 More flowering hedgehogs

 wild prickly pear cactus - they come in yellow, salmon, pink and fushia colors

 If you look very carefuly, you can see tiny flower buds starting at the top of the arms. The flowers are dinner plate size and white in color. They open during the night and stay open for one full day only. The saguaro doesn't flower till the end of April, early May so we won't get to see these flowers

 Tiny little blue flowers

 Not sure what Doug was doing but he looks like he is contemplating nature!

 Not sure what this bush and flower are but so pretty

 More of the same, just a little different shade of color

 These yellow flower bushes are everywhere

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 We stopped for a rest break and the fellows have to discuss the merits of their machines

 Buckhorn cholla cacti just about ready to flower

 Little white flowers

 More pretty flowers and colors

 Lunch break

 I don't think we ever get a picture of Ann where she isn't talking with her hands!

 View from our lunch spot

 These ocotilla are so gorgeous in what is often a pretty monochrome color scheme

 Another ocotilla

 A hawk nesting in a saguaro cactus, you can see its tail sticking out

 This is how large the saguaro cactus is the nest is in

 We could not get the bird to sticj its head up, so just a tail end view!

Another lovely bush

We plan another trip into the desert on Tuesday before we pack away the ATV for the season so stay tuned for another posting with hopefully some new cacti flowers!