It really is time to head home: the last three days the temperatures have been in the high 90's with yesterday and today being in the 100's! That is just too warm to be packing up the house and loading the RV!!
Much to my surprise, later in the day when I was out back and looked at the cactus, the blooms were now peach colour! I am now a happy camper!
This cacti is between our house and our neighbour Rena's. Gorgeous flowers.
My ocotillo finally bloomed. The first time in the three winters we have been in our house.
My little hedgehog in front of our house is now blooming. This was another cactus I brought in from the desert 2 years ago.
We planted some more plants in our backyard thanks to a gift from Pat & Corliss. Some plants are surrounded with chicken wire as the rabbits love them. We planted a purple bougainvillea, a gorgeous deep orange hydrangea and a deep red oleander. All do well in the heat of Arizona and grow quickly.
My lantana is finally growing once we protected it from the rabbits
A close up of my ocotilla flower
A dove build a nest in one of our orange trees. Definitely not our favorite bird but neat to watch it as it is so obvious in the tree.
Almost three weeks to the day, we have babies. There are two babies although you can only see one in this picture.
This is a cactus between our house and neighbours. We also have this same cactus in the front of our house. Usually we don't get to see the flowers but this year is different due to the heat. The flowers just last for a few hours and I missed taking a picture of my cactus yesterday when it flowered but Rena's flowered this morning so Doug got me a picture.
This is a close up of the flower. They are huge and gorgeous.
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Not sure of the name of this cactus but it is flowering in a neighbour's yard and I am determined to get a couple for my garden next fall. Love the colour
The water aerobics group I lead decided to have a year end party so we gathered at Daryl and Ethyl's place for appys and fun. The group gave myself and Beth (she covered for me when we were away or when I was sick with the flu) a lovely card and gift for keeping them active in the pool. A nice surprise!
The house across the street is empty at present so we set up in its driveway to play a baseball came after we ate.
It was a guys against girls so of course they were on one side and we were on the other! I must say the woman are better hecklers and we were indeed noisy. Thankfully the neighbours were tolerant of us.
This was the board we had to throw bean bags through. You had 3 bags to throw each turn and then you moved through the bases and each person who made it home scored a point. The women won the first game, then the men won and the women won the final tie breaking game .
I either threw a home run or threw out - nothing in between. A totally fun evening and hopefully the first of many more year end parties.
We went out for our last short ride in the desert before we put the ATV away for the summer. We checked on our mother owl to see if there were babies but didn't see any so either they are still too small to be poking out or the eggs never hatched! We were disappointed as every other year we have watched the babies grow!
The cacti in the desert are blooming but there aren't nearly as many as usual. I guess the winter with minimal to no rain made the difference.
The Palo Verde trees are in full bloom and I think that is one of the reasons my allergies are so bad. We have never seen these trees flower before we head home so everything is so far ahead this year.
Doug loading up the ATV for the last time this winter. It is now all ready for the hot summer in storage.
Doug taking the battery out of the machine. We towed the trailer over to the Arizonian RV Park and we have it parked in our friends: Trent and Ann's spot next to their 5th wheel. Thank-you to them, we don't have to pay storage for the summer as we leave the ATV here.
My sister Kathleen visited for week and we had a great time. The weather was wonderful and she got the tan she wanted as a result. My brother Brian was in Scottsdale during the time Kathleen was here. He was golfing with friends so Doug drove up and picked him up and he spent and afternoon and evening with us. Of course this is us trying to take a "selfie" so they could post on facebook.
Enjoying dinner together. We had a lovely visit and I wish it happened more often. We hadn't visited with Brian since my Dad's funeral in 2007
Doug trying to make us laugh
It dawned on us we didn't have any pictures of our water aerobics group so when Doug finally came down to take pictures, it was just this week when half the group has already left. We averaged anywhere from 6-10 people in our group. Lots of laughs for sure!
This is one of the activities I am going to miss the most when we leave!
Doug took a video of us exercising, we just wanted him to get lost! As you will notice, he doesn't participate with us!
You know it's hot when: Doug is in shorts!! I had to take a picture because it only happens when the temperatures reach at least 100 degrees which it has this week.
Our final party. We had Beth, Bill, Sue and Dennis over for a barbecue last night to use up the last of our ribs that were in the freezer. We had a great evening and will miss everyone when we leave!
The trailer parked out in front of the house so we can get it packed. When it reaches 100 degrees, it is like an oven in the trailer so we definitely pack quickly.
Well that's it for pictures at this time. We disconnect from the Internet this afternoon and won't be back on-line till about April 23
