Thursday, March 31, 2011

March and the desert bloom

It's the last night of March. I'm sitting, curled up in my Cambridge apartment with a low fire in the woodstove, knitting a hat, while a wet spring snow falls softly outside.

I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy, despite the chill. Mountain Man reports sweetly from Arizona that he LOVES his sweater and wants to wear it all the time, even though it's 80 degrees there! Here's what it was like last weekend ... how lovely ...


It was actually an unusually long and cold winter in Arizona, too. We had a great deal of frost damage in the garden, losing a fig tree, bougainvillea, and some of the more tender jasmines. But with the winter rains and the warming temperatures, it's greening up now, and the desert is starting to bloom. The brittlebrush has exploded into insane yellows


The ocotillo are covered with green leaves and tipped with their brilliant orange flowers




The first of the cacti -- a strawberry hedgehog, which actually has a fresh, fruity fragrance -- have flowered.


And back in the garden, we were awash in sweet grapefuit and even sweeter grapefruit blossoms, all buzzing with bees.



Can't wait to be back there!

7 comments:

  1. alisabee6:42 AM

    He told me the same thing about his sweater - silly goose! But it IS lovely. And those photos are fabulous. You've become quite the desert girl :)

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  2. Wonderful, warm pictures! :-)

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  3. My mother and I were in Phoenix and Tuscon one March 9 years ago and it was amazing. We hiked Picacho Peak and the view was incredible. So different from New England, and so beautiful. The only place more visually interesting was Hawaii! Love your pictures and thanks for the reminder of our mini vacation there.

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  4. My mom got snow today, so i can't complain about our drizzle all day. I miss the cactus with yellow finger flowers we used to have in hawaii, always a sign of spring!

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  5. I feel so blessed that I was just there and can now recall all those new flowers and cactus. I had never seen the beautiful desert before. I was so taken with it. Thanks for identifying all the flowers and growth for me! We saw what looked like a black cardinal bird in the desert. Something PH........I think .
    What a gorgeous place!

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  6. Anonymous5:20 AM

    Thank you for the wonderful update. I haven't seen the desert since we left it on January 1, 1986.

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