Spring is Springing

Spring is showing signs all over the place, including in Arizona. On Saturday, Brad and I went on a garden tour with some new friends. We got to visit five beautiful and inspiring backyard gardens. We got lots of ideas for our own backyard—and for our front yard too!

Meanwhile in Baltimore, Mary is on spring break and using her time to get their rooftop garden planted and ready for growing season.

This silly guy in the large pink clogs and his photographer are cycling around Holland for spring break week. 

It's hard to imagine how pretty this must look in person.

While our roses aren't quite as stunning as the tulips in Holland, we still think they're pretty.

Blooming all throughout the desert this week are the ocotillo. I rode my bike through Saguaro National Park yesterday and feasted my eyes on them as they're everywhere. According to my sources at Wikipedia, the ocotillo is more closely related to tea and blueberries than to cactuses. Their thorns suggest otherwise. 

The birds are also into spring. We have four nests of doves sitting on eggs under our back patio. Over the weekend Brad discovered this nest of quail eggs hidden behind our garden shed. There are 14 eggs in all. The kind of quail we have here are called Gambel's quail. Our niece calls them aristocratic pigeons, and I think that's an apt description.  Apparently the chicks will leave the nest with their parents within hours of hatching. The incubation time is 21-23 days, and we're not sure how long the eggs have been there. So we'll just have to keep an eye out for the quail family. With 14 potential offspring walking behind mom and dad, they'll be hard to miss.

And last but not least, you might remember that last spring we had a hummingbird build an architecturally impressive nest under a fan on our back patio. The nest is built between two ceiling fan pulls.  She did such a terrific job at design and construction that we left it over the winter in the hopes that it might get used again. And sure enough, it's getting used again! I would never know if this hummingbird is the same one that laid eggs here last year, but I must say that whoever she is, I admire her. This is a bird that would rather nest in an existing home than build a brand new one. If the nest gets used again next year, we'll have to see if we can get it a historic designation!  

Not a Hoopty, Etc.

Tomorrow's Flashback references a word I learned a few years back from an urban dictionary: hoopty. You'll have to look it up if you want to see what it means, but I will first tell you what it doesn't mean: it doesn't mean a brand new car like this Hyundai Tucson. John and Troy had both of their older model cars break down in the mountains this summer. One of them is a goner, the other is now felt to be generally unreliable. So they invested in their first-ever brand new car and this is it!

Last weekend a few birthdays were being celebrated. On Saturday, Brad and I met up with his parents at Barry and Wendy's house in Phoenix. Geneva and Chuck both have birthdays this month and we had a fun celebration.

I've been on an apron making spree for the past month, and this is one I made for Geneva's birthday.

Peter got an apron too, though I don't have a photo. What I do have is a picture of the birthday guy at brunch with Jessa (the photographer). 

It Snowed!

We were all happy to see a beautiful snowfall on Saturday night. We only got five or six inches, but since we haven't had that much snow all year, we welcomed it with open arms.

I found one of our missing cameras, so now I can get some so-so pictures of the birds at the feeder - not great but better than I can get on my phone from that distance. On the right (with a yellow belly) is one of our large red-headed woodpeckers.

Last summer we bought this squirrel-proof feeder called the Yankee Flipper. It works great and try as they might (they've stopped trying) the squirrels can't get at the food inside. Now that we know that the squirrels aren't eating the bird food, we've figured out that the birds are PIGS. The feeder holds five pounds of food and they go through it in just a few days.

While I took pictures from inside the warm and dry kitchen, Allie kept a keen eye out for squirrels. They stayed clear of the yard yesterday. But if they had shown up, she would gladly have chased them.

After taking some bird pictures, Allie and I played fetch in the backyard.

Meanwhile, Brad cleared the driveway and sidewalk of snow. People in St. Louis seem to prefer a "wait and see" attitude toward snow removal (as it "let's wait and see if the sun eventually melts it") so for the first time in our cold weather lives I can honestly say we're winning the neighborhood snow removal competition (which only exists in our minds but please let us enjoy our victory).

And then of course there was time for more playing in the snow. (But as you might guess there's never enough time for playing in the snow if you're Allie.)