Happy Earth Day from saguaro land!

 

To mark Earth Day, I thought I'd show you some of the most amazing plants on the planet -- the giant saguaros of the Sonoran Desert where I live. The saguaros are only native to this desert, which includes southern Arizona, adjoining northern Mexico, and a little bit of adjacent California. Those Westerns showing saguaros anywhere else didn't do their research.

To give you an idea of how massive they are, look for the string of adult hikers in the photo above and then compare them to the saguaros! This is in Catalina State Park, just a few miles from my house. 

How tall do they grow? Record height: 78 feet. Average mature height: 18-30 feet, but often reach 50-60 feet.

I stand in awe of them.

What about those arms? They don't grow arms until they're about 12 feet high, or 40-80 years old, although some never grow arms.

What I most love about them is how expressive their arms make them, just like people! Some days I feel as tired as the one above.

Other days I'm as energetic as the Michelin Man in Catalina State Park.

This one wants to hold something.

This one, in Tohono Chul, has issues. You can see all the cavities drilled by birds that have turned it into a cactus hotel.

The street crossing guard is in the Tucson Mountains.

This one doesn't know what it wants!

The one with the big head is a crested saguaro -- only one in 200,000 is a crested and scientists still aren't sure what causes it.

The spines are actually leaves modified to guard and insulate a cactus.

Very few saguaro seeds grow into plants, but the ones that do usually start out being protected by a "nurse tree" like the one above. The babies only grow a fraction of an inch in their first year, so the nurse tree protects them from predators and provides shade and moisture. They grow very slowly -- in general, about three feet in 30 years. A healthy, lucky saguaro can live to about 200 years!

Saguaros bloom with beautiful white flowers in the spring.

In the summer, the crimson fruit appears and the desert animals go wild at the feast! Native Americans still harvest the fruit, knocking it down with long saguaro ribs from dead cactuses.

This one might have been struck by lightning or ravaged by disease, but judging from its height it led a long life, providing food and shelter for many desert dwellers. My hat is off to these magnificent plants!

Have a colorful day

The desert keeps blooming!

 

Linda Vista Trail, half a mile from my house.

I can't get enough of our desert wildflowers this spring! Every time I go out to hike I think surely they must be fading by now, but they're not. They've painted the land with swathes of yellow, gold, blue and purple and splashes of pink and red.

I've taken all of these pictures within the last few weeks on hikes in Catalina State Park, Saguaro National Park East, and the Linda Vista Trail by my house. They're all in the Sonoran Desert, which encompasses Tucson.

The purple flowers are on a cactus.

The feathery flower below is a pink fairy duster.

The bright red flower above grows high on the tips of the ocotillo. That's an ocotillo on the left in the picture below. It looks like green leafy sticks and the flowers grow on the tips (although this one isn't blooming yet). They can grow over 15 feet high and wide and their fiery flowers look magnificent against a brilliant blue Southwest sky.

These cute yellow blooms that look like pineapples grow in a circle on the top of the barrel cactus, below. The barrel always leans to the south.

It's a real treat to find a running stream in the desert. This one is at Catalina State Park, and I spent a long time sitting on a rock listening to the water and enjoying the shade on my last hike there. Most of Tucson's winter residents have left and spring break is over, so the crowds are gone and I had this beautiful spot to myself.

I saw the horses at Saguaro National Park and love how the clouds are piled above them. I think it could be a scene from a Western.

Have a colorful day

Colors of Louisville

Here's more color from my trip to visit my sister in Louisville, Kentucky. She lives in the Crescent Hill neighborhood with a delightful street lined with independent shops and restaurants within walking distance. I loved the basket room at a fair trade shop there.

This basketmaker caught snippets of fabric in the stitching, which might inspire me to do the same in my coiled fabric baskets.

The consignment shop down the street featured very colorful Derby dresses with outrageous hats in its window.

The stroll to the stores was full of spring blooms.

One day we walked around a lake in a nearby park, above. The trees were dusted with delicate new green leaves.

Another day we walked around Old Louisville, with its grand old mansions and gardens.

The "Pink Mansion" used to be a men's club built in 1891 as the Gentlemen's Club and Casino and was a bastion of male debauchery. But that ended in 1910 when the Women's Christian Temperance Union bought it and painted it pink! Now it's a private residence surrounded by pink tulips.

Its neighborhood was full of pink and purple flowers.

We went to several galleries and museums, including this one filled with contemporary art. This piece is by Jeremy Vessels and is called "O'Keeffe." It's made of recycled skateboards and maple. I forget to get the name of the one below, but it sure is energetic.

Terry and Dennis live in this beautiful old Victorian. Their backyard is full of song birds like the robin and cardinal in the trees below. I had forgotten what it was like to hear songbirds!

 

But let's not forget food! We had lunch at the Wiltshire Pantry, which has amazing artistic pastries. (This was only one of the bakery cases I ogled on the trip.)

And food leads me to the "Eclipse Cookies" offered at Terry's neighborhood bookstore:

We watched the eclipse from Terry's backyard. It didn't get totally dark but it dimmed enough that the streetlights went on and the air felt cooler. Their dog, Ella, took it all in stride.

My son and his wife drove to Indianapolis for the full experience, where they said it got pitch black. They watched from a park full of other eclipse fanatics. I approve of their colorful blanket!

Have a colorful day