A fountain that lacks a continuous water flow soon turns into an interesting biology lesson. I don’t know how long this fountain had been idle, but it was growing quite the crop of algae when I happened upon it with my camera… In addition to the algae, the standing water was attracting at least one…
Last Thursday, my part of Tucson received .70″ of rain in less than an hour. The water has had a chance to soak into the ground and revive the plant life, including this dinner plate cactus… March 2019 update: Oops! Looks like that photo went bye-bye when I had this blog redesigned. But, never fear,…
Good landscape planning and design is one of those things that a lot of us talk about, and some of us even do it. But, here’s Martha from Reality-ville: I didn’t plan the design of my yard. I just made it up as I went along. And my forary into water harvesting was motivated more…
Okay, ornithology buffs, this one’s for you. I spotted this bird at Wildlife World (near Phoenix) in late 2006. Anyone care to identify him or her?
…your prickly pear cactus swoons.
Spring’s just about to give way to the summer heat. So, time to catch the chuparosa blooms before they fade away… It’s been an especially good spring for new buds on the cactus. My prickly pear have been quite industrious…
One of the many fluttering insects at the Desert Botanical Gardens’ Butterfly Pavilion.
The Desert Botanical Gardens’ Butterfly Pavilion is an enclosed structure designed to keep the fluttering insects in. The interplay of the the pavilion’s roof reflection and the pond caught my eye.
Agaves at the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona.
Sampling a rose outside the Sun Bowl Amphitheatre in Sun City, Arizona.
The aloe that I planted four years ago just can’t contain its enthusiasm. This bud is growing through a crack in my retaining wall… The iceplant is much more tame — except for the flowers…
Flowers and agave from the Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Arizona…
It’s raining. Again. Been quite busy pulling weeds, but that’s a good sign. It’s a sign that my yard plants will soon start blooming like this ocotillo, which gets quite motivated after a rainy spell…
Nature photography seems to have this “way far away” cachet to it. As in, you must travel a long, long way to get your nature pictures. Well, sometimes you have to do that. But nature is all around us. Today’s post features photography from a churchyard near the Mississippi Gulf Coast…
I was in eastern Pennsylvania visiting family over the holidays. Rain seemed to be the dominant theme of the visit, and the moisture was quite welcome. This area had been suffering near-drought conditions for a good part of 2007. Rain presents unique challenges to a photographer — such as how to protect the camera —…
Long-term weather forecasts were promising a winter with above-normal temperatures and below-normal rainfall. Boy, were they wrong on that one. Our current cold snap is making the utility companies very happy. And, since late November, we’ve had almost 2.5″ of rain. So much for that dry spell we’d been having. To document our unusual weather,…