Life In The Slow Lane: Arizona Spring

Springtime in Arizona is wonderful. While much of the country is recovering from rain and mud, or snow melting into a muddy slush, we enjoy green grass, flowers and the sweet smell of citrus blossoms. Honestly, to walk out into my backyard on an early April evening and be greeted by the aroma from our orange, grapefruit, lime, and lemon trees is truly heaven. And it never gets old and it never ceases to amaze me.

This winter we received as much rain as we normally receive all year. As a result, the cactus are in a rare abundance of blooms. I walked down to a neighbors house to snap this shot. Unfortunately they positioned their cactus in front of a cable box so I didn't put in a picture of the whole cactus but did you know they could have such beautiful flowers.

While I was out I snapped a picture of my Iris. They grow without any help from me, which is good because in spite of my last name, I am a lousy gardener.

Every spring, for several years now, a couple of mallards (male and female) have flown in and spent a week in our pool on their way north. This year however the male left and for some reason we would see the female every now and then. We never put it together until the day after Easter when she along with her nine little ducklings were found swimming in our pool. Her nest was tucked in under the shrubs in the picture. The mom could hop in and out of the pool just fine, but the ducklings were too small. So Terry made two ramps for them to walk up, complete with floats to keep the ramps in the water just right, and wood stops on the outside to keep the ramps from slipping away from the side of the pool. Currently only 2 ducklings have survived. We think that maybe the chlorine in the pool is not that healthy for them. We have been feeding them cheerios. They now swim right up to us to get their treat. Terry says when they fly off they will never be able to survive on their own so he is going to strap a box of cheerios on the the back of the mother with instructions for the next humans they come in contact with.