Irrigation canals by the road. Certain neighborhoods water their lawn with these irrigation canals.... fascinating.
Part of the irrigation canals right by the road....
Beautiful flowering plant....
Attempt to capture the mountainous rock. The picture also shows how short the trees are in this part of the county.
Beautiful street view of the palm trees....
The size of these saguaro cacti (pronounced "suh-wah-roe") were amazing. It takes 75 years before these beauties begin budding arms and can live to be 150 years old. This one is obviously over a hundred years old. Keep in mind I am right at six feet tall. These cacti were easily 25 feet tall.
My daughter is nearly six feet tall --- need I say more?
On the other hand -- there were these short cacti. The natives call these "jumping cacti" because if you get too close -- they latch on like Velcro, and they don't play nice. The spikes on these cacti are brutal. Ask me how I know?! Come on.... ask me. :o)
For those of you who have seen "Old Yeller" --- you know there is a bear in the movie. Well, this would be her. Her name was Margaret. The gentleman hosting the conference tomorrow has a cousin who has been in films such as "Back to the Future III". His father was the animal supplier for several films. The gentleman hosting the conference , as well as his cousin, remember playing with Margaret when they were children. Amazing. Playing with a bear... who would have thought it!?
Tonight's sunset.... beautiful and the breeze was just perfect!
Night, all!Deborah
LOL!!!! that is how we water our property, irrigation! so funny I always wonder what others think of our desert who have never been here, wait until you see a tumble weed just blowing across the fields, lol.
ReplyDeleteSo, how do you know the spikes of the jumping cacti are brutal? :o)
ReplyDeleteThat blasted thing was somewhere around six inches from me. I took a step, and a baseball sized cactus landed on the bottom of my sandal before I could put my foot down! That type of cactus looks like it is composed of mini-baseball sized cacti that seem to break off and adhere to its victim. It happened to Amber at the same time it happened to me. Unbeknown to me (b/c I was contending with my own attack), she had reached down and identified an area where she could grab the thing off her shoe, but I elected to "roll" my foot sideways to get mine off -- thinking it would just roll off. Instead it just rolled right up and onto the side of my foot. When that happened, it startled me, and I grabbed Amber's arm -- not realizing she was preparing to toss her cactus to the ground...as it was being held carefully in between two of her fingers. So when I grabbed her arm -- her hand tightened around the cactus. At that point, she received about fifteen to twenty shots in her fingertips and palm. Our friend -- who was with us -- pulled the cactus off my foot. Amber had to shake her hand down twice before the cactus was flicked to the ground. But it left long spikes in most every one of her fingers. We got them all out..... but honestly --- those cacti are incredibly pesky. Eastern pine cones have nothing on those things! I honestly can't imagine raising children with those around.
ReplyDeleteSo there's the story of the jumping cacti! :o)
ROFL! Thanks for sharing the story...to your suffering, it gave me great joy in hearing it. :)
ReplyDelete@ April... Glad I could provide you with a bit of humor. ;o) Love you!
ReplyDelete