Last fall just before the first hard freeze, Rich and I received 6 trees.  These trees were payment for a website that Rich had made for a local nursery.  Ahhh – rural living…where one can trade goods for services.  In any case, these trees were labeled $156 each, so I guess we got our money’s worth.  We got 4 Yellow Buckeyes (Aesculus octandra), and 2 Horsechestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum).  We planted them so late in the season, we weren’t sure they were going to make it through the winter.  They all surprised us.  They came through with flying colors, and all have leaves and are blooming right now.  Here they are:

Yellow Buckeyes don’t have the nice flowers the Horsechestnuts have.  Here are pictures from the time their first leaves opened to the flowers now open:

Below is MY little Horsechestnut tree.  Rich let me put it near my greenhouse, and call it my own.  YEA!  I like its leaves, and the flowers are almost spectacular.

You might remember that I had planted some Caesalpinia gilliesii plants last fall (what, you DON’T remember?).  Well, remember or not, I did, and I just moved one of the 2 surviving plants into its own 6-inch pot.  The other one is going to go into the ground when I choose the right place.  You might also remember that around the same time, I planted some mesquite trees.  I put one of the 2 surviving mesquites into its own pot, also.  Here they are (sorry, the pictures make it hard to see the plants), but you get the idea…)

There have been a few other things that bloomed recently.  First is my horse crippler (Echinocactus texensis).  The plant itself is in an 8″ pot, and in this photo, it has not been watered at all for about 5 months, so it is very shrunken.  It will be put into a 10″ pot after its first watering of the season.  Notice how feathery and delicate the flowers are:

Right now in the garden, there is an Allium (I have NO idea what kind.  My mom planted it when she lived here) blooming.  There are 2 others thinking about blooming, but this one beat them to it.

Rich and I went for a short hike recently from our house, and I took some pictures of Moab from above:

I will leave you all with this little gem – another photo from our little hike.  Yep – you’re right.  It IS a trailer made out of the ass end of a Geo Metro.  I don’t know what to say about it either.