Horse Chestnuts! …And Others.
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.
Chihuly, And A Great Time In Phoenix
I know, I know. I am late posting this. We returned from our trip to Arizona last Wednesday, and it has taken me this long to sort through all the photos, and choose a reasonable number to share with you all. Yikes. What a job!
The purpose of our trip to Arizona was to see the Chihuly exhibit at Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. We went on Tuesday (May 31). The exhibit was amazing. I loved it! It was incredibly impressive to see all that glass among the desert plants! Here are some photos of the glass installations:
We saw more than just the glass – there were lots of wildflowers, birds, and blooming cactus to enjoy! The Verdin and the Phainopepla were new additions to my ‘life bird list’!
On the way down into Arizona, we stopped at the Sunset Crater Volcano Nat’l Monument, and had lunch. We had to eat in the car, because it was so incredibly windy. There were a BUNCH of Steller’s Jays vieing for food people tossed out of cars for them. I had to get in on the action, and I sat for a while in the wind, and tossed out a few crackers. I guess that’s like a bribe to get them to hold still for a split second while you take a picture. Here is the best one I got, cracker still in his little birdie lips:
Part of these trips with my mom is always about food. We went to Red Lobster in Phoenix, and also Cafe Istanbul. That place has some GREAT food (this was our second visit)! This time we tried their babaganoush. This is a dip made with roasted eggplant, garlic, lemon, and olive oil. It was fantastic on the pitas!
I guess that about covers everything. Thanks for reading!