My beautiful Mescal tree

I once went shopping at a Wallgreen and when I got back to my car I noticed this short bush growing with gorgeous fragrant purple flowers and golden tan seed pods. I just had to get me one of those. I've had mine for about 4-5 years now. They're very slow growers, this one is about 6 feet tall. I'm training mine to be a tree, but they don't get very tall, maybe 8-10 feet or so, especially in our hot desert. It is quite drought tolerant and fit for a xeriscape garden.

I went out to my garden this afternoon to check on it and found it had many blooms already. The whole area around it smelled of grape kool-aid. Love the plant, but don't love the one inch caterpillars that invade it later on in the year.
Mountain Laurel
Mescal
Shophora Secundiflora

Doves waiting for breakfast

When I moved to this newly built house four years ago, the backyard was leveled bare land. I quickly planted my beloved Peruvian mesquite and a couple of Red bird of Paradise bushes and quite a few more plants. I noticed one or two doves visiting the yard.

Then I started throwing some bird seed and then added bowls of water. Now the word has got out that there's a human sucker who comes out every morning to replace the water and throw some wildbird seed on the ground. Here's a picture of maybe 50 doves (and one pigeon) waiting for me on the top of the roof of my neighbor in back. They wait about five minutes to make sure I'm safely inside before they swoop down to their breakfast. Click on picture for a closer look.

Feeding them puts a positive note to the rest of my day.

Arizona Skies by Jim Beckwith

I just got a Google Alert this morning for Arizona Skies and got these lyrics to a song written and sung by Reggae singer Jim Beckwith in Tampa, Florida. Here is his website so that you can listen to this song. I just love it!

http://www.reverbnation.com/jimbeckwith
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Arizona Skies - Lyrics by Jim Beckwith

Desert Life is precious, a place of all extremes
Sun’s too hot to handle, it’s brighter than it seems
Nights are cold and lonely, Days hot as hell
You might survive living here, it’s just too soon to tell.

Look in all directions, there’s a billion stars tonight -
the suguaro cactus stands like a sentry, looking for a fight.
couples may be broken, river rocks may fly;
but the clouds are always beautiful - in the Arizona skies

We are the stones - smoothed by the river
Rough is the sand, and the water makes you shiver

Living here in desolation you expect some things to die
it’s strange, but true - no on even cries
Celebrate for the living, remembrance for the dead
We light a candle - at one end

Put the candle in the river - watch it float away
remember back in time to another day
life was good - we liked it then
but we must go on and on
till the candles come floating back again

Rarely in the desert comes a pouring rain
but it’s joyful when it happens, you can feel alive again
Standing in the shower it feels like rain
there’s nothing like the feeling of the absence of pain

We are the stones - smoothed by the river
Rough is the sand, and the water makes you shiver

I said look out across, send word down
to reach the boss on the way to town,
`if your going in the right direction...
Here, then we’re gone, but a little part lives on,
living life, dying death,
and the earth just took one breath

My own backyard Tangerine

This is my Kinnow Mandarin in my back yard. The plant is three years old and this is the first time it has had an actual harvest. Before this it was just a few fragrant flowers and nubs of fruits that soon shriveled and died. I'm wondering if I am not giving it enough water, I have never fertilized it. Next year I will look into this and try to do the right thing.

I just ate my first the other day and it's nothing like you buy at the store. This is not bland but a very strong taste, a little sour but I like that. The only thing I don't like is that it has some big seeds. All in all I'm happy with it.

Turning a lemon into lemonade

I just came across an article by Cathie Gandel in an AARP publication.

Teanne Harris was supposed to be married in a late October Halloween themed bash when six days before the wedding her fiance got cold feet. She then found out it was too late to get a refund for the reception. Rather than having all that money and hard work expended go to waste, she decided to turn her wedding celebration into a holiday party for the 340 residents of Ashbury Court Retirement Community in Des Plaines, Illinois.

She didn't know anyone there but moved everything - food, flowers, table decorations and even the DJ - to the community. Harris, 34, said, "I worked really hard on planning for the perfect party, and it would have broken my heart even more to have it go to waste". Instead she received joy watching the residents enjoy the holiday.

This was a perfect example of the adage, "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade". And what a wonderful gesture to be able to remember that bitter day as a joyful time for many strangers. Great karma to you, Teanne Harris!

Chocaholic in Heaven

"And now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I should die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take
I pray they bury me beneath showers
Of heavenly scented Chocolate Flowers"
by PVC (me)

The Chocolate Flower (Berlandiera Lyrata)is also known as Chocolate Daisy, Greeneyes, Lyre-leaf Greeneyes, Brooch Flower. It has a strong chocolate fragrance in the morning when it's yellow daisy flowers are open. It closes them in the afternoon. The plant is drought tolerant when established and reseeds itself. It is native from Kansas and Colorado south to Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas, and northern Mexico to San Luis Potosi. It attracts butterflies and bees and other beneficial insects. The dried seed heads are attractive in dried arrangements. I have it growing in my fig tree area so that it will get some shade from the harsh Arizona sun when the fig tree matures.

"How time flies" is an understatement in this case!

WOW, it's been SIX long months since my last entry!

I have only excuses, not reasons. The only reason is plain laziness. The excuses are many. The two main ones are:

1. This summer here in Tucson was a real pain. Very hot and a long one. It was in the high 90's just a couple of days ago. I had shut off the central AC for the winter in the latter days of September and was not about to turn it on again. I can be stubborn that way, even if inside the house it was about 92 degrees. I just turned on a fan and opened the window in whichever room I was in.

2. Excuse number two is that since August I've been moving all my jewelry from Earthly Creations into my craft shop Arizona Skies. I see no reason having two shops in Etsy.com since jewelry and crafts are fairly similar. This started out as a hobby, turned into an obsession, and now I've relegated it back into a hobby status. After the holidays I will also close my shops at Dawanda and 1000Markets and then keep Arizona Skies as my official "outlet of creativity".

So, hopefully, now that my favorite season is here at last, Autumn/Winter, I will be more inclined to write in this blog. Perhaps twice a week? We'll see.

My newest creation, a pair of earrings that remind me of a frozen winter.