Winter Lawn

Here you go again with an image of absolutely nothing. But wait! This is Winter Lawn. It may not mean much to those of you with ice and snow, but here in the low desert, people actually spend a lot of time and money planting a Winter lawn for green and soft grass for a few months of the year. They power rake the old Bermuda grass and over-seed Rye grass topped with manure. After fighting off the birds who gorge themselves on the seeds, the happy homeowner ends up with a whole Winter's worth of lawn mowing. When the heat returns in April, this lawn dies and the old Bermuda grass starts to grow and the cycle continues. We don't plant a Winter lawn.

Not quite all yellow

Just passing by, you would remark about this yellow rose. But if you look carefully, you will see that it is not quite yellow. It has a tinge of pink and other colors. We have a tendency to characterize individuals by one perceived trait rather than look at their individuality and complexity.

Winter Skeleton

As you can see from the background, not too many of the trees and bushes in the desert lose their leaves in the winter. Although it is now after the New Year and technically Winter, most of the trees still have their leaves. Unless it gets unusually cold, the old leaves usually fall off about the time the new ones start to come on. So seeing a tree without leaves, while not unusual, is not as common as it might be elsewhere.

A Bird in a Bush

There is the old saying about a bird in the hand being worth more than a bird in a bush, but I disagree. Birds in the hand are pretty messy and I enjoy them in bushes a lot more than holding them.

Video of Ducks at Gilbert Water Ranch

It has been a while since I tried doing any videos. Since I got this clip of the ducks at the Gilbert Water Ranch, I thought I would try it out.

Reaching for the sky

It is not uncommon for cactus to be used as fences and for security. You can probably guess that if you were confronted by this mass of cactus, you would not likely try to get through it. There is one problem with cactus fences however, many of the varieties are edible so they are not much of a deterrent to cattle. 

Cactus or not?

The only cactus in this photo is the prickly pear with the flowers, the rest of the plants with thorns and stickers are not cactus. The large thin-leaved plant on the left is a sotol. The other plants are agaves. It would not be too unusual to see all of these plants growing together, especially if the place where they were growing had a little more than average water source.