Mountain flowers~Orange You Glad It's Friday~070513

No, these are not my flowers.  Mine haven't blossomed yet.  I gave them a dose of my horse manure tea (since I have plenty of horses to provide the manure) and hopefully, within a few weeks, mine will look like these.  Mine also don't get full sun, so that may be another reason they haven't taken off, like these gorgeous ones.  Aren't they delightful?  OYGIF for July 5, 2013.  To visit OYGIF, please go to:   http://writingsofmaria.com/ and enjoy all the entries there!

Idyllwild weekend and weekdays

Sorry I haven't been around for a while (apparently nobody cares...)...We sent to Idyllwild for a few days (5) this last week, Sunday through Thursday morning.  I wanted to be home for the fireworks in case the dogs went ballistic.  Ripley got very hyper for the first few fireworks, then settled down.  Our desert house is only a couple of blocks away from the Palm Desert civic center, where there's a huge fireworks show.  You should have heard all the car alarms that went off!  Anyway, it was at least 20 degrees cooler up in Idyllwild and we both relax in the tall pines.  No, really.  We both notice that we are different people among the trees. Maybe because we both have Viking ancestors?    I loved just sitting on the back porch and listening to the blue jays announce intruders to their forest (usually a crow).  And, EVERYBODY disappeared when a hawk flew overhead.  Two families of quail came to visit.  One had 5 babies.  The other family had 10!  They were so tiny; they looked like little balls of feathers running around!  (so cute!)  There were about 5 squirrels and they, too, had their moments, especially when two of them would chase each other around a tree!  Needless to say, it was very relaxing up there.  Now we're home for a LONG stretch.  Clouds and humidity have moved up into the valley because there is a tropical storm off the coast of Baja California.  Ugh.  It's REALLY humid here and my hair is frizzing!

Zinnia~Friday Town Shoot Out~062613

This week's challenge was to find dark and light highlights.  I now go out into my garden two or three times a week to take photos, like this zinnia.  There are butterflies, hummingbirds, and little finches out there now enjoying all the wildflowers and zinnias and cosmos.  It's such a relaxing place!  Friday Town Shoot Out for June 26, 2013.  To visit FTSO, please go to:   http://mytownshootout.blogspot.com/

Garden update

I ordered a wildflower mixture from American Meadows last spring, prepped the soil, and threw out the seeds.  To my delight, they sprouted and are now blooming!  I have cosmos, zinnias, and some varieties that I can't identify!  They are visited by bees, birds, and butterflies.  I haven't been able to capture a photo of a butterfly yet, but I will!  I love my garden and I'm planning on doing another one in the fall.

Sprinklers

I always enjoy seeing sprinklers in the desert, but these were on up in our local mountains on Tuesday.  Our desert temps are expected close to 120 degrees over the weekend, so I'll be filing up the dog water bowls, pool, and I'll also be watering my garden a LOT!!!

Forest around the cabin

We spent 8 nights at a rented cabin in the forest between June Lake and Silver Lake, on the eastern Sierra Nevada.  It was very restful up there.  However, it was windy each day. But, the daytime temps were in the mid 60's and it was down into the mid 40's every night, which is a drastic change from the 100+ degree days here in the desert and our nights of 80 degrees!  We sure had to bundle up, too, which was nice for a change!  Our cabin was the last one and it backed up to the forest and a sheer cliff, from which I believe, a raccoon made her nightly visits to our cabin.  Hubby heard her for a couple of nights and then she revealed herself to us on the third.  She had very good manners and was never aggressive toward us, but would show up thereafter each night right after hubby cooked dinner on the BBQ!  We saw a deer one afternoon and I spotted a coyote very early one morning.  Of course, we had the usual squirrels and blue jays, and even a woodpecker came to visit.  It was so relaxing up there that a couple of days we just stayed in the cabin and opened up the door and all the windows and listened to the sounds of the forest.  I find it very quiet here in the desert now and I miss the calls of the blue jays.  On the morning we left, a crow invaded their territory and they were sure upset about that and a couple of them chased the crow away!

Almost full moon near Grant Lake

Okay, it's not quite the super moon, but this was over Grant Lake a couple of nights ago.