Around Town

First of all, I know all of you are asking, "What the heck are you doing still in Mesa when it's hitting 90 degrees?" Well, the answer is Ron's finger.

Over a month ago, his finger mysteriously swelled up and turned red . . .


With an area of pealing skin. Since then he's been to the doctor five times, been on two different antibiotics, had an MRI and a CT scan. The doctor is baffled. It looks even worse now, but I didn't want to gross anybody out. Things might be looking up, though, at least it's starting to ooze. (Oops, gross, sorry)


Anyway, I thought I'd take some pictures of the local area. First, here is my cactus garden - planted with tiny cacti which will probably take ten years to grow appreciably.


But a couple of those tiny little cacti are blooming! This one was labeled 'red-headed Irishman'. I call her Jonetta.


And look at the size of the blooms on this tiny inch-tall cactus.


The ocatillo are in full leaf and flower instead of looking like dead sticks.


I always thought the flowers were red, but these are orange and yellow.


The century plants in front of my friendly neighborhood Walmart picked this year to impress me with their bloom.
Speaking of Walmart - the other day I was bummed because somebody was in MY parking spot. Then I thought, "MY parking spot??? I've definitely been here too long!"

Also the palo verde trees that usually look like this . . .


Have been transformed into things of beauty.


But my favorite is this gorgeous tree . . .


Covered with orchid-like blooms. Amazing, huh?