OUR LITTLE CACTUS !

Wednesday afternoon I took this picture of our little cactus out front of our house.... by Thursday morning this is what it had turned into!!

So I decided to put Boomer on the rock by the cactus and take his picture

The difference in color of the cactus flower is the time of day I took it. The first one was early morning; the one below was late afternoon.

I took about 30 pictures of Boomer by the cactus. He got quite fed up!

Sadly, it will be another year before I will be able to plop him on the rock and take his picture again with this cactus. One day is all these blossoms lasted.

THE DESERT IN BLOOM!

I had seen signs that the cactus were going to start blooming so this morning on our walk I decided to take my camera, and I'm glad I did. Unfortunately the blooms only last a day sometimes two and then they're gone so I was happy to get pictures of these.

I'll be taking my camera with me everywhere I go for the next few weeks. I love it when the desert is in bloom!

TRIP TO RUBY GHOST TOWN

Yesterday, April 9, we went on a trip with the Camera Club to an old mining ghost town located about 30 miles southwest of Green Valley and four miles from the Mexican border. The first strike of gold in this vein was in the late 1870's, and by the turn of the century Ruby had become the largest mining camp in the area. From 1934 until closure in 1940, the mine produced over $10,000,000 in lead, zinc and copper (and lesser amounts of gold and silver). In its heyday, Ruby employed more than 300 miners and there were approximately 1,200 people living in the town. When you arrive at Ruby, the first thing you do is check in with the caretaker. We all posed for a group shot. Bob is in the back with the arrow pointing at him and I'm in the first row. We had a large group for this excursion -- 11 car loads over mostly dirt roads.

Carl giving instructions of what we can do and see.

One of the old adobe buildings.

An old, old truck!

Looking out over some of the buildings still standing.

This was the only facilities! Almost made me back out of the trip when I heard there was only an out house!

Bob clowning around!

And by the old truck.

This is the old jail. Hopefully they didn't have to many detainees at one time it was very small.

The school which is being restored.

This outhouse was not for use. It was the outhouse for the school. The boys used the left side, the girls used the right side and the teachers used the middle. Thank God for modern plumbing!

The slippery slide behind the school. No OSHA here!

The sign below states that this was the guest house, Judges house and the courthouse! It is a very small building.

There is a small man-made lake.

With a beach which are the mine tailings.

So this is where we had our lunch before setting out for home.

Both Bob and I commented that it was one of those trips we are glad we went on, but been there done that!

A DAY AT THE DESERT MUSEUM

We had read that the Raptor flight show at the Sonoran Desert Wildlife Museum was scheduled to end on April 11. So Friday morning we decided to go to the museum especially for the flight show. Not even thinking that it was "Good Friday" away we went. Well let me tell you it was crowded, but the flowers were in bloom and the flight show was great so crowded or not it was worth the trip. (note: you can double click on the pictures to enlarge them) The flower below is Parry Penstemon. The Hummingbirds and Butterflies love these.

We got there early so we headed straight for the Hummingbird Aviary. What a treat! Below is a Mama Costa's sitting on the nest. You can just barely see one of the two babies.

Mama left to get more food so I could get a picture of two little beaks sticking up. They are so little and the nests are so tiny!

This was a Mama Broad-billed sitting on the nest. A Docent told us that one of the two eggs had hatched that morning.

Below is the Baja Fairyduster.

and the Soaptree Yucca were in bloom.

When we got to the flight show we had great views of the Harris's Hawk

and the Great Horned Owl.

Below is a Pipe Organ cactus with Parry Penstemon and Desert Marigold growing all around it.

These yellow flowers are Brittlebrush and they are blooming everywhere right now.

The Cactus Wrens build their nest in the most prickly places. Below see the opening of a nest in a Teddybear Cholla. You can see why predators won't bother this nest.

These are Mexican Poppies growing in front of a Mexican Fence-post cactus. Flowers will grow anywhere in the desert! Think of it as beauty and the beast.

My favorite picture of the day! A Docent was showing off this little female Kestrel in front of a bunch of Mexican Sunflowers. Isn't she striking.

We were taking a break having a diet coke and looking out at this beautiful view of the Avra Valley and the Tucson Mountains.

The cactus are just beginning to bloom.

After we left the museum, we stopped to have a picnic in a picnic area on the road back to Tucson.

As always we loved going to the Desert Museum. The flight shows will begin again in October as the snowbirds start returning and the weather cools. And we'll make a few more trips there as it is one of our favorite places around Tucson.