Ft lauderdale

Wildlife

This isn't actually our house - this picture was sent by David's boss.  However, we have a bobcat who likes to frequent our yard too (and use it as a litter box).  We just haven't been able to get a picture of him yet.  Ours seems a little more skittish.  :)  Cute aren't they?

Sabino Canyon

Sabino Canyon in a national forest park that is about 1/2 mile from our house.  We went up this afternoon to check out some of the hiking trails and wildflowers.

We've had about 3x as much rain as normal this winter in Tucson, so all of the creeks in Sabino canyon are actually flowing with water:

We also managed to spot some interesting wildlife on our hike.  Cardinals were everywhere.

Also the desert types of squirels - no bushy tails, and they live underground and don't climb trees.  This little guy was completely unafraid of us - he was posing for pictures.

Spring in Arizona

Spring is defnintely here in Tucson - it is in the mid-70s on most days now.  We have new plantings out in our earth boxes:

We've planted two tomato plants (on the right) and 6 different types of peppers (on the left).  David also made a stand for the earth boxes.  Hopefully this will prevent our problems of last year when the wind blew the boxes over and the plants all died.

We also have some new animal friends around the house:

 

The rabbit babies are living under the huge prickly pear in our front yard.

We've also gotten the hammock put up - very comfortable on a spring afternoon.

Balloon!

For the past few weeks I've been joined on my way to work by hot air balloons.  Today I finally saw why - apparently they are using a vacant lot near our house (during Christmas it was a Christmas tree lot) as a landing pad.  It's a fun way to start the day.  :)

Our new friends

David received a birdfeeder for Christmas, to put outside our office windows.  It took the birds a while, but finally this weekend they seem to have discovered the loot.  Normally there were 3 or 4 birds on the feeder, but I kept scaring them away when I tried to take a picture.

Rivers in Tucson!!

As you may have heard on the news the west has had quite a bit of rain over the past few days.  So much so that something has happened that David and I had been told about, but never quite believed.  The "rivers" around Tucson - which are normally dry washes are flowing with water.  Check out the video from the wash behind David's work.

Pantano wash