This Week In The Desert

Well I had decided how to approach this post and how I wanted to present the slide show.....that was about 5 hours ago when I realized that Picasa Web Albums which I have used to manage both my photo edits as well as select html code for embedding slide show is currently transitioning to the all new (but not as good if you ask me) Google Plus. I might have had some choice in the matter but as they often do, they trick you into something like an update to your profile which automatically "enrolls" you in something new and unfamiliar. To say that annoys me would be an understatement. Slide shows no longer work- at least not yet and not right now. Bummer. Because now I either post a hundred individual slides and take up a lot of space to do it, or lose some of the photos that I thought to be important to the story at hand. Annoyed. Yes, that pretty much says it, especially after 5 hours of trying to figure out how to do something that thus far has not been implemented by Google. Rats!

Any way, the point of the post was to be this: Our garden and our plants are all blooming beautifully. The cactus is starting its annual parade of color in the campground and out on the desert, especially at some elevations, the flowers are out in full force and magnificent to behold. That doesn't mean that life here is easy though and on our last ride we came across the carcass of a cow that had succumbed to the elements out on the open range and was posing as the classic western image of cow skull and loose bones laying in the dust under a hot sun. Then too there were some very unique beetles found- no idea what it was, so if you know please write in.

The slide show which will NOT be seen today as explained was fully captioned so as to provide some info of what you were seeing. Don't know if I will go to the mat on redoing all that or not- maybe just here and there. Pictures R US:

 Beaver tails cactus:

Cow's Tongue:

 Santa Rita:

Squash plants:

yard plants:

salad patch:

summer squash:

desert toll:

 stretching our legs on a 90 mile ride:

Hedgehog in bloom:

Ocotillo in bloom:

 red barrels on the rocks:

 the perfect desert still life:

 out by "Gene Autrey's Hideout":

so bright it looked like night:

The Flintstones Cabin- a "cave" in the boulders:

Wandering Garter Snake's tail end!

 Guzzler- wildlife water collection station:

Tank Pass- 1000 ft drop over a quarter mile, then big boulders to climb at the bottom...

Canal pumping station:

 

 Single barrel blooming on a hilltop:

 the geocache champion of the world:

 caliche collapse:

 soil particles cemented by natural lime and pressure- CALICHE LAYER

 mule deer:

 Tell me what it is- I can't find it anywhere....??? Pretty and ugly at the same time.