dancing in the tropics

Blooms on one of my favorite landscaping plants used in Arizona.

texture and tone

Here is the color version of yesterday's walk for those readers who prefer their pictures in color...

The grease wood bushes blooming

Look at that strange moss covered rock


Quail....pretty tricky to shoot as they are so timid and scamper away quickly.

the mailbox version

javelina snack food

horseshoe art

when we stopped to shoot the horseshoe art this friendly horse came to greet us

I don't know what cactus eat when they need a snack but this one looks hungry

The first thing you do when you get home from your walk in the desert...

big gulp

aaahhhh...that was good

shape and shadow

snowmen in the desert?

a call to prayer

While the Muslims converge in our capital today it is vital that Christians across the country call out in prayer to the one and only true and living God. Yahweh have mercy on us.

relaxin'

mushrooms in the desert?

a happy golfer

A very pleased Jay with his 13 dollar set of golf clubs...

feast of trumpets

The messianic community that we fellowship with gathered on Friday evening to celebrate the beginning of the Sabbath, the new moon, and the Feast of Trumpets, a triple holy day.

At sundown those with sofars climbed to the top of the roof and blew the traditional 100 shofar blasts. The leader would announce the specific shofar call and then the trumpeters would blow their horns.

There are four basic calls that have been handed down as tradition. Tekiah (to blow or blast) a single medium length blast with a low-to-high pitch transition. The Tekiah was probably used at Jericho to bring the walls down. Shevarim (broken) three blasts each low to high pitch sounded like triplets. This call may have been used at Mt. Sinai to assemble the Israelites. Teruah (battle cry or alarm) a rapid single second pitch bursts in a staccato fashion. Probably used by Gideon when they attachked the Midianites. Tekiah G'dollah (the long or great blast) similar to the Tekiah only the high note is sustained as long as possible. This may be the sound we hear when the Messiah Yeshua returns.

After the trupeting we shared a meal and then worshiped with song and dance. It was a delightful evening and a wonderful celebration.

moon dance

dance of the scarecrow

Our garden is overgrown with watermelon vines. With the exception of one watermelon that grew hanging inside the bird netting the remaining fruit have sprouted on the outside of the protective enclosure. The inside watermelon fell off it's vine before it was ripe as it became too heavy for the vine to hold. In case you were wondering, white, unripe watermelon tastes a little like cucumber.


The melons outside the bird netting face a yet another foe. When I find a melon hanging on the side of the netting I rearrange the vine and fruit so that they rest on the metal roof of the garden. This solves the getting too big for the vine problem but being outside the netting leaves the produce unprotected from the host of birds who consider watermelon in the desert a tasty treat.

We've lost several small melons to the birds but have managed to shield a couple by putting buckets upside down over the melon. One melon had almost outgrown it's bucket and after checking it one day I didn't get the bucket down to cover the entire fruit.

The next day I found the birds had discovered the exposed area and dug a pretty good size hole into the soft pink flesh.

Even though it could have used a day or two more to fully ripen we picked the melon and removed the area that had been pecked.

Our first fruit...juicy, firm, lightly sweet taste. Pretty good even if we did have to share it with the birds.

got milk?

scratch and sniff

I wish you could walk through my backyard and smell the delicious sweet smell coming from this minature orange bush. The citrus scent fills the air and makes me remember a favorite gift I received as a young girl from my grandmother. When she returned from a trip to Hawaii she presented me with a tube of orange blossom cream perfume. It was unlike anything I had smelled before. Funny how smells can transport you via memories to another time and place.

while visions of dates danced in their heads

more interesting photos from the date farm...

because sometimes junk looks like art