Spring!

The AZ desert still continues to amaze me!! The spring rains have given the hills around Phoenix a nice hue of green. Today we went up to Lake Pleasant to do a hike we did on the first of January. I have pictures of it from an earlier post. So fun to see the difference! It was like a brand new hike!

I have an almost identical picture from 2 months ago down in my blog. Thought it was cool to contrast! I love the fresh spring green!

Just some of the wild flowers. I've been surprised by the amount and variety. Hiking this fall and winter I never would have guessed what was waiting to jump out of the dirt. Like a hidden treasure. Thanks AZ desert!

California poppies and some little purple flowers. No idea what they are.

I was very surprised to see lupin!! I always associate lupin as an alpine flower so was surprised to see it growing here in the desert! My neighbors have had gorgeous lupin all winter. Guess I know what I'm planting next fall :)

After the hike we went to the Marina to eat at the restaurant they have on the dock. I don't know why, but something about just being on the water is so much fun! Our table below :)

Indian Mesa

Last Monday I didn't have school so I drove up to Indian Mesa to go hiking. It is about 20 miles north of Phoenix and was a nice 6 mile hike. I loved the view of the lake and walking around the walls of the old dwellings and wondering what life must have been like. It must have been horrible to carry water up from the river!

This is the longest arm of the lake extending up the river. Lucky for us, about a quarter mile further up, the river was dry. You have to park on the other side of the river and walk across the river, so if it is full, you can't get to Indian Mesa. Just two days later this river would have been impassable. We got TONS of rain and snow in the mountains last week, 4 inches in the valley and 4 feet of snow in Flagstaff. This put the river 5 feet above flood stage to a depth of 20 feet!! I couldn't believe it as I'd just walked across the dry bed earlier in the week. I'm excited to go back and see what the high water did to the area

And yes, there was an accident with the clippers and my hair came off. It's actually growing on me though, and makes life alot more simple, something I can really use while in med school! Seems practical as a physician anyway.

My Birthday!

My Birthday was great! Thanks to all of you that called and sent messages to wish me a happy birthday! I treated myself to no studying, a trip to the green house, lunch, a hike, and dinner with my friends. The night before we went to an authentic german restaurant called Haus Murphy's. Great food!

On the hike. Just a hike close to home, but it was alot of fun

I think the dogs may like to hike more than I do!

Lunch at Chelsea's Kitchen. They have to have the best burger in AZ! The canal is right behind me with my duck friends in my earlier post.

Dinner at Blanco's. Sreyah's Birthday is on the 13th so we had our birthday dinner together.

My friends at dinner. Left to right, Gurpreet, Shannon, Jill, Travis, Roger, Dan, Sreyah, Angela, myself and Scotty.

After dinner shot. Sam (Jill's boyfriend) Jill, Scotty, myself, Gupreet, Shannon, Angela, Sreyah, Roger, Travis, Dan.

PHX SUNS

At the New Year's party we attended we met a guy that works for the Phoenix Suns. He said he could get us seats and I was amazed when he followed through! It was truly a ton of fun!

The big surprise was the quality of the seats! We were in the Lexus club with posh leather seats, awesome view and buffets with awesome food! All completely free. It was AWESOME!

Winter Flowers

Just some photos of the plants in my yard as of January 10th. I'm loving the winter weather and gardening!

Cyclamen, begonias in front, a struggling elephant ear in the cool weather in the back, and a mona lavender in the top right. The mona lavender is awesome! Beautiful purple color on the underside of the leaves with purple flowers the humming birds adore. And it takes full shade :)

When I planted the geraniums, petunias, carnations, lobelia and allysum they were in full sun. The winter sun as gotten low enough that they are now in full shade of the orange tree. They have still put out a lot of greenery but have just barely started putting out a few blooms. About mid february they should be in full sun again and I'm expecting them to really put out more blooms! There are some freesia coming up among them which I'm also excited to see bloom. Out of focus in the upper right are my pigmy date palm and hibiscus.

These are my "window" baskets with pansies and begonias. The pansies have done amazing. Still my cool weather warrior I love so much. The orange tree is in the background and the oranges are getting almost ripe enough to eat :)

My one tomato plant next to a rosemary plant. It is also in full shade right now but has still managed to quadruple it's hight without and staying more compact than I would have thought being in full shade. As soon as the sun gets high enough it will be big and ready to send out lots of blooms with lots of tomatoes! Or so I'm hoping.

This is my passion fruit vine that I've loved. It was only 2 feet tall when I planted it in July. It's now huge as you can see and I'm going to train it to cover the railing of the porch. Can't wait to see the green result! It should also flower in spring, which their flowers are from out of this world, and their fruit is supposed to be delicious!

And the bird of paradise in my front yard. This one I did not plant and was already here, but I do love it's flowers and persistence in blooming.

Hiking!

I have fallen in love with hiking in the desert!

On New Years Day we went hiking by Lake Pleasant, about a half hour from Phoenix. I loved this picture of the Cholla cactus! The sun was hitting them just right to make it look like they were glowing halos around them. But watch out, these cactus are not angels. Of all the cacti this is the species you really have to watch out for. Their arms easily break off and their needles go right through shoes and cling to skin like velcro! You have to use a rock or something to get it off cause otherwise it just sticks to you, no matter how you grab it and it hurts!

I think the ribs of the dead saguaro are very unique!

The puppies always have to be in front :)

Alot of people were on boats out on the lake. I thought the sail boats looked like fun.

A view of the lake. I liked the shadow on the saguaro

Gretta got a Cholla on her paw and was limping. I carried her the rest the time.

These last three photos were taken just before christmas. This area is called Dreamy Draw and is right in the heart of Phoenix. I can reach three trail heads in 5 minutes from my house. I have gotten in the habit of going hiking after classes when ever I get out of class early so I actually do most my hiking in this area. I absolutely love it!

San Diego

On Thanksgiving day we did a quick trip to San Diego, a 5 hour drive. We had dinner at the Sheraton hotel on the harbor and it was fantastic! Everything you could ever want for a Thanksgiving dinner.

On the pier at Ocean Beach

I love the tide pools at La Jolla!

And driving back over the mountains of Southern California on I-8 I got my first snow of the season! Was not expecting to see snow between San Diego and Phoenix.