Life on the Vine

Today is officially the first day of Summer but it's been summer in southern Arizona for about four weeks.  Highs this week were around 106 and 108 degrees.  If I start complaining about the heat Tom reminds me that I have a car with a good A/C; I work in a comfortable office indoors, and I don't work outside.  So, honestly, the heat doesn't bother me too much, especially during the work week.  It is impacting my walks though that I usually like to take on my lunch break. It has really dried up here but this Spring I took more pictures of the flowering cactus and other interesting plants I came across.  I'm thinking ahead to the property and what I might want to plant so I find myself noticing plants and flowers more than usual.  I thought I'd finally take some time and download the photos from my iPhone and camera and share them on my blog. I hadn't seen or noticed a flowering prickly pear on any of my previous visits to Arizona.  The flowers re...

Palm Sunday in Stuttgart, Germany has been a spectacular day.  A beautiful blue cloudless sky, sunshine and a nice cool breeze.  Except for Friday, when it was overcast and cool, the past week plus has been idyllic springtime weather.  I will miss this kind of springtime weather once I'm settled in southern Arizona.  All around spring is starting to emerge from winter's rest.  The majority of trees are still bare but many are starting to blossom.  Small pea green shoots are beginning to open and new growth is expanding the circumference of trees.  I thought today would be a perfect day to go for a walk with my camera and capture some of spring's beauty.  Now I'm no botanist, arborist or floriculturist so I don't know the names of many of these trees and plants.  If you recognize something though...let me know and I'll change the photo caption.   I think this is a magnolia tree.  One of my favorite neighborhood trees. ...

Thanksgiving night we got our first bonafide snowfall with another dusting of snow last night.  It is a beautiful sunny Saturday so Tom suggested I go for a walk and capture some pictures of our first snow. In keeping with the summer walk pictures I posted a couple months ago, I did go for a walk in October and got some pictures of the fall colors but I never got those posted.  I figured I'd post the fall and winter pictures together to show the changing of the seasons in a month's time.  I tried to select ones taken in the same general locations.  Enjoy! Pedestrian bridge near our house Same bridge just standing on the opposite side This field below is where some of the flower fields were this summer. There is a hill to the side where a couple kids were sledding. In October there were still a lot of vegetable stands. Looking back towards cart with the squash Just down the road Crossing Autobahn 8 - Looking towards Munich Foot bridge that c...