Someone Turned the Switch

In just a few days we have gone from frozen water dishes for the birds to 83ºF weather.

Sonora is like this. We never have a gradual transition from winter to spring to summer. One day you awake and everything has changed.

The johnny jump ups to the left are volunteers that seeded down. The parent plants have been good to me and true to their designation of perennials and reappeared this spring.

There has been a lot of trimming away of freeze killed leaves and so forth. So we shall see what remains of the plants in the pots.

I've been unwilling to venture into the tropical garden courtyard in front of the master bedroom. The fishtail palm is looking poorly and the last time I looked at the banana tree it seemed dead. I won't know if the roots have survived for another month.

March, Like a Lion

Here in the Sonoran Desert we are, again, in the throes of winter. The saucer that holds water for the birds had a quarter inch of ice on it this morning.

Tomorrow morning is expected to be the same.

The datura, at left, was a photo taken in Liepvre, Alsace, last September. It is known here in Sonora as the sacred datura, a hallucinogenic.

Because it is such a beautiful flower I planted one in a big pot in the tropical garden courtyard outside one of the bedrooms. It looks as though it has been totalled. I won't know if the last two months of hard frosts has killed the root or not. It will be mid April before the warmth comes true enough to start pruning frost damage.

I hate to even go out there. My banana tree is probably gone. The beautiful fishtail palm is looking pretty sorry. I've been blocked with the art and balked by the weather with the garden. I did get the roses pruned a couple of weeks ago. I wonder if the freezes will destroy the fresh, dark red, new growth.

This store window, with the reflected shutter, is an image taken while walking in Ribeauvillé last fall. It's easy to see that I'm sick of winter. Wool socks and a coat to turn the cold wind are getting old. The brilliant Sonoran sun does little to stop the wind.