Tails from the Backseat: Green is Keen (Especially in the Desert)

After this past summer's extreme monsoon season in the area we like to camp during the winter, the desert is more green and lush (if a desert can be lush?) than we've ever experienced!!  

The ocotillo are vibrant green, the saguaro healthy, vital and strong, and the brittle bush and globe mallow are blooming in bright yellow and orange waves all across the desert floor!!

We even came across some blooming datura with its creamy white and purple petals, smelling oh so sweet...and lots of birds and lizards too!!!

The enjoyment of this fine "winter" weather does validate the desire to continue our snowbird adventures ...and definitely keep chasing birds!!

Our daily 3-mile+ hikes are so eventful, 

never knowing what we may come across next!!

Lizards smell better than flowers to Wesson...uh huh :-)

And where lizards rest, owls nest!

Cinchweed elusively germinates, grows, sets seeds and dies 

within the same growing season

Its seeds are dispersed and remain dormant in the ground 

until the perfect growing conditions--lucky us!

Smith ISO lizards

Flowers? What flowers??

Rare, blooming Datura smelling oh so sweet--

masking its "secret" toxicity!!

There's even Sorghum(!) growing in the desert wash this year

Not native, but curious for sure

  

Our first campsite beyond the wash is extra private this season

But Too-Da-Loo and off to "greener" pastures (ha ha ha ha!)

Because our second campsite is extra private and has SHADE...

...and is Doggone Awesome!!

Note that lush landscape even in the glow of the moonlight

The most hardy ocotillos grow to 15-feet high, this is 

the healthiest specimens we've ever seen in this area!

Greetings from a place we hold dear...

...Even the saguaro are happy we're here!! 

(clap! clap! clap!)

🎶 Celebrate Good Times Come On! 🎶  

Imagination is a Wonderful Thing :-)

(BIG) Fire on The Mountain!

 Across the Kootenay Valley from us, about 10 miles away as the crow flies, at about 5,000 feet above our elevation, is a fire in the Selkirk Mountains that has the potential to be record breaking. This fire will be national news before too long. It started about three days ago when a large lightening storm came through our region. The first small signs of smoke were visible two days ago, and now the spread, aided by hot dry weather and plenty of fuel in the forest, is accelerating.

Since it is in the national forest and doesn't threaten private property, the position of the Forest Service is to keep an eye on it, but take no action.

With temperatures forecast to be in the 90's for the next seven days, and no rain expected at all, this fire will be huge. We'll see how far it goes, but barring any unforseen rain events, it is likely the smoke will force us out a little early this year. The fire has to travel down the mountains, jump the Kootenay River and make it across the Valley farmlands before reaching us. Since we are due East of it, we should be fine (famous last woeds). Prevailing winds are usually from the South this time of year, but have shifted today and are from the North, and are likely to stay that way for at least a week.

The flare ups visible to the naked eye from our place are several hundred feet high. The only way to fight this will be from the air, and it will soon be too big for that.

Memes that made me laugh this week

My personal favorite is the last one with our dogs in it. 

For most of my life I was "on the Left". It was the side of fun. Sex, drugs, rock n roll, punk rock, edgy comedy, natural food, organic gardening, freedom of choice, speech, and thought in everything. We were all standing up to "The Man". I still stand for those things, but now I'm supposed to be on the Right because of it? When did the left become "The Man"? 

The worst phrase in any language...

is "I'm from the government..."

It's amusing to listen to our government, which abandoned billions of dollars of weapons in Afghanistan, and that sells billions more dollars of arms to countries throughout the world, try to lecture the rest of us about gun control.