The first half of November has been a quiet time. My classes are keeping me busy and I am planning for my December trip to Nicaragua with the Fuller Center - I fly into Managua, spend a couple of days there exploring and then the team of 15 volunteers will travel west for three hours to the coastal town of Las Penitas where will be building homes.
Both my Tuesdays at the Desert Botanical Garden were busy, especially free Tuesday on the 14th. One of the agaves has started its spike - to help us visualize how quick it grows, a blue tape was placed - on the 14th, the blue tape is just above the leaves. I hope to post more photos from subsequent Tuesdays. I am told the spike grows several inches per day.
On the 15th, while on my early morning walk, I got a couple of photos of the beautiful morning sky.
After my doctor's appointment later on the 15th at 10:00 (I walked the 2.5 miles there and back), Patty and I went to the White Tank Mountains Regional Park. We saw some gnarly trees next to our table in the picnic area at the base of the Water Falls Trail.
Friday night, the 16th, we met Anne and Shawn at Little Cleo's Seafood Restaurant, one of the many new restaurants on 7th St. Among other things, Patty had a selection of Washington and Massachusetts oysters and I had traditional fish and chips with an excellent dish of cole slaw.
Saturday, Patty and I went to Hassayampa River Preserve just south of Wickenburg, AZ. We took a leisurely drive there on secondary roads, avoiding I-17 and the crazy drivers. When we last visited, it was run by the Nature Conservancy. This year, it became part of the Maricopa County Regional Park system - since we have an annual pass, instead of the $10 fee we expected to pay, there was no additional charge. There are still many of the Nature Conservancy displays in the visitor center, including these birds and a javelina.
Hassayampa is one of the few places within an hour's drive where we can hike tree shaded trails - everything else is pretty much out in the open.
We came across these smaller piles of scat that had lots of seeds in them - we later learned that this was from the javelinas that live in the park.
We also came across this large cottonwood tree with a disfiguring fungal growth was was much larger than me.
We hiked for about 90 minutes, including up to Lykes Lookout - from there it was easy to see the green trees that grow where the river flows - in all other directions it is obvious we were in the desert.
We then went back to our car to retrieve our lunch and ate at a shaded picnic table near the visitor center. After lunch, we went back out for another hour, and hiked Lion Trail. In the visitor center, there was an active warning for mountain lions - apparently one has been seen periodically in the park.
We then drove north for a few mile to the Chapparal Cafe - where they sell home made ice cream and we had our afternoon snack before driving back home to Phoenix.
Both my Tuesdays at the Desert Botanical Garden were busy, especially free Tuesday on the 14th. One of the agaves has started its spike - to help us visualize how quick it grows, a blue tape was placed - on the 14th, the blue tape is just above the leaves. I hope to post more photos from subsequent Tuesdays. I am told the spike grows several inches per day.
On the 15th, while on my early morning walk, I got a couple of photos of the beautiful morning sky.
After my doctor's appointment later on the 15th at 10:00 (I walked the 2.5 miles there and back), Patty and I went to the White Tank Mountains Regional Park. We saw some gnarly trees next to our table in the picnic area at the base of the Water Falls Trail.
Friday night, the 16th, we met Anne and Shawn at Little Cleo's Seafood Restaurant, one of the many new restaurants on 7th St. Among other things, Patty had a selection of Washington and Massachusetts oysters and I had traditional fish and chips with an excellent dish of cole slaw.
Saturday, Patty and I went to Hassayampa River Preserve just south of Wickenburg, AZ. We took a leisurely drive there on secondary roads, avoiding I-17 and the crazy drivers. When we last visited, it was run by the Nature Conservancy. This year, it became part of the Maricopa County Regional Park system - since we have an annual pass, instead of the $10 fee we expected to pay, there was no additional charge. There are still many of the Nature Conservancy displays in the visitor center, including these birds and a javelina.
Hassayampa is one of the few places within an hour's drive where we can hike tree shaded trails - everything else is pretty much out in the open.
In some places, there was a lot of evidence of animals. We saw what was clearly cow manure, but we were stumped by these flat wet spots of manure - we later found out that many of the cattle have diarrhea.
We came across these smaller piles of scat that had lots of seeds in them - we later learned that this was from the javelinas that live in the park.
We also came across this large cottonwood tree with a disfiguring fungal growth was was much larger than me.
We then drove north for a few mile to the Chapparal Cafe - where they sell home made ice cream and we had our afternoon snack before driving back home to Phoenix.
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