Spring began with our bulbs performing as they should to offer a hint of color to come.
Here is a shot of the Irises taken on the morning of April 1.
Here is shot taken that afternoon
Happy April Fools day!
In late May, we were greeted with a profusion of Desert Mariposa flowers in three colors:
And now we see clusters of Woodyasters
So all was not lost this spring.
Come summer and it is time for the cactus to strutt their stuff.
We are not a favored location for cactus, stagghorn cholla being the only common species.
But the winter's rains seemed to have created one of the most
fruitful cactus flowering seasons we have seen here.
Pincushion - it rare to even see them in flower, let alone in this profusion
Cholla - every one is topped with crowns of yellow buds, then flowers,
and we have hundreds, if not thousands
Prickly Pear - one of the most beautiful blossoms in cactusdom
Come fall and there was an explosing of yellow wildflowers. Don't know the species, but in addition to seeing them all over our place, they formed a spectacular carpet on the high country between us and Ash Fork.
Then our Maple trees offered their most intense color ever.
But following a beautiful fall, this strangest of years also favored tumbleweeds and other weeds, growing to a size we've never seen before. And of course they then dried out and started to "tumble". That meant gathering and building eight foot high piles to burn - a job I expect will last till the spring winds come.
But this strangest of years was not over yet. We were greeted with a December 30 snow storm that was followed with a New Year's Eve blast of cold air that dropped the temperatures to 0 degrees two days running with temps not rising above freezing for three days.
So it seems like 2010 was a weather's April Fool joke all year long.