More Rain?

We had a nice rain two nights ago, about a half inch. Like the last few storms, we've caught a glancing blow, which is better than catching the bront of the wind.

Above is a picture of tonight's sunset, another storm passed by, this one just to our north and west. This has been a good monsoon this year, better than normal, and temps have been below average as well, which is definitely nice.

Considering Brenna's imminent arrival and other financial considerations, I've opted to not attempt building a gazebo on the last part of the backyard that isn't landscaped. You can get away with not knowing what you're doing when you build a square shaped deck and lay flagstone for a walkway, but a gazebo is WAY out of my league. The other option was asking Emily's dad to build some concrete benches around our firepit, but he simply doesn't have the time to work on something like that and has his own yard to work on. At any rate, I've decided to wrap my landscape gravel around to cover that last bare area and have planted two baja fairy dusters and a palo verde tree to border that side of the walk. Below is a picture of a fair duster bloom... the two I planted sprouted from seeds shed by the mother plant we have in the front yard.
The hummingbirds absolutely love this plant, so I'm hoping having a few of these in the back will attract even more. This plant grows to about 5 feet tall by 5 feet wide and is extremely drought tolerant.

I don't have a good picture of a palo verde, but they're named for their striking green trunks, and are covered in yellow blooms in the spring. The one I planted is barely six inches tall, so it will be many a year before it's large enough to throw any considerable shade. Hopefully we'll be here long enough to see that day.


When I get back from my trip to Bakersfield, I'll post more pictures of how the back yard is shaping up. We've had about four inches of rain in the past two months, which is good by our standards, and the monsoon humidity is still upon us, so the yard is very green right now.