Weather/Yard Update

We've had about two-thirds of an inch of rain so far since the monsoon began, we've missed the big storms so far, but the yard has greened up with the humidity and increased dew point (nearly 70 today).

Here's another thunderstorm in a long line of ones that have gone around us. Our time is coming, I'm sure.

Had a some jujbees to pick the other day. This one was over ripe, and tasted like dirt with skin on it.

These are probably under ripe, but I don't expect much from ripening fruit in this heat. This is the first time I've had any of these to pick during the summer, usually I only have a crop in November.

Another Yard Update

Here's a shot of a random yello bird that showed up on our windowsill the other day. There were two of these, and their mother, who was pretty sizable, and almost completely yellow as well. I've never seen them around, but as our yard has matured, we've started seeing other varieties of birds than the doves, crows, and boring finches, including woodpeckers and mockingbirds. Still haven't seen any cardinals, although I'm told they exist around here.



While I was taking a picture of this bird, I took a picture of our fountain from inside the house, since I don't already have a hundred pictures of said fountain already.




And finally, a few shots of the storm clouds forming at sunset tonight. It's rained like mad just south of us, lots of thunder and lightning, but only a few drops of rain for us, so far. It's also raining in Phoenix at the moment, and it's moving east, which is odd for this time of year, but it doesn't look like it's going to hold together long enough to make it across town. Oh well, maybe next time.

Green

Not much blooming out the yard, given our 110+ temps lately, but here are a few closeups of some plants with interesting shapes to their leaves.

First, a four o'clock that's sprouted, over an inch high now and seems to be doing fine on the porch. Looks like I have a few more starting to come up, also.

One of two love-lies-bleeding that have sprouted from seed from a mother plant that finally gave in to the heat.



Yellow dot that's spreading in my raised planter, no blooms, but with ample water it seems to be withstanding the heat okay.

After losing most of it's leaves, the three-leaf sumac is greening up again, probably because of the increase in humidity.

The chinese pistache is still looking good, I think after three years I've finally figured out how to water this tree without it's leaves wilting and browning in the summer.



And finally, yet another look at the turks cap, thriving in the shade of a mesquite tree.

July Yard Update

A noble experiment, this is a sucker off my Li Jujube tree, I'm trying to get it to root in this cup of water for possible transplant into the yard later in the year. We'll see how that works out (probably not well).

I'm hoping this one will root better than the jujube, this is a coral creeper vine. I borrowed the tip off of this plant from in front of a local nursery, out in their parking lot. If they had had any in stock, I would have gladly paid for one. Honest.



Other items of note, the Li Jujube has two fruit maturing even in this horrible heat (114 today), here's a picture of one.

For the first time since I planted it, the Lang Jujube is fruiting, and has about five fruit on it.

The pomegranates are maturing, here are a few shots of them.

And finally, a snail vine given as a birthday gift by Emily's parents, blooming off the back porch.