David's Images of the Day Photoblog
The first stop for our van was at Slide Rock State Park. While walking down one of the trails, I noticed a park bench right next to a steep drop to Oak Creek. Even though chained to the ground, you would need a seat belt to safely sit on the bench.
I did a walkabout in my yard this afternoon to check if any wildflowers have appeared. Something different from the firefly trails. An ant on a daisy flower, some small cactus flowers, a larger yellow prickly pear cactus flower, a yucca plant about to bloom (kept behind a wire mesh to keep the deer away), an icelandic poppy flower, a flowering beardtongue plant, and honeysuckle flowers.
A Chipping Sparrow at the bird feeder, wary deer, and attempts to capture water droplets in a fountain. During the night a raccoon raided the composting tube in the Garden Tower. I decided to mount a cactus on top of the Garden Tower. As you can see in the nighttime IR videos, it didn’t work.
Several varieties of Daffodils are in bloom. The deer ignore the daffodils. I found a couple of Grape Hyacinths (muscari). It looks like the deer nibble on the green leaves, but leave the flowers. I am not sure where they come from as I don’t remember planting these. There are also wild violets in the lawn all through the backyard. Way back from the house is a tree covered with small white flowers. I think it is a Bradford pear tree. I didn’t see any bees near the flowers? My Plum tree is about to bloom, and the Japanese Maple tree is turning bright red. I assembled a Garden Tower to plant Herbs and Vegetables up on the patio (hopefully away from the deer). I also moved the cactus that have spent the winter inside the house out onto the patio.
I noticed that the purple crocus flowers across the street just started to bloom. Early, but not as early as 17-February-2012. It was sunny today, and another reason to check out a new camera. This was also the first day this year that my solar panels produced more electricity than I used.
Individual images can be viewed here.
