DonnieBrook's Subtropical Adventures 2

Funny D-nut welcome home.

Karen - by Tuesday you will have nice beach days, so be sure to bring your bathing suit! Sunday and Monday are going to be cold though, so be prepared for that!

Dahlia - I do have one dahlia bud that is about to pop open, at which point I will post it on the dahlia forum. And, I will make sure you have an immediate view of it. I love your burrowing owl shot. We had one nesting here in our back yard for a couple of years. They are just great. My neighbor and I actually walked right up to one that was sitting in the palm at eye level in the living fence line between our properties. It wasn't the least bit concerned about us, so we figured it was actually in a sleep state. It was great to see it so close up. They are adorable!
Did you have any luck in finding your own snowbird nest?

Pat - thank you! Today it is very nice.....sweater weather....we have walked twice and both times it was very comfortable. Tomorrow is another story. You should hear the weather people here, talking about how "brutal" it will be tomorrow. We get such a laugh out of it, but then I should think back to when I was growing up here and didn't own a jacket! I uncovered my plants today, but will have to cover them back up in about an hour.

Hello Harper, Victor, Allison, Phoebes, Bill, JoAnn and Jen! Nice to see you visiting today! You make it seem not so far away up there! Stay warm up there, y'all!! When the South thaws, I'll try to find some colorful things to post for you. I know you are all likely in withdrawal!!

Thanks DonnieB, looking forward to your dahlias ^_^ The burrowing owls live in a habitat that lonediver built in the desert south of Maricopa and we were fortunate to have the opporunity to view them and get a tour of his place. His current project is to build a desert fox habitat as he has found traces of them on his land. Hopefully he will post pics on the wildlife forum. I'll post a link if he does.

Hi Louise.
I am sooooo lucky to get this picture
I have been waiting for w eeks
RedBellied woodpecker has been at the feeders for a few months now.
Also a Whitcrowned Sparrow amonge the rest junkoes,chickadees ,finches.

nice shot joann - think it is also called a flecker - have them here all year round

Nice shot JoAnn. We have them here as well and the little ones also. I like to watch them run up and down the tree trunks. They seem to defy gravity.
Missed a good pic earlier this afternoon myself. A coyote went strolling along the back woods. Have not seen one in a while, thought at first it was the usual fox that lives in the area, and he had trotted away before I could grab the camera.

I think Flickers have a crescent shaped black neck band and a speckled breast.
Just looked it up. YEP its a Redbellied Woodpecker. Flickers are different.

Great shot, JoAnn! We have the red bellies here in our yard daily, and we also have the flickers. They look a lot alike, but if they literally have a reddish belly, it is not a flicker.

Dahlia - how cool to have seen lonediver's place. I think a desert fox habitat would be great. I'm actually expecting to see frozen iguanas falling out of the trees here. They keep showing them on the news falling from trees here because of the cold. When I was out covering my plants a couple hours ago, I kept hearing sounds up in the trees, but I didn't get hit on the head. I don't think I'd like that.

Karen's going to be here for a record-breaking day on Monday. It will be 32 degrees....first time on that date since 1970.

Happy 75th, Elvis!!

I knew he was still alive!

Yeah, southern icons never die!! It's in the blood. They do morph a lot though. I was at the dentist's today, and I sat with one in the waiting room.

Who was it?
This is a warm spot.

i am going to my sibley's :)

Here he is!

Very nice, Jo!

That is scary looking Victor.

guess i am corrected - will have to look closer the next time i see them to be sure - looks like red-bellied, although i think bigger than the 9 1/2 " - FIL is the bird expert and he has always said flicker

Resembles a famous WH reporter, Helen Thomas:

STOP IT I'm going to have nightmares!!!

Hee hee!

HA HA HA!!!!

love the kitty painting, JoAnn. The colors are great!!!

My cats would be munching the coleus!

Good catch ge! Luv the kitty too! Falling frozen iguanas....too funky weird.

OMG Daliahnut
That is one funny visual.

Welcome home dnut!!

I got back from NM on the 4th. Luckily I managed to avert all airport mishaps at Newark and Minneapolis. While I was in NM, looking at the landscape, noticing how beautiful the mountains are, I seriously thought about how difficult it would be to start a garden there. Here, if there's an empty square inch of dirt, something green will grow in it. There, it's not so. The landscape is mostly full of sagebrush and pinon trees. Since my mother, sisters, nieces and nephews all live there and my father is planning on moving there, I'm seriously thinking of moving there once DS graduates HS. This trip was the first time I really looked at the place from a gardener's point of view. Gardening would be nice if I could import plenty of compost and irrigate regularly, but if I could avoid it, I would. So, I decided that I'd have to move my garden indoors. There's plenty of houses that have passive solar heating and huge greenhouses. I'll just do a greenhouse! Okay, now it's not so bad. Still, there's the water issue.

Yes - it's parched there. Not for me.

Welcome back Harper.

I need it green too, I don't think I can do a desert landscape

I love the northeast. Wish I could afford it better.

Welcome home to you too Sof ! Canadian Customs was EMPTY last night. That never happens but nothing coming in from the east I guess. Good thing I was wearing my new red cowboy hat which made them laugh or we would probably be searched they were so bored. Very different gardening in the SW but cactii grow there AND they have the most beautiful birds. I will have alot of native plants and Australian plants in my garden there. Every potential garden I am considering has room for a small greenhouse which like you I think is a must in that clime.

I'd love to see you in the hat!

Yes, GH is a must in that climate. : )

I can do better. Lookie what came while I was away. It's gonna look totally fabby with my long hot pink sparkly scarf and gauntlets when I prune the roses ^_^

Love that tshirt!

can't control my blushing D-nut!!!... so cool to see my photo so far away!!!

That's yours? It's great!

Sofonisba!
My brother and SIL moved from Wisconsin to NM Silver City in fact.It took awhile for her to get used to not much gardening.Its a big area for retirees.They have been there three years and have rented out their house and will travel for 2 years in a moter home.Not my kind of fun but I secretly think they were bored with the place.

thank you Harper... I put a few on zazzle

http://www.zazzle.com/onewish1/gifts

ooooo, love those, Allison! I HAVE to have one! How exciting! Dahlia, you must look troooly prettiful in your new shirt!!!! And with that red cowboy hat......mama mia!!!! a Must-Post!! :)

Welcome home to you too, Harper!! I don't want to hear about you moving out of RU range! Don't even think it!!!!!!

: x Keeping mouth shut Louise! Don't worry. I have no plans of moving anywhere currently, and then when DS graduates, I will probably move, just somewhere here in the Northeast. I really like it here.

Why move?? Just for a change?

It's too expensive for me here. I'd like a larger property in a more isolated place. I'm on a very busy corner with very noisy neighbors. The house itself is fine, not too big, not too small. I just wish it was a little further out. Maybe in an arty town too.

that is why i am here - could not afford where i grew up or even where i bought with the big mistake - wish now i had 5 acres and not 2