It was James' Birthday last Monday. (His 56th, shhh!)

His idea of a birthday cake for this year was a batch of cinnamon rolls:

 

Well, that's easy .... hip-hip-hooray!

And guess what he wanted to do on this special day?

You guessed it ..... no surprise there!

                    
                        Look at that form! Not bad for an old geezer ...

Fortunately, the weather has improved greatly and it was a really enjoyable round (and rest of the day).

With the sun coming out more often lately, the temperatures have been pretty comfy, which might have coached these flowers into an early bloom on the sunny south slope of one of the surrounding hills.

They're Yellow-Cups (or Desert) Evening-Primroses.

They usually don't bloom until February but they already start to appear in some sheltered, sunny areas.
That's the desert for you. One week it freezes and the next we're having a hint of Spring to come!

Here's to show that pretty pictures sometimes come with a price. 
I'd just put myself in a good, but somewhat awkward position, on my hunches, halfway the slope, when I lost my balance and sat back down.
Not a major problem you'd think? 
No, not at all, unless you sit down in a patch of some, nearly invisible, cacti!

    

                  

See!? Well, I didn't see them! @#$%&*!

                                          

A few of the little buggers broke off and stuck to my butt while the better part of my left (butt) cheek was covered in real fine, hairy little thorns.

James thought it was very funny and came up with the following  remark: "In 'hind-side', those cacti were a real pain in the 'behind'!"

(hilarious, honey).

After spending an hour picking thorns of myself and my jeans with some sticky tape, I 'stuck' (ha) with reading for the rest of the day:

 

Earlier this week there was this hawk (?) that caught my attention because it was such an unusual small bird:

You can not see it in this picture, but it is a much smaller raptor than the 'normal' red-tails I see around here. 

-Fairly long tail, yellow eye, white spots on wings, streaky brown lines/spots on white underbelly- I'm thinking maybe a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk? Judy? 

(It probably will be something less exciting).

This next one I do know and I talked about him before. It's a Pyrrhuloxia or Silver Cardinal.

                This is a girl:

                                          And this is a boy:

I thought the 'Silvers' were all we had but than suddenly this week a flash of red in the bushes turned out to be a 'real' Cardinalis cardinalis or Northern Cardinal!

          

A male, for sure. So flashy!
Youngsters and females are sometimes very similar but the easiest way to determine who's who, I found, is to look at their beaks. 
Silvers have a yellow, and more curved, bill and Northern a reddish colored one.
                        

Seeing red already I think we can go seamlessly from red birds to red skies ......

James wanted to be in the shot and since it was at the end of his birthday-day I let him ..... ;-)

 

Until next time!