A little bit of rain and a few very warm days (82F/26F) have coaxed the first Cacti into flowering!

I know the red ones are Scarlet Hedgehogs but for the life of me I can not find the name of the tiny yellow-ish ones. Of course I'll continue the search!

To stay with succulents, the orange flowers on the left are from 'Blue Elf' Aloes. Almost everybody has one in their yard around here:

                        

The huge flower stalk in the picture to the right is of an Agave.
The stalk grows incredible fast, up to a foot a day and can reach 40 feet in total!
It's not flowering yet, but if it does, which is only once towards the end of their live (5-15 years), they die afterwards .. 

Also, the air in the neighborhood smells a little like grape bubble gum at the moment (or so some people say), due to these very pretty, wisteria-like flowers ..

                                       

 

They're Texas Mountain Laurels and although officially a shrub, most people prune them into small trees.

OK, that's it for the flowers of this week, I can't wait to move onto the birds!
Look what I found in one of the Mesquite trees:

             

It's a little Anna's Hummingbird sitting on her Itsy-Bitsy-Teenie-Weenie nest! How cute is that!
Let's hope this Red-tail Hawk I saw flying over the wash won't get a whiff of the babies later, when they emerge from the eggs ..

                

 

Although, I think he's more interested in these nice fat Rock (Ground) Squirrels ..

         

 

They're a lot bigger (nearly a foot in length) than the Round-tailed ground squirrels I showed 2 weeks ago.  

Besides being prey for hawks they're also a favorite of rattlesnakes. Females may try to fool snakes by chewing up shed snakeskin and licking it onto themselves and their pups to obscure their own scent. A research study shows this does seem to fool the rattlers!

                                             

In the meantime, at Casa Hess, 2 more Hess-es have arrived. Doug and Brenda managed to drive all the way down here from Newberg in 2 days!
They'd rented a small van and brought a bunch of house-decorations, art-work, small office 'stuff' and off course .. more wine! 

Just before they arrived, the door for the cellar had arrived, so all 712 bottles (!!!) were moved onto the racks:

                                         

And most of the art-work has found a place on the walls ..

And the office got a standing desk and chair (just in case you get tired of standing) (or if you want to take a nap).

In my quest to get rid of some of the fruit I have in the freezer before we leave, I made a Crisp of some of the Wild Plum I picked in Idaho:

            

Crisps are so easy to make, and soooooo good! I mean .. brown sugar, butter, oatmeal and fruit .. what's not to like?
Next up .. Apricot Pie!

The week started out being extraordinary warm, but we're having a cool spell at the moment and this morning it even rained! As I said before, we can use it here and if we want to see a good display of spring wildflowers before we leave, we better get some more!

Look, an itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny rainbow!