While the rest of the country watches their daffodils, tulips, and spring flowers come up, we in the desert experience our own spring/oncoming summer with the desert bloom. Our normally brown surroundings burst with colors: purple, pink, yellow, white, and orange. Bees buzz around everywhere as the palo verde trees all display their yellow lace flowers; the creosote develop white fuzzy balls after bright yellow flowers fade, and the normally spindly-looking ocotillo bursts forth with green leaves and red tops to show that the plant is indeed alive and well. Most of our saguaros and barrel cacti will bloom later in the month; the cholla, prickley pear and teddy bear are almost at the end of their flowering time already. The pincushions and hedgehog cacti have already lost their flowers. It's an incredible time of renewal and beauty that must be experienced in person to get the full effect. Please enjoy these shots of our backyard paradise known as the Sonoran desert. Summer is rapidly approaching, but remember, "it's a dry heat!"
