The last time I visited this spot at the Desert Botanical Garden, someone had taken everything off of this shelf. I've mentioned before that I enjoy seeing how the shelf gets arranged with plants and water buckets throughout the year. On my most recent visit to this spot, there were two plants on the wall along with a row of water bukets.
Someone did a careful job of lining up those buckets in a nice, neat row. I look forward to my next visit to see how the line-up changes.
My new passport arrived last week and it prompted me to take a look at all my old passports. As you can see, I now have 50 years worth. If you want to get a "fast forward" look at yourself aging over the years, just take a look at the photos on all your passports. It's a sobering experience.
17 years ago I did several posts about a little enclave of homes built where a date farm used to exist. The buildings at Palma Viva at one time belonged to the Phoenix Date and Citrus Company. Some of the buildings housed workers while others were business offices. Today, they have all been converted to homes.
Last Sunday, I took another look around the place. All those years later, it looks very much the same.
The place has remained well-kept and shaded by those very tall palm trees and the many old eucalyptus trees that dot the area.
There is only one entrance into this enclave and that entrance is through a very narrow opening in a wall. It's not a place you happen drive through. You have to make the effort to find the entrance. That gives this place a sort of isolated feel even though it's right in the heart of the city surrounded by busy streets.
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On my afternoon walk at the Desert Botanical Garden, I found some things blooming in shades of purple which happens to be a favorite color of mine. Above is an artichoke thistle showing off with its lavender blooms.
There were a lot of purple daisies scattered around the garden.
I hadn't seen any lemon beebalm in the garden for a number years so I was happy to see a few of them making an appearance.
Purple flowers always make me happy.
There were more butterflies in the Desert Botanical Gardens butterfly pavilion besides all the malachites I posted yesterday. There were quite a few white peacock butterflies playing among the greenery.
I only saw this one great southern white butterfly.
I did see only this one monarch butterfly in there too. That was a bit of a surprise because we usually don't see any monarchs in the pavilion until the fall series.
Our recent weather predictions have things heating up this coming weekend so I decided to make an afternoon visit to the Desert Botanical Garden before our heat starts to limit outdoor adventures. I hadn't visited the butterfly pavilion this spring and it's going to close next week so I made sure to go. I was rewarded with an abundance of one of my favorite butterflies, the malachite.
I happened to be in the Roosevelt Historic District last weekend so I took the opportunity to snap a few more photos of some of those grand old historic homes. I love the huge porch on this home.
Here is another one with a big porch. These must have been affluent homes back in the 1930's and 1940's when this neighborhood was new.
The porch on this one appears to wrap around the side of the house off to the right. This area has some really grand looking houses to admire. I enjoy just driving around here and finding the ones I like.
I enjoy watching and listening to the birds I find around me. Here are a few I've seen in the last few days. This Gilla Woodpecker was chipping away on a palm tree in the courtyard where I live. I heard him first and then I saw him.
This little sparrow was singing his heart out just outside my balcony. I moved rather stealthily to get the photo and not scare him away.
I spotted this busy little hummingbird hovering around some aloe blooms. I was able to get several snaps of it before if flew off in another direction.
When I took a walk past the golf course, I saw this heron sitting on the water's edge and watching the aquatic activity.
I love having such a variety of birds near where I live.
I took a turn down a residential street that sits just behind a big commercial area and was struck by the sight of this modest house towered over by a very tall building. It almost seemed like that building was sitting in the back yard of that house.
A little further down that same street, I saw two houses with very large trees in their front gardens.
They are living in the shadow of tall buildings but the tree-lined street still has that residential quality.
A few weeks ago, I was talking with my friend Riley and he mentioned how he sees gorgeous fruit tarts in grocery stores and bakeries but when you purchase one it just never tastes as good as it looks. On Saturday night, David and Riley had a small dinner party at their house and Riley decided to try his hand at making a fruit tart. This is the result. Isn't it beautiful? And, believe me, it was delicious and nothing like the ones you buy at a store.
I saw this yellow bloom peeking out between the branches of an agave plant. Usually these blooms rise on a long stem several feet above the actual plant but this one was right down at the same level as the plant. I zoomed in close in the shot above to get a good look at the flower. I see some ants were also having a closer look.
I do enjoy the vast variety of plants to be found in the desert southwest.
When I was at the Phoenix Art Museum last weekend, I happened to step into a little windowed alcove and discovered this fellow sitting there and enjoying the view. You might remember him. He's been on my blog several times before. It's a sculpture called "Naked Man" by Viola Frey.
The museum staff tend to move him around quite a bit. At present he has this small alcove all to himself.
You might remember that I found his fully-clothed "sister" at the Tucson Art Museum back in 2024.
I hope he's enjoying this nice quiet spot. Who knows how long it will be before he gets moved again.
My good friend Riley made this blood orange cake during the holidays and I can tell you it was absolutely as delicious as it looks.
Today is the first of the month and the theme for City Daily Photo bloggers is Fruit. There are lots and lots of oranges grown in Arizona so choosing this fruit for the theme seems perfect to me.
You can click here to see fruit themed photos from other bloggers.
Barnes & Noble recently opened a new book store not far from where I live. I stopped in last weekend looking for a book. There are two floors of books piled up inside this store but they didn't have the one I was looking for. Go figure!
I met friends two weeks ago at this new bar on Central Avenue. It's called Horse and Hyde which in my brain kept coming out as Horse and Hound. I must have been thinking about the movie "Notting Hill". This photo pretty much covers the entire place. We were seated at an indoor/outdoor counter at the front of the place. It must get very loud in there when a band is playing.
I love these light fixtures inside Blanco Tacos restaurant at Biltmore Fashion Park. It's not far from me so I sometimes stop there for lunch.
Just a little further down the street is an In-N-Out burger place. That's another place I might stop for lunch during the week. This place is so busy it usually takes 30 minutes to get through the very long drive-thru line.
Just a few place I've visited in the past week or two.
Some colorful lights shining on those very tall cardon cacti.
This tangle of lights hangs just under the cover over the entrance to the garden.
You can see a bit of that tangle of lights in the background of this photo of the Chihuly sculptures that are permanently on display at the entrance to the garden.
I was in downtown Phoenix Saturday evening to attend a symphony performance and this group of demonstrators were marching in front of symphony hall when we arrived. They were part of a hospitality workers strike from the Hyatt Hotel across the street.
Earlier in the day, I spotted another lovely hibiscus blooming on the complex grounds. I can never resist a hibiscus photo.
