Flora and Fauna

As my long-time faithful readers probably know by now, one of my favorite things to do is to take pictures of tracks and footprints. It has been a while since I have shared any with you, but that is not because I have stopped doing it! Since my collection has grown, I thought it was about time I posted some more here. I love walking in the desert sand here in the Coachella Valley. The textures and stories revealed to me are so intriguing. I found a really interesting group of tracks that looked to me like a scuffle between a snake and a mouse, but Pono laid down on it before I got a chance to snap a photo. (darn dog!) I am mesmerized by the side winder tracks, especially.

Yesterday, Pono and I had a wonderful walk. It has been a little cooler these past two mornings, and what a welcome respite! The huge cactus in front of the house produced some more of those white blooms I am in love with. I have enjoyed watching the blooms fade, followed by the eventual emergence of the red fruit. The birds love the cactus fruit, and there were two birds feasting on them yesterday, one being a hummingbird. There are tons of hummingbirds here! LOVE THEM!

Pono has befriended a man who sits at a guard shack nearby. The gates he opens and closes for people seal off a development with the most incredible homes. He told me the least expensive home within the gates cost $2.6 million! He let Pono and I do a bit of exploring inside the gates, since most of the homes are not occupied. (This being the off season here.) The first thing I noticed was that almost every single home in there had at least one large sculpture out front. Cool. I found this gorgeous cactus, which obviously impressed me more than the art. I took at least 3 photographs of it. The best part was that when I zoomed in for a closeup of those beautiful cactus fruit, a hummingbird willingly popped into my view, for this fun shot of her feeding! Yay! The color of this cactus fruit blows my mind.

On a different note, there is a pomegranate tree in the backyard of our rental house. I have been waiting impatiently for the pomegranates to ripen, because I really want to try one! Since we leave in two days, it doesn't seem very promising. The birds have even less patience than I do, because a number of the partially ripened fruit have been pecked upon, leaving gaping holes in the middle. And you thought I was impatient! Ha.