Some rainy days, Gilbert and Phoenix
The previous 2 days were very wet!  They kept warning of the winter storm that was approaching, it was all over the news and everyone was mentioning how much it was supposed to rain.  Other than being wet and quite windy I wouldn't have called it much of a storm.  There were a lot of dried, dead palm fronds and oranges on the road from the wind but thats about it.  Up north in Arizona they did have a lot of snow in the mountains.  They were happy for the ski hills I suppose but it was a lot of snow in just a few days.  Can't see any snow in the mountains in this area - day time highs are about 60F or 15 C.  Lows have been around 45F or 7C.  A little chilly in the morning and I have trouble wanting to get out of the warm blankets!

Yesterday we went to a farmers market in Gilbert. It was a very unique farmers market and although it did have some local produce and what not it had a lot of items you probably could not buy anywhere else.  One lady made home made oatmeal mixes, there were nice cement blocks with sayings carved in them.  One that I was really interested in was the home made horseradish.  He had several kinds, which of course I tasted!  There was lemon, beet and cranberry.  They had the heat of horseradish and the beautiful flavor of the other items.  They looked pretty and tasted amazing.  They recommended keeping them in the fridge and as I have a small fridge I will wait until we are closer to heading home to purchase some.
In the town, which we drove around in quite a bit as we sort of missed our turn we saw this:

This was basically on the end of a street with other homes that actually had humans living in them instead of cats.  There are boarded up homes in most of the cities we have driven around in.  Really seems weird to me.  Whats up with the cats here anyway?

Today we went to South Mountain Park/Preserve.  It was cool but sunny!  This park is actually in Phoenix. It is a fantastic facility and has tons of walking and biking paths.

A really nice young man, who said he could tell we were Canadian, took this picture at the  summit for us.  It overlooks Phoenix.

This metal "compass" pointed to different mountains, cities and points of interest in the area  - very cool!  Our elevation was about 2400 feet.

 the shelters they had for hikers and such were so beautifully done with rock.  This one had such nice cut outs for windows.

 This was part of the ranger station.










There was also a nature centre that was not open but you could still walk around the area on a really nice path.  We saw a pygmy nuthatch and some type of a little wren. I learned a lot about the cactus's and trees today!

This is a golden barrel cactus which has become scarce in the wild.

The creosote is the most drought-tolerant perennial plant in North America.  Going south along the Colorado River region, dry valleys contain only creosote and bursage, and in some places, even bursage disappears. The creosote can survive two years without rain. It may drop leaves and branches to preserve water and nutrients in the root crown.

You could smell the creosote by rubbing the leaves.  This time of year they all had fuzzy little "fruit" but they can flower (yellow)several times a year depending on the moisture.

This is a palo verde tree that was at a higher elevation has dropped all of its leaves.  Most of the ones we have seen are in cities where they get some water so they still have their foliage.

This one was at a lower elevation and was starting to grow back leaves. The bark of the tree is green and can photosynthesise something that in most plants only leaves do. This allows the leaves to be very small.  These trees also act as "nurses" to young saguaro cactus's who use the shade and thorns of the tree for protection from the elements and animals.

This is a saguaro cactus - someone did not tell it that the arms or branches are supposed to grow upwards - some don't grow arms at all. Most are 75 before they even grow an arm. They only grow in the Sonoran desert and can live up to 300 years. They are very slow growing and a 10 year old one is only about1.5 inches high.  They have one main tap root that goes down about 2 feet but the rest are only 4 - 6 inches deep.

This is a night-blooming cereus, is a member of the cactus family that resembles nothing more than a dead bush most of the year. It is rarely seen in the wild because of its inconspicuousness. But for one midsummer's night each year, its exquisitely scented flower opens as night falls, then closes forever with the first rays of the morning sun.  I have a cactus at home and always wondered why the bloom only lasted a few hours.

This is a jojoba which has edible nuts in summer.

This is an ironwood tree.  They can grow up to 35 feet tall (which is tall for a desert plant.)

I thought these plants were sage as they have a sage green leaf.  But they are called  Brittlebush. It is a member of the sunflower family. They have hairy leaves like a lot of desert plants do to protect them from heat and cold and trap and hold moisture.

The front cactus is a teddy bear cholla.  From a distance they look like fuzzy soft plants but they are really completely covered with silvery spines which I am told are very painful if you have the misfortune to come in contact with.  The two in the middle are barrel cactus.  Off to the left is another type of cholla.

 Doesn't this look like a snake?
We will be going back to this area to do some hiking around.  We need to get some walking sticks as it is very rocky and uneven but wonderful!

Would love to see this house!  However it is pretty cheap to live here when you think about it.  Gas is about 3.10 a gallon which is about 80 cents a litre.  Houses are very cheap and it costs very little to heat them although summer you would be paying for air conditioning as it is very hot.  Groceries and  eating out are also very reasonable.  That being said, visiting has been an amazing experience but there's no place like home!