Morning Visitors and Saguaro in the Spring

Got snacks?, originally uploaded by ivoryblushroses.

Shortly after I got up this morning I looked up to see a small herd of mule deer crossing the hillside. In all the time that I've lived here, I've never seen deer on this hillside, so it was a real treat to see them! This young buck is checking out the birdseed in the bird feeders and trying to decide if he might get a snack there.

Then he saw me! We must have both stood there watching each other for close to 10 minutes! With the window between us, we were only a few feet apart. When the neighbor's dog started to bark, he decided that the birdseed wasn't a good snack after all and left to join the rest of the group. It made my day to have a chance to observe him so close! I was so happy that the camera was close at hand and that I was able to get such great shots of him!

I also wanted to share a little bit about our visit to Saguaro National Park last week. We ended up making 3 visits to the park in our 3 days there. Each time, we saw different things and were able to visit both the west side and the east side of the park. The city of Tucson lies between the two sides of the park.

The first evening, we arrived in time to hike a short nature trail. The setting sun gave everything a lovely warm glow. This saguaro made me smile as it seems almost like it is smiling too!

Sunset in the desert is spectacular with an amazing array of color. The mountains really do turn purple and the sky contains every color possible from yellow to orange, apricot, pink and lavender.

On our way home, we made one last drive through the west part of Saguaro and came across this hillside covered with blooming poppies.

I'm not sure there are words to describe or photos adequate to show just how beautiful and amazing the poppies were! I was so excited to get out and take pictures that I neglected to check the camera settings and as a result, my pictures are not quite in focus unfortunately.

The poppies are small, maybe an inch in diameter, but so incredibly bright and cheerful!

It was amazing to see nothing there but cactus one day, but the following day to see these brilliant carpets of flowers! I can only imagine what it must have been like a few days later when everything was in full bloom!