Wednesday, March 05, 2014

A February Afternoon at the Desert Botanical Garden


Denis and I are both members of the Desert Botanical Garden here in Phoenix, and we love to go there just to sit at the Patio Cafe and watch the wildlife that shows up. We did this last week, and the Garden was filled with people from around the world. Within minutes I heard French, German, Italian, and Japanese. If I'd gone further along the pathways, I'm sure I would've heard several more languages.

I'm sharing the following photos with you, not to rub your snowbound noses into our glorious weather, but to prove to you that spring will come... it just tends to show up here first. Hey, some of my Aussie friends aren't even experiencing winter at the moment!


~~~ Some Chihuly ~~~


The Desert Botanical Garden has become known for its glass exhibits created by Dale Chihuly, so I thought I would show you some of those first. Don't forget that you can see all of these photos in larger sizes just by clicking on them. They will automatically open in a new window.






These exhibits are lit at night. The red "spears" in the photo above are tipped like agave leaves at the top.







Call me strange, but I'm more attracted to the saguaro skeleton than the glass spears in the photo above!





~~~ A Few Blooms ~~~



Okay, so these cacti aren't blooming, but I wanted to show you how big these organ pipe cacti can get. There's a human in that photo to show scale!



Some of the blooms are downright tiny!



And these little ladyfinger cacti look like they're on the lam... just about to make a break for it and scuttle across the sidewalk!














~~~ At the Patio Cafe ~~~




One of the best bits about sitting at the Patio Cafe is that one of my favorite birds, the Gambel's Quail, will gather around your feet. If you drop a piece of bread, don't bother trying to pick it up... it's gone!

But there are lots of other critters who frequent the Patio Cafe...






What's this little guy doing?



Snacking on cactus, that's what!









A true Arizonan always appreciates a patch of shade!








There now. Did you forget about winter for a minute or two?  Good!



10 comments:

  1. Cathy - I don't blame you for having joined the gardens - so beautiful! And those sculptures are gorgeous. Of course, so are the flowers. Love those cheeky birds, too. Oh, and I have to say I think you have a real eye for capturing wildlife on film.

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    1. Thanks, Margot. The patience I don't have for anything else all gets focused on wildlife-- even when I don't have a camera in my hands.

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  2. The combination of Chihuly glass, wildlife, and vegetation makes that place irresistible!

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  3. These are beautiful photos, thanks for sharing!

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  4. Those are absolutely wonderful to see on a freezing New York morning. I wish I knew what everything was, but even so, they're gorgeous. And those organ pipe cacti are the size of some apartment buildings here!

    Thanks so much for sharing these. Lucky are you and Denis for being able to drive to this haven and see so much flora and fauna.

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    1. I was in a rush when I posted this. I may go back and add a few captions here and there so folks will know what things are. Thanks for reminding me.

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