Blacklidge

First Cactus Bloom Announces Itself In Rancho Vistoso

Driving along in Rancho Vistoso today when all of a sudden I whip by this guy. I almost turned around and hurried back but had to make an appointment. Luckily I had to drive right by it on my way out or I would have forgotten about it, which is what I usually do. Drive by it again, oops, whip around and line up with 3 other cars so the owners could get out and take a picture of it. Early and amazing! Nobody else in bloom around the area. It''s going to be a great year for cactus flowers!

 

 

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The Bees

 Some bees stopped by our house for a nap a few days ago. My husband, who has experience with this through his old job, says the queen grew tired so all of her followers stopped with her to protect her. He said they'd go away when they were ready and so they did, after a couple of days. Because there wasn't a hole in tree, there wasn't much chance of them sticking around and forming a hive. We missed the big fly out but they were pretty cool anyway.

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We're Walking, We're Walking

My sister has gotten all crazy lately, reading all these books about the brain. One of them, called "Spark", written by a guy named John Ratey, tells how important it is to exercise. Everyday. Exercise. So now she has me in tow as she trudges around the pool for hours on end. Well, okay, 45 minutes to an hour for each exercise period. Sometimes twice a day.I go all over my neighborhood and have my head set on so we can chat as we go. Really, it isn't so bad and after 3 weeks or so, I feel better than I have in a long time. One of the gurus that I believe has a handle on my adrenal problems told me that Pilates isn't the end all be all. Walking is important to your health in ways that Pilates can't touch. So, all those years of learning and perfecting the main 20 exercises in the program, although beneficial in a lot of ways, hasn't done as much as all this walking has in a few short weeks. One way that I will be ahead of others who lose weight this way is that my muscles are toned and trim, no need to find some way to tighten things up after it slowly falls away. All of this is tied to other things such as depression, menopause and stress in my life. I'm glad she ran across this information and now, she's off on a whirlwind of reading on the subject of the brain.

From One Day to The Next

                   This is my crazy Mexican Fencepost cactus. It grew probably 2 feet since last year. I tried to count the weird, other- worldly buds before they opened and came up with over 80 different examples. Now they are weird blooms and tomorrow they will be mostly dead and gone.