Monday, March 12, 2007

A Late Afternoon Neighborhood Walk

And the first stop is right beside my house, where the biggest of several grown-from-seed apricot trees is covered in blossoms. Unfortunately, I might as well give up all thought of fruit and welcome these early blooming trees as strictly ornamentals. Prescott has a bad habit of late, killing frosts.

Next, a quick stop at my potted garden before venturing forth. Daffodils are one of the few bulb plants guaranteed to survive hungry javelinas; the critters won't touch the poisonous tubers. After two or three frustrating years with wild tulips and hyacinths, I decided to put all my spring bulb money into daffodils!

But time to get on my way. Over at the United Methodist Church, there's spring-type construction activity at the pretty little meditation garden which I usually view from one level up.

Here's one sight in the neighborhood that I'm sure most people miss completely -- a little summer house up among the granites. It sits behind a house that, from the front, looks like any small Prescott cottage on a standard long and narrow city lot.

This afternoon I also discovered that not only do our sycamores very occasionally produce their pompoms in sets of two -- but here in threesies and foursies. This particular tree is quite young, which might explain such productivity.

I found one other fruit (or ornamental) in bloom. And it was abuzz with bees. Very good news. A couple of years ago, as I recall, our bees died from a virus. That was the year that even our scruffy little apple trees were barren.

A difficult picture to get: small tree trunks sawed into short lengths to create an attractive ground cover.

Ending my walk on a sad note: the butterfly is broken! But it might get repaired; the wing is down below sitting in a decorative cane chair.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:34 AM

    Nice to see spring taking effect. We have a few plants starting to come up in the back yard. We are always a little late in our area. Hopefully the cold weather has passed and it will continue to warm up.

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  2. Very fine close-up of the apricot blossoms!

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  3. Steve-- I read recently that one should do spring in europe but comeback to America for the autumn.

    Kate -- thank you for the applause. Usually when I rev up to do a close-up, a breeze immediately materializes to ruin things.

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  4. It just shows what can be found by careful looking amongst the "commonplace". I enjoy this sort of thing - the little commonplace sights which bring out far away places from across the world. One can see pix of the "great" tourist scenes anywhere!
    I like your blog - do you mind if I link to it?

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  5. Great photos (as usual). The weather has really been gorgeous the past few days!

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  6. Mr. Avus -- I would be honored and delighted to have you link to my blog. My view of the so-called ordinary is that it simply requires one to look from a different angle to change into something quite magical or frightful or ???

    Miss Angie -- yes, it continues to be beautiful. But we deserve better -- snow or rain, for instance.

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  7. Avus has said for me!
    Little hidden corners! So good to see blossom and fresh greenery. Love your 'eye' for the scenery surrounding you.

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  8. A lovely post, GJ,with a medley of interesting detail, loved the blossom and dafs. Keep us posted on that meditation garden!

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  9. Hi, Ms. herhimnbryn and Lucy...thank you for your kind words. This neighborhood is old and established, which means there are truly upscale places and down-at-the-heels
    locations and the idiosyncracies that accumulate over time. I love it!

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