"Monsoons are Upon Us in Arizona"

The Monsoon season here in Arizona can start as early as the Middle of June and can last as late as the 30th of September. Right now, one can feel the humidity gradually increasing each day. This is a sure sign that the beginning of our summer rains are ready to begin. Once here, our Monsoon rains can be torrential and very dangerous. Our washes can quickly become flooded and prevent risks to pedestrians and motorists alike as can be seen by one of the photos. At the same time, the monsoons are a life line to the water table here in Southern Arizona.

"Harvesting of Saguaro Fruit"

This is the time of the year when the fruit on the saguaro cactus ripens as you can see in the photos below. Once harvested, jams, jellys, syrups and even wine can be made. The harvesting of these fruits have been a tradition of the Tohono O'odham Indians for many traditions. It is native custom, that when you pick your first fruit, you bless youself by rubbing the fruit across your heart!

"Doves take Flight"

Today the baby morning doves that took nest at my home took flight, just at about the time of the beginning of our monsoons here in Arizona. Did you know that we had monsoons?

In Arizona, as in other regions of the world including India and Thailand, we experience a monsoon, a season of high temperatures, high winds, and high moisture, resulting in potentially deadly weather.

The term "monsoon" comes from the Arabic "mausim" meaning "season" or "wind shift." Arizona's monsoons officially start on the third consecutive day of dew points above 55 degrees. Generally it is agreed that the monsoon season can start as early as June 15th and last as late as September 30th. In my next blog, I plan to share more about this interesting weather phenomenon.

"Bush and Bulky finally completed today?"

With our daytime temperatures now in the 100's, I was relieved to bring my pruning, digging, and my gathering of other desert debris to an end. It is probably a good thing that our Waste Management Company only makes "Brush and Bulky" a semi annual event. All I know is that my body,after a weekend of work, is exhausted and is now decorated with numerous scratches, needle pricks and assorted itches from handling desert flora. As you can see, my helpers also had a hard day, however they were great workers, and I felt especially bad when they were carded by our local authorities as possible illegals. While I haven't heard back, they really seemed to be nice people. Their work ethic really stood out! I'm not sure we all work that hard? Well that's another side of Arizona!!!!

"Baby Doves on the Patio"

Back on the 24th of May, a dove built a nest in one of the patio flower planters. Today, when I walked outside to water plants and do some gardening, two newly hatched chicks were there to greet me!

"Happy Fathers Day"

Today was quite special as I went out with my daughter and my grand kids for lunch in celebration of Father's Day, and later my son called from the Phillipines to pass on his best wishes on my special day. (Their time is actually 15 hours ahead of Pacific time.)

While at the restaurant had a perfect opportunity to take a few pictures of my daughter, Baby Iris, Piano Man and Desert Princess. Tomorrow, I'll be cheering both Piano Man and Desert Princess at their swimming meet. We'll all be getting up early, because warm-ups are 7:00 AM.