Spring

Spring is about here! After many weeks of coat and raincoat weather, we are finally seeing the warmer temps and the sun! The grass is growing tall in the desert and new flowers are popping out every day! Of course, I have to include their pictures. I looked through my flower book tonight but can only identify the poppies, manzanita bush and ocotillo bloom. Also, we’ve been exploring old mines, bumming around the desert on the quad or in the pickup. Lots of history resides here; we have met some fellow travelers who are only too happy to tell us stories about what we are seeing. There seems to be two or three waves of miners – in the late 1800’s, in the 1930’s, then the more sophisticated mines of the 1950’s and 60’s, which is the pictures I included here. We were at Stanton, a ghost town north of Wickenburg, during the eclipse of the moon. It was a very dramatic event – after this sunset, a huge thunderstorm moved in. Lightning was flashing across the sky, thunder was growling closer and the wind was blowing fiercely. The stars were shining brightly around the cloud and the moon was blood-red, although the top of the cloud was glowing with moonlight. Then the cloud took over, it hailed and rained, and in the morning the mountains around us had snow on their peaks! Unforgettable.