Spring in the desert?

Okay, so we’ve decided it’s going to jump from winter into summer. Going to happen next week. After another storm plows through Saturday. Since we’ve returned from Hawaii, we have alternated between somewhat nice days in the 60’s to rainy, windy and cold days. So spring has sprung somewhat, but it’s sluggish. The desert is greening up and flowers are just beginning to bloom. I love the red blooms of the ocotillo, a large bush made up of sticks that grow straight up and get little leaves on them after rain, with a big red bloom at the tips. The birds have woken up too – the quail are so cute and the hummingbirds keep hovering over my head, I think they are considering the blonde hair as something edible! I’ve included some pictures here from February. Our neighbors Bill and Donna from Hot Springs met up with us. We visited them by the Colorado River, which is a big influence around here both with weather and roads. The burros met us at our campsite in Cibola when we stayed there for a week in February. In the last few weeks, Ron and I took on a few hikes. One was near Lake Havasu City, a surprisingly beautiful area just outside the city limits which looks a lot like the colored rocks in Utah. We took on a trip up Burro Canyon which was an unusual wash for our area as it had huge, old saguaro cactus lining the canyon. I climbed up the mountain there and was rewarded with an amazing view of the whole area. I’ve been riding a lot on my new road bike, “Windy,” (because its so fast just like the song) and getting ready for “Tour de Wickenburg”, a one day 60 mile ride to Wickenburg the last Saturday of March. So today I’ll be riding 40 miles!