Desert Flowers

This summer I took pictures of the flowers in my yard. We (my husband and son) live on a desert hillside with lots of wildlife. Everything from jackrabbits to cottontail deer to voles (pesky mountain mice) to hummingbirds to grasshoppers and spiders. The best thing about it all is that I love it, even though I have to cut my dogs hair and hang it on plants and trees that I don't want the deer to eat. By the way, deer absolutely LOVE tulips. I wish I had known that before I planted nearly 200 bulbs last fall. The deer ate all of them except a pretty red one.

This year my irises bloomed that have been planted for over 2 years. I also had yellow and pink blooming cactus and pretty white sego lilies. Every year I plant more and more plants and this desert hillside is beginning to really bloom!

This year I was in charge of a youth parade and we used the scripture in Isaiah that talks about "And the desert shall blossom as a rose." You will have to see the pictures of the float. It was adorable (even though the letters were on a bit crooked). Thanks to all who helped build and decorate the float. It was a joint effort to pull it off. The night before the parade we were still trying to figure out the details of the float, like how to make the flowers stand up in the float and worrying if kids would show up. Everything turned out great! We had close to 350 kids show up and walk with our float. The kids looked sooooo adorable. Each child held a prop made out of cardboard that represented something that helped the desert bloom....suns, raindrops, flowers, seed packets, watering cans and some umbrellas and visors. Everyone was soooo cute!