Happy SPRING in Arizona!

First of all, a picture of our corned beef and cabbage St. Patrick's Day feast last Sunday.  Not shown is the amazing lemon pie I made to top it all off.

I just love spring and even here in Arizona, I find the joys of a desert spring.   One great thing is that Arizona does not observe daylight saving time so that half-way through March, we are not plummeted back into darkness on our morning walks.  With the sun coming sooner, we get to enjoy birdsong greeting the new day and we get to observe wildlife.  The other morning, we watched two javelina cross the road right by our house.  

Jacaranda trees are not native to Arizona but they thrive here and their fragrant blooms appear in the spring

Saturday morning, we attended the temple marriage of a former Arizona Phoenix missionary, Gabriel de la Cruz.  He met his bride while serving in Cottonwood.  Three of his former companions were groomsmen.  (l-r - Mitch Johnson, David Groesbeck, Brandon Lewis).  Brandon flew to Utah from Florida and then all three drove down for the event.  It was so great to see them again.

Saturday afternoon, we went to Cave Creek with Sisters Laura Jones and Connie Ziegler.  Connie and her husband lived in Cave Creek over fifty years ago and she was curious to see if the Jewel of the Creek was the same place she used to hike back when it wasn't called by that name.  With all the rain we have had this winter, the area was even more gorgeous.  Temperatures were perfect - warm but cooled by a small breeze.  It was fun to make that hike with Laura and Connie.

In an earlier blog post, I pictured the blanket of small yellow wildflowers.  Since then, they have just multiplied and the entire Phoenix desert is just carpeted in yellow.  When you get up close, you can see that they are just little yellow ball flowers.

More wildflowers from our hike

even the cholla cactus are getting new growth

Connie is quite short and she decided to explore the cave on the hike.

She also shared some of her photos from the day.  I liked this one

On our way out of the park, we saw these two sentinel rooks

We returned to Anthem and enjoyed Reuben sandwiches, broccoli salad, and lemon cake.
After they left, I sewed and watched two episodes of Lark Rise to Candleford.  Friday evening, Steve and I watched Ant Man and the Wasp.