CHRISTMAS IN JUNE

Regular readers of this blog may recall SWMBO's struggles with her Christmas Cactus, which was showing real signs of life around St. Patrick's Day. You can re-read that short post here.

Eventually she placed the cactus out on the back patio and just look at it now.

Apparently it is more cactus than Christmas as it has burst into bloom in the high 90 degree temperatures of recent days.

The blossoms are beautiful to behold. The BRD's plant bloomed properly at Christmas last year but its blossoms were white. These are all this gorgeous orange-red color.

It's kind of nice to have Christmas during this pre-monsoon period of intense heat.

CELEBRATE!

To all of the dads in the world lean back, relax and have a great day of being honored today.

Oh wait! 

It's also the first day of summer so get thee to the grill and burn some meat for dinner.

Speaking of summer and burned meat, the period (hopefully brief here in the mountains or high desert) of "extreme heat" is upon us. Be careful of it and remember . . .

THE ANNUAL WARNING

Contrary to what you may have heard, the 15-year drought in Arizona is not over. It is dry out there.

And with that dryness comes the annual fire danger warnings. Right now there are no fire restrictions in our local forests but 24 abandoned campfires have been reported in this area in the last two weeks. With hot dry weather just one of those could spell disaster.

It is true that we had a wet spring but that has turned into a dry summer, with temperatures already reaching 95 degrees F. and humidity as low as 6 percent. It doesn't take many days like that to totally dry out the forest. And it's not even summer yet! The solstice doesn't hit until just after mid-day tomorrow.

So as Smoky the Bear always said: Only you can prevent forest fires.

And as Sergeant Esterhaus used to say on Hill Street Blues "Let's be careful out there."

FRIDAY

I'm not posting the Friday Funnies this week.

I don't feel funny.

I feel sad about my country.

Instead of laughing this weekend, join me in a few moments of meditation on the tragedy at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Father and Son

Some years back, two Taylors - - Bruce and Scott - - in an Italian restaurant in Scottsdale. I don't know whether the meal put him to sleep or it's just relief that I have my wallet out ahead of him. It was a fun evening.

UN LAPIN MALADE

The other day I wrote about our wildlife in the neighborhood and mentioned that SWMBO was mourning the lack of bunnies this year. Well it wasn't two days later that we were watching the warblers taking turns flying to their nest over our front entryway feeding a new baby when a bunny hopped right into our front yard. He then found a spot partially sheltered by some shrubbery and parked himself.

To SWMBO's delight, he then assumed a rock-solid equanimity and barely twitched a whisker for about half an hour as she watched him and the warblers.

This second picture is taken from my unsteady stance and through a screened window, hence the fuzziness. But, come to think of it, fuzzy might be just right for a bunny portrait.

Which brings to mind a bit of doggerel from my childhood:

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.

Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.

Fuzzy Wuzzy WASN'T fuzzy,

was he?

With that bit of second-childhood nonsense I'll close this and leave you alone for awhile.

Oh and if you don't read French, the title of this blog post is Francaise for "a patient rabbit." (And I do know that it can also be translated as "a sick rabbit" but this one was definitely healthy. And, for the moment at least, free of bobcats.)

TUESDAY TRAVELS

Contrary to the signs, I think this was in West Missouri.

But I could be wrong. Show me.