Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
I felt as though I had stepped into a Jack London novel as I walked my neighborhood on a snowy Christmas Eve. Ellie normally wants to greet every dog she meets so I was surprised she was uninterested in these two, but probably for the best, so focused were they on the task at hand.
It’s been cooler than normal this past week in Scottsdale, but cooler in the sense that I wore a long sleeve shirt last night rather than I was scraping ice from my car windows. This was Christmas morning in Portland, a rare (barely) white Christmas. It was the overnight ice that was naughty not nice, coating the streets and causing problems for those going to visit family Christmas morning, or for a man wanting to walk his elderly dog.
It has its upsides.
A curve-billed thrasher perches atop a saguaro at the Bajada Nature Trail in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. This was the second thrasher I saw that morning, a new species for me.
A quick self-portrait at Pinnacle Peak Park.
A lovely palo verde grows beside the large rocks of a boulder field at Pinnacle Peak Park, I am constantly amazed at the places life can flourish. The Sonoran Desert is so lovely bathed in the soft morning light.
Old saguaros, arms raised to greet the rising sun.
