Wonders of Arizona

When Joe and I were going from Laredo, TX to Calexico, CA we had to go through Arizona. On our way back to Laredo for the second load we stopped by some friends of ours that live in Tucson.

My friend, Judy Ray, is amazing with wild animals. They are drawn to her. She has a family of roadrunners that come to her. One of them comes to the door with clicks and chatter to get her attention. She has prepared ground meat, formed into little balls and put into the freezer. When her little guy comes calling she thaws the meat under running water and tosses pieces to him. I had to see this to believe it. You see him requesting to be fed through the screen door, then with the meat Judy gives him. Click on the picture at the right and enlarge it. You will see this guy is missing a talon on his right (our left) foot. That had to hurt.

She throws scraps of bread, lettuce, carrot peels, and other things from her front porch. Later she will have rabbits and various other birds in the front of her house feasting. I often wonder if she is "Snow White" in disguise?

Traveling north on I-8 in Arizona - before Tucson - we noticed the saguaro were in bloom. If you live in Arizona you know they bloom in the spring. If you don't live in Arizona you (I) wonder just exactly what everyone finds so fascinating about the Arizona desert. We pulled off the road so Joe could get these pictures of a saguaro that is blooming but looks like it should be crumpled to the ground and dead. Many creatures call this home. Rats, mice, birds, lizards, bugs. The bit of information I had about saguaro cactus was they bloomed only every 100 years and a new arm came from the blooms. Judy's husband, Ron, set me straight on that. They bloom every year and don't grow arms from the blooms. If what I believed were true then the saguaro would not be as tall and majestic as they are but squat little things with really oddly shaped bodies. The complexities of life and organisms can be mind boggling if you spend much time dwelling on it.