This was always my favorite time in the Jordanian desert, and Arizona doesn’t disappoint when it comes to desert spring flowers. I’m still learning the names of things, but I wanted to share a collage of some of the blooms I’ve encountered since touching back down in the desert.
I love how cholla needles can catch the sun. 
This tall drink of water is an ocotillo. 
Palo verde have few very slender leaves, but can photosynthesize with their green bark. 
Saguaro have big, complex flowers far above your head.
When walking in the desert, you have to be very careful of these jumping cholla, which bud off little pieces that roll down the hillside and catch on critters passing by, who carry them off to new ground. If you’re not careful, the needles can go right through the sole of your hiking boot!
And it’s not just flowers…. We’ve seen plenty of critters, too: earless lizards, quail and their babies, bunnies, mule deer, mourning doves, cactus wren, hummingbirds, and many more birds I couldn’t name, even a roadrunner and a red-tailed hawk along the roadsides as we’ve driven around town.
Some are pretty elusive. You wouldn’t know there were baby quails in this first set of photos without seeing them move in the GIF….
Bunnies blend equally well into their surroundings.
Mule deer are easier to notice, and come past the kitchen windows most days towards evening.
Lots to see and do and learn in our new hometown!
Conversant 