A Clear Fall Day

I am still gainfully unemployed and butterfly/school group season is not yet in full swing for Ben over at Tucson Botanical Gardens. So, before we are again busy little ships passing in the night, we headed out to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum for some javelina spotting and bird photographing. We're members of the museum (just renewed today) and actually make the half-hour trip out more often than we go to a lot of places that are closer to home. We really love it. The food in the cafe is delicious and inexpensive (and we get a member discount), members get free coffee with every visit, the birds live in an enclosure (which makes it a lot easier to photograph them) and city slickers like my husband and I get to feel like we are on a nature hike without the fear of needing to be rescued by a helicopter.

Fall is slowly arriving in Tucson, and today was gorgeous. Here are some photographic highlights...

Benjamin enjoying the "wilderness".

Notice my hiking loafers. All serious hikers wear loafers.

The ocotillo green and happy from our late season monsoons.

A few of the cacti were still hanging onto their blooms.

A very serious looking spurge that I spotted in the underbrush.

Good thing I absorbed all of that wicked plant knowledge from Amy Stewart.

All of the plants were full and healthy, the desert is steadily recovering from the hard freeze we had in February. Today the Prairie Dogs were busy frolicking with their new babies, the javelina were snoozing the day away under a bridge and the onion rings were golden little balls of fried goodness. It was a really good day to be in Tucson, AZ.