Before spring gets away… I have held these photographs for over a year now just waiting to share them with you. By the time I was ready to share them last year, it was summertime. So, they waited for this year to share that 3800 mile round-trip out west as we moved all our household good to Texas from California.
Let’s enjoy some glorious wildflowers and garden beauties!…
By the time I was ready to share them last year, it was summertime and the timing was gone. This year however it is the perfect time to share these wildflower beauties! With staying home we all need our armchair travels so please do! download these photos to your heart’s content and put them on your computer’s slideshow and as save screens. I want you to enjoy them…
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| Texas’ state flower is the blue lupine or bluebonnet but these lupine are in the high desert of Arizona. |
The lead photo is of some fiery orange and yellow lantana in flowerbed at Costco or at the hotel I stayed at last March, if memory serves. Always pretty, lantana blooms from early spring through summer and on into fall. It’s a lovely perennial and comes in white, this orange and also some lovely purple hues. It is perfect tucked into a pot (or a flowerbed) where it can drape itself over the side and cascade downward. Here is a variety seen standing tall.
This photograph and the second one above share these yellow daisies (Coreopsis) growing alongside a freeway exit ramp to a rest area in New Mexico or Arizona. The wildflowers along Highway 10 were just perfect as I was traveling to California over the March 2nd-4th, 2019 weekend into Monday.
On that Saturday I made it to El Paso about 12 hours from our home. That Sunday it was about 2 o’clock in the afternoon and I was on Highway 20 heading down out of New Mexico into Arizona and I gasped at the drifts of bluebonnets and yellow Coreopsis…
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They were dotted here and there on these low hillsides ~ very pretty! I remember wishing I had a really long lens for my Canon so I could shoot differently but get close-ups along the hills.
Pullouts dot the one lane roadsides so it is easy to just pull off the highway into these wide areas to safely get out and snap photos galore!
These are a bit jumbled and jump back and forth from the pullout and the one rest stop exit, but they are always beautiful!!! 💛
These saguaro and other tall cacti are part of a cactus garden right off the highway (probably HW 10 heading to Arizona when I was driving back from California).
Western deserts are garden zones 11 and 12 (really hot and dry). Because there was a lot of rain last winter and very early spring (late January and February), this made for spectacular greenery out in the desert in March.
Another rest area found me following a group of cyclists out on a spring ride. Some had panniers on their bicycles (front and/or rear bags carrying gear for camping, usually) so they may have been riding cross-country over spring break.
Definitely New Mexico!
This large sculpture of a roadrunner sits up on a rock at a rest stop looking down on Las Cruces, New Mexico. I just looked this up and did you know this sculpture is made of trash??! Yes! Here is a cool little ditty from Trip Advisor about the Roadrunner of Las Cruces.
I didn’t get that close and personal with Mr. Roadrunner as I wanted to get on the road and be home by dark that Saturday evening a week after I had started. It was 5 or 6am when I shot these photographs. The little hare was startled by my presence but soon went back to nibbling when he found out I just wanted to visit with him, not harm him.
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| Untouched photo and the light as it was… |
Here I was on my way into the restrooms to wash up before driving onward.
Here is when I came out looking out over the city of Las Cruces. The Organ mountain range is here in the Las Cruces area of NM and these may be the West Potrillo Mountains. I googled this… 😉
Heading home…
One quick shot of the car in the early morning sunlight, full to the brim with portraits, paintings, engine oil, paints, cleaning fluids and the like. Oh, and my suitcase, blanket and a couple of coats. It was 30 degrees F. that morning and I was sooo glad I brought those coats and blanket to wrap around me! I also had a beanie and wool socks, longtime winter Boy Scout camper that I am!!!
Enjoy your springtime,
Barb, Thanks so much for stopping by!! Interesting and amazing pictures! Such a different landscape from here in NEPA!! Thanks so much for responding to my post..I do not believe I ever saw you write anything negative about the current state we are in…Funny you mention about antibody testing..My son's co worker was also very ill in the beginning of the year and then returned to work and had an episode which they said was a TIA or mini stroke.He is 36 years old. His Dr. wanted him tested because he felt he had the virus. If he returns positive for antibodies then my son and Joe and I were all exposed and most likely have antibodies too… I do believe that this was around way longer than first reported and many of us have already been exposed.Stay safe, healthy and happy, my friend!!Hugs,Debbie
Wonderful visual trip. Each image like a postcard. Looking forward to a road trip soon.
We have on our list to do Route 66 one of these days. We did get to see a lot of wildflowers in Texas a few years ago.
Oh I love going on virtual trips to places I'd probably never see in real life. What a beautiful ride Barb and wow, that roadrunner near Las Cruces is amazing. It inspires me so much when people turn throw away stuff into art.
Having lived in the west my whole life, I loved this pictorial tour. The desert is a tough place to live with the heat, wind, snow and rough terrain. Your photos are stunning.
Beautiful wildflowers and countryside. Nice pic of the roadrunner That was a long trip.Stay well and safe.