We decided to take a back road to Prescott, Arizona to try to cool off a few degrees. This 110+ degree temperature makes us feel house- bound and crazy, so we just had to get out for awhile. After filling up the truck with $77 of regular--we knew we wouldn't be going much farther than that! While passing the old Vulture Gold Mine near Wickenburg, we caught sight of a raven perched atop a saguaro cactus , and one in a Palo Verde tree. 
No vultures today--but at times they are circling around the sky looking toward the ground for carrion. 
Check out the two top arms. This is an unusual configuration of arms. I think the growing tip was damaged on that one and it just grew two side arms near the top. It is the end of the bloom season for Saguaro flowers, but the remnants are still there.
At the bottom of Yarnell Hill, someone has painted this frog-shaped rock for as many years as I can remember! My father used to bring us to this the area to pan for gold when we were kids, and that frog was there back then. We found a few tiny nuggets and lots of gold dust, but not enough to sell at yesterday's (1950's) prices. Seems the price was $35 an ounce then. We probably put the tiny nuggets around our 'little people houses'. These make-believe fairies and elves lived in an old cottonwood tree that had a small hole at the bottom that went far inside the trunk. We collected many miniature things for the inhabitants--including lots of little food stuffs! My sister and cousin saw them coming and going daily, and I finally convinced myself I did too.Once after a bomb drill at school (the one where you got under your desk and covered your head) we decided to bomb the fairy-elf house. We captured wasps that became dive planes, mixed them with a few alfalfa seed bombs and dropped them around the tree. Before we did that though, we made little fliers telling them this was just a drill.
4 comments:
That frog is too funky for words, although, he does look a little on the foul tempered side. And the saguaros are very impressive. I clicked on the pics and was amazed at the detail I could see... Thanks for sharing them!
I remember that green frog! We must have gone to the same places as kids.
Aiyana
Loved your photos of your drive. I have a hard time imagining 94 degrees as a "break" in the heat. It's all relative though, isn't it? The frog rock is hilarious! I also enjoyed your reminiscing. Things were less complicated back then, weren't they? Fortunately, I don't think life was less complicated because of the decade so much as because we, as children, were more carefree and less complicated. Gives me hope for my grandchildren to have happy, uncomplicated childhoods!
LOLOL...what a great story about your little fairy house in the base of a tree! What elaborate details you guys went to! Love it! That green frog is amazing, and very long lasting, I see!!!
I know you enjoyed getting out and away from the heat for a while! I think that is why we had taken a little trip last Sat...just to get away and do something different than sit around in AC!!!
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