phoenix, arizona

During my recent visit to the US, I attended my brother's wedding in Phoenix, Arizona. Our hotel was in Tempe, a university district and while the weather was quite hot, almost 30C, the early mornings were more comfortable for exploratory strolls round the area.

desert plants

shade sails over the vegetable beds

municipal offices of tempe, arizona

xeriscaping

wild west cactus, actually saguaro or Carnegiea gigantea

no boggy ground or bull rushes here...

three blacktail jackrabbit sculpture in tempe, the grass is rake but the water is real

tempe is a fairly pedestrian friendly area

at first i thought this was a modern sculpture, but its some sort of water pipe system

shade sails are everywhere in the phoenix area

stone cobbles in gabions used nicely to divide public / private space

major construction in tempe

notice all the solar panels on the roofs, there to power air-conditioning

arizona wildcats football stadium and car park, more solar panels

a beautiful mosque in tempe, looks like a scene from the middle east..

nice simple water fountain in a shady place

part of the shady garden 'under' the municipal buildings in tempe

more shade sails, i was studying these closely as i have to build something similar soon..

monster truck!

a rare thing in the US, public transport...

the oldest building in tempe, monti's restaurant, built in 1871

these trees were planted everywhere but i didn't find out what they were...

another public space with an emphasis on creating shade

frog's camouflage

I nearly stepped on a frog the other day. I didn't see him at first. Something you might expect in grass, or swampy vegetation. They are naturally camouflaged for their normal surroundings. They have been evolving for 265 million years to do this. But this guy blends in perfectly to the concrete headland in my glasshouse. Which means they are still evolving, or I badly need to power hose the floor.

look closer...

pygmy shrew

While doing some levelling yesterday I noticed a small lump of soil hop around. On closer examination this tiny creature was hopping around the bare earth. Because the cat was lingering close by I decided to try and catch it, which turned out to be much easier that I expected. After a quick photo I released it to a thick sward of grass and weeds..

pygmy shrew  sorus minutus  dallog fhraoigh

late summer insects

The warm summer has meant an abundance of insects in the garden including these colourful ones;

Ruddy Darter ? Sympetrum sanguineum

Peacock Butterfly, Inchis io

Large arder Bumblebee Bombus muscurum

thanks to this website for help identifying them http://www.museum.ie/en/collection/irish-insects.aspx

doneraile wildlife park

While on a visit to friends in the rebel county we took a rainy stroll through Doneraile Wildlife Park. It has some fine mature trees and riverside walk. 

busy insects

bumblebee on self-seeded green manure phacelia tanacetifolia

ladybird on comfrey

twitches

For almost two years of my little girl has been asking could she have a pet rabbit. I reached breaking point when, while visiting a poultry show in Limerick, we spotted a rabbit for sale. She looked at me with a tiny tear in her eye and asked would she ever be able to have a rabbit? I promised then to set to work making a hutch and that when it was done we'd get a rabbit. She might say I am slow at making rabbit hutches but eventually all was complete and Twitches becomes our first family pet...

garden visitors

I love to see all sorts of fauna visit the garden. But last Sunday morning we had some hungry herbivores come for a visit again. The lower part of the garden had some lovely lush grass which was quickly munched by this lot. After a couple of hours they moved on. Again I resolved to put up some barbed wire and get the gates finished promptly. 

Riabhóg Mhóna

I can't quite identify this bird for sure, firstly I thought it was a starling, but it seems too light in colour. Then I thought it was thrush, but too small. After a bit of poking around the birdwatch ireland website it could have been a Skylark. But, most likely it's a Meadow Pipit;