It is December 12 in sunny Arizona. We have had a number of days where we woke up to ice on our bird-bath. It is still cool at night, but today was sunny and pleasantly warm. Dave and I went to Molino Basin. We walked up the dry stream bed, only once coming across a little pool, left over from the rains just over two weeks ago. We looked for signs of aquatic life, but only found a few dead plants and insects in the water.
The dry stream bed
Althogh we knew that we were in the middle of December, we looked out for wild-flowers, and found more than we expected. Most abundant was the Hummingbird trumpet (Epilobium canum). Then we saw a few flowers of the Gumhead (Gymnosperma glutinosum) which we have seen blooming most months of the year, though its main season seems to be late fall. It was a great treat to see the blue flowers of Stemodia (Stemodia durantifolia). Then there were two more yellow composites: Little lemon head (Coreocarpus arizonicus), and, one of my favorites, Bur marigold (Bidens aurea).
Hummingbird trumpet (picture below – the same with butterflies)
Gumhead
Stemodia
Little lemon head
Bur marigoldWe sat on the warm sand as time disappeared and we felt the healing power of being in the mountains again.