Spring is here and pretty soon the birds will have plenty to eat even without my feeders. So here's a look back at some of the birds I was able to photograph this past winter.
The cardinal and the white-throated sparrow: 
The red-bellied woodpecker: 
The sharp-shinned hawk perched on ice-covered branches: 
And a robin enjoying a bath during a mild spell: 
And here's a close-up of the hawk:
I went out to the kitchen garden last week to have a look around and took a few photos. The one of the dead zinnia 'profusion' plants was an interesting monochromatic study, I thought. It's a color photo but looks to be a black & white one. Then I walked around outside of the kitchen garden and found a bunch of bittersweet berries in among the wildlife thickets that I've kept uncultivated. I don't know if this is the native bittersweet (good) or the non-native, probably invasive Japanese type (bad). Well, which ever one they are, they are a bit of welcome color in the winter-dead landscape.
I found it at Costco! Relatively cheap as orchids go but I'm having trouble figuring out what kind it is because there was no identifier with it. Right now, I've got it sitting on my kitchen table where it gets a lot of bright light. From what I know, that's what most orchids need--not direct sun, but lots of bright light. I really like its color--a nice, soft purple instead of the much more common brilliant fuchsia. 
This stuff is amazing. It's really nutritious, tastes good, easy to cook, decorative in the kitchen garden, isn't fazed by hot, humid summers, and shrugs off the first few frosts of late Autumn. Oh, and it's easy to start from seed right in the bed. I just cut a bunch of it to have as part of Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. The stems are like cooked celery (but less stringy) and the leaves cook just like spinach. This is Swiss Chard 'Bright Lights' with stems of red, orange, yellow and white.
This summer has been taking a long time to wind down and that's fine with me. Yesterday I was out in the kitchen garden and saw three Painted Lady butterflies on my Zinnia Profusion 'cherry' and 'apricot' that I started from seed. Those two colors were just perfect backdrops for this particular butterfly:
My husband and I made a short trip to the Phoenix area of Arizona a couple of weeks ago. One of the highlights was visiting the Desert Botanical Garden outside of Phoenix. I've never been particularly enamored of desert environments or flora, but I have a new appreciation now. This Great Horned Owl was watching everything:
Some desert flowers:
landscape near the re-constructed Gila River:
We call them green beans or string beans here. I sowed a French fillet type of green bush bean, which, according to the seed packet, is a variety popular for the Japanese luxury restaurant market. I'm on my second sowing. I picked a bunch and sautered them in olive oil and minced garlic. For the last minute I added several halved cherry tomatoes--also picked that morning. It was good! These beans are meant to picked when they are nice and thin and no more than 5 inches long. 
