Wildflowers!

I went on a quick hike in Usery Mountain Regional Park yesterday and was shocked to see a lush green belt and wildflowers everywhere already! I guess we can thank the rainy/snowy February we had. It was beautiful and it's not too hot out yet.

Just a few pictures. My camera was running low on battery:

 

Superstitions Hike

My mom and I went hiking in the superstitions on Thursday. The weather was amazing! 

My mom looking at a dead saguaro.

Ever since I was a little kid, we've always looked for saguaros with downturned arms. You're supposed to meditate in between them and they're supposed to create an energy vortex. This saguaro was particularly cool because it's downturned arms were so long that they almost touched the ground. It's rare to see them with downturned arms and I've never seen one with arms this long.

They arms were so close to the ground that I had a good opportunity to get a macro shot of the top of one.

This picture gives a good size perspective. This is what a hiking outfit in the desert looks like if you have really fair skin: Long sleeve shirt (or loads of greasy sunscreen applied every two hours), Camelback (well, that's for any skin tone really lol), SPF rated floppy hat (or loads of greasy sunscreen in your scalp...eww). I know it's geeky, but I didn't get a suburn lol. Yes, in Phoenix you need sunscreen in the middle of the winter.

So pretty. I love the grass.

Mom posing in front of the mountain.

The view part way up the mountain.

The mountain up close.

I'm fascinated by the one lone tree on the ridge.

A desert wildflower.

Panorama view from the mountain.

New Painting

I felt randomly inspired on Monday night and decided to work on a new painting. Here's my progress so far: