After completing the horse chores, I decided to take a walk and photograph the new green.  This time two weeks ago, everything except the juniper trees was brown and dry.  Some of the native bushes had not even shown their usual spring leaves.  Many plants in arid and semi-arid environments lie dormant until the rains come.  Five inches in five days transformed the landscape here.  And it brought out hordes of mosquitoes, but that’s another story.

A wildflower, sundrops, a type of primrose, grows in even dry hard soil as you can see here.

A few sundrops had even come out before the rain, but many more are visible now.

Hard to believe the sudden greenness.  What a difference water makes.

Three species of juniper grow where I live.  Some people have told me these trees are hundreds of years old.

Looking across the canyon from my house I see various cavelike places such as the one here.  Great places for the foxes, coyotes, and bobcats to live.

Blackfoot daisies, tough, drought tolerant, enduring, a favorite because they grow everywhere and anywhere all summer.  When they appear among flowers and bushes I have actually planted, I just leave them there.  They provide a kind of perky joy.

Green everywhere and they predict thunderstorms for the next several days.  At 100 degrees today, the green would not last long without more rain.

These little red spots appeared in clusters here and there everywhere as I strolled around.  I think they are the beginnings of a plant but I have no idea what.

Both lavender and catmint do well here.  In the background last year thyme spread everywhere, but for the first time in several years, it died out over the winter.

Mexican bird of paradise, also called desert bird of paradise, is one of my favorites.  This is just the beginning of a truly spectacular bloom.

In the background Greek oregano grows.  Along my rock retaining wall Mediterranean plants seem to grow well.

Blackfoot daisies growing in native grass.  All this was brown except for the daisies two weeks ago.

Most of the flowers which do well here or are wild seem to be purple or yellow.  Salvia does well, but it is barely in bloom.

A type of dalea, this very drought tolerant shrub grows everywhere wild around my place.  If there is no rain, it does nothing and looks dead.

This is another plant that looked dead two weeks ago and then suddenly a couple of day ago came out in full bloom.  I have looked through two wildflower books and still remain uncertain as to the name of this plant.  If some reader out there knows, please email me the name or comment on this post.

Living here on the rim of wonder gives me great joy.