Predator Spring

No that's not a movie, that's my backyard. Tucson is deep in a drought and my yard isn't full of quail families and baby cactus wrens checking for yummy bugs this year.

Around December, a pair of Cooper's Hawks moved in and made a charnel of the earth under one of our mesquite trees. Squab legs & carcasses and woodpecker feathers now decorate my yard. Animals are vulnerable this year because the desert is so parched that you can hear it crackle. Now cats or bobcats and snakes have moved in and I am finding pieces of ground squirrel amongst my roses. A few weeks ago we hosted a king snake, and last night we saw our first baby rattlesnake. And not one family of quail.

We're all praying for rain.

Snake

I have a snake in my garden. It's a scary feeling to be watering or picking weeds and see what you know is a snake out of the corner of your eye.

Once I figured out that I was actually a safe distance I tried to figure out: friend or foe? Triangular head? No. Rattle? No. Diamond patterning? Yes! Oooh, and it is shaking the tip of its tail as if it had a rattle! I've never seen a King Snake do that before.

I look at my watch. My guests are arriving in 15 minutes. What would you do?

Photos of the rose garden

why

Mutabilis means "changeable" in Latin; it is also the name of one of my favorite roses. I think it is a good metaphor for life -- and gardening -- in general.

Here you will find my gleanings on various subjects, but my garden, the Sonoran desert, and travels around the state of Arizona.