Fabulous Friday - Into the Desert

On our recent adventure in Arizona, we met Sharon from Phoenix Daily Photo at Desert Botanical Gardens. I had never been in the gardens before.  The last time I was in Phoenix, I saw some small mountains, large rocks in the distance, and drove out that way to see what was there.  Just past the peaks, is the entrance to the gardens, we arrived just as the gardens were closing for the night.  I made a mental note that I needed to visit at the next opportunity.  And this was the next opportunity. 

The desert landscape has long fascinated me.  It must relate to time spent there as a child, my family spent a winter in Phoenix when I was 6 years old (a long time ago.) My father loved the landscape, and the skies.  There is something about the blue in those skies. 

It is winter in the desert, the weather was cool, maybe even cold overnight, warming in the sun for a spectacular afternoon. Arizona has recently had heavy rain, the landscape is just starting to green, and bloom.  Without large numbers of deciduous trees the change of seasons in the desert is subtle, but beautiful.  Summers are brutal, a friend of mine who has lived in Phoenix for 40 plus years said, "we have summer to weed out the weak." And even in the peak of summer, a two hour drive north into the mountains and the terrain and climate change dramatically.

There will be a photo dump sometime soon of the gardens, it was a fabulous stroll and an amazing place.  Until next time the photos and memories will remind me just how fabulous it is.