Drying Apples...and Backyard Visitors

When I was a child and we visited my Grandmother in Alabama, we often saw our Grandmother drying apples from the trees in her yard.  Later we savored wonderful fried apple pies made with some of the dried fruit.  My Mother followed the tradition of drying apples and making fried pies.  And, for me, there is no better way to preserve the wonderful Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples we bought at Apple Annie's!

I am even using one of the two paring knives I own that belonged to my Grandmother!  I love the old knives and reach for them before any other when I am in the kitchen!

Practicing keeping the apple peel all in one piece!

All lined up on the cookie sheet and ready to be placed outside in the hot Arizona sunshine!

Here they are under a screen to protect them from flies.

I even made a little apple juice from the peels...our grandson tried it and said it didn't taste like much of anything. :-)

A visitor comes to the hummingbird feeder...we still get a lot of hummingbirds....

I have learned the name of this lovely bush that grows in my neighbor's yard and peeks over the wall....it is called Orange Bells (tecoma hybrid) and was where I first saw the hummingbirds when we moved in and I hadn't hung the feeder yet.

We get lots of geckos in the yard as well!

I woke up early this morning and was rewarded by a visitor I have been trying to capture with my camera even when we were staying at our daughter's!  This is the Gila Woodpecker, and look at what he loves to do! :-)  Also, he makes a noise like a dog's squeaky toy so you always know he's out there (not a very sneaky bird) but he is very skittish and that's why I've had such a hard time catching him in the act!

Now, I have to apoligise for these next pictures....I was in my bedroom looking out the window and saw a bird feeding happily beneath a weed in my sandy yard.  Every once in a while it would jump up and peck at the seeds on the weed's "branch."  I had never seen a bird do that before, and tried to catch him in the act.  But, alas, he didn't cooperate (and neither did my shoddy photography skills!)  But, here at least are a couple of the shots I was able to get...Hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween!

Catalina State Park

Not too far from our home in the foothills of the beautiful Santa Catalina Mountains is a wonderful state park.  We took a drive out there a couple of Sundays ago to see what they had to offer.  It looks like a fabulous place to do some hiking and camping, or to just go for an afternoon picnic!  I know it will offer many wonderful photography opportunities in the future, as well!

And here is a roadrunner we happened upon!  Roadrunners are fun...we used to see them occasionally when we lived in Texas.  This one is cutting through the campsites.  They CAN fly, but they are kind've like chickens in that regard....they won't fly very high and they prefer not to.  Usually you just see them winging their way up to a low branch.  Like I said...they are a lot like chickens.:-)  But, seeing them dash across the landscape is the real treat.  This guy didn't dash though while we were watching.  He thought we couldn't see him in the shade under that tree.

And I will leave you with a view of a dust devil we came upon on our way to Willcox last weekend...

A Trip To Apple Annie's!

On Saturday we took our grandson to Willcox (about an hour and a half away) to Apple Annie's, a very special orchard and pumpkin farm!  We had a fantastic time! First we stopped at the Visitor Center which was excellent (well worth a stop for those of you planning a trip to this area!)  The butterfly bush just outside was covered with butterflies and bees, too!

 We had some great apple-wood grilled hamburgers for lunch, and then checked out the bakery.  We weren't able to do any picking because they hadn't had a good crop this year, but pink lady apples and granny smiths were available for sale, and we bought some....

and we checked out the donut operation (YUM!)

 Then, as we pulled away from the orchards, I stopped and took this shot of some pink lady apples on the tree.

The pumpkin patch (if you can call these acres a patch!) was a few miles down the road!  First, our grandson wanted to check out the cotton field. 

And there were acres of sweet peppers and other produce, as well as a large patch of wonderful sunflowers!

Then it was on to a special treat--the corn maze!  This corn maze is well known in AZ and is HUGE!  It was a lot of fun!

 See our grandson WAY down there...

Which way do we go????

You had questions to answer at each juncture, and if you got the qestion wrong...UH OH!

This is the maze schematic!  You can choose beginner, intermediate or challenge....our intermediate run lasted about 20 minutes!

And then it was time to choose a pumpkin out of the field....

This one...no, this one!

Did I say A pumpkin!  We couldn't help it...there were just So Many!!!!

It was a fun, fun day....

Some Interesting Visitors!

We were busy settling in when we noticed a pair of cactus wrens lighting on the loveseat still outside on the porch.  They peered in the window as if to say, "Hey, who's moving in?"

 Here is another one on the barrel cactus out front...

Then a few days ago when I went out to water my container garden I noticed some scat in the sand of my back yard.  Since there is a fence all the way around the yard, I was a little surprised that we had had a visitor.....

(Yes, I actually took a picture of some "doodie!")

And then upon examining the wooden portion of the fence, I realized I shouldn't be so amazed!

Oh well...there is a pretty steep bank behind the house and after looking up the shape and size of the scat in a book we have of animal tracks and signs, we thought perhaps there is a kit fox den in the hilly rocky bank behind the fence.  Maybe....

And then there was another very flashy visitor, but not to our yard.  This lovely Scarlet Tanager showed up at the park!  At first I took a couple of quick shots in case he flew away...

 And here are his close-ups, Mr. DeMille!

This was the first one I had ever seen, and it was quite a thrill!