Saturday, May 9, 2009

desert hike

This morning the four of us went for a short hike -- about an hour round-trip. The saguaro and prickly pear cacti are blooming (a once-a-year show) and we all missed it last year, as Chad was traveling in South America, and the girls and I were up in Washington State. It was 97 degrees when we hit the trail at about 10:15 am. The girls did remarkably well. After the hike, we rewarded ourselves with ice cream cones from, as Ingrid puts it, "that Q is for Queen Ice Cream place".
Ilsa was pretty warm and "done" by this point. Ingrid was tired, but not wiped out.

The prickly pear cactus has a beautiful flower that blooms for only one day; they bloom yellow, purple or red, even among the same species. They remind me of those paper flowers we made as kids in grade school art class. The flower dies, and the edible and very sweet fruit then ripens. The juice and pulp from the fruit is widely available here in Almost Mexico, and the prickly pear cactus fruit candy we tried last year (similar to Aplets & Cotlets, you Washingtonians) was delicious.

1 comment:

Yarnjeannie said...

What a lovely area you live in! I would love to visit that part of the country some day. Your family is beautiful!

Have a Happy and Blessed Mother's Day!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...