What a night! Stepping outside this time of year is a marvelous thing for the senses to behold. It’s warm and breezy, perhaps even a little touch of – dare I say it? – rain in the air: a far cry from the oppressive heat that will be here a little over a month from now. The air is sweet and heavy with the fragrance of flowers from the fruit trees (lime and lemon) on our property and those around us. And, whereas just a few weeks ago one could step outside and hear only the sound of planes cruising overhead as they begin their final approach to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (25 minutes away), now they’re joined by the sound of central air units and pool filters humming away as people’s properties start gearing up for the summer that lies just ahead.

This past winter was a rough one for the flora and fauna in our backyard. In the picture below, taken last October, you can see the fullness of the palm tree by the swimming pool and the bushes along the wall down towards the mesquite tree all the way back. You might also be able to make out (sorry, I’m not the photobloggers Rob and Dave are) smack dab in the center of the picture, two (it looks like one, but, trust me, there’s another behind it) fence-post cactus that we planted to greet people stepping out onto our patio.

I was comparing that picture to what was out there this evening, and, well, the palm tree right now is struggling – the lower set of leaves all had to be pruned after the freeze, but at least there’s some new growth appearing up top so it still looks like a palm tree. As for the fencepost cactus, you can see better in this picture (along with a not-so-obvious tiki bar) that they were pretty cool looking in their prime.

Well, the hard freeze we took in late January really did a job on them, causing the tops of both plants (above the strapping) to have withered and shrunk into a lovely brown-black. Carmelo the landscaper says he’s going to “deadhead” the cactus as soon as the hot weather comes in, and says they should be fine. We’ll see.