Mission gardens and desert flora

Coloring of the sky was gorgeous for a couple of minutes when the sun came up this morning. Briefly afrerwards a balloon passed our house, then more clouds came up.

Didn't know in the morning that we'll drive about 70 mi /130 km during the day to get from point A to B, but Tucson is spread out, and, though downtown is pretty compact and walkable, it takes quite a bit of time to get from West (where we are) to East and vice versa. Many interesting neighborhoods on the way, too!

First stop: Mission Garden, never been there before. It's a living agricultural museum of heritage fruit trees, traditional local heirloom crops and edible native plants. The garden is located at the foot of Sentinel Peak, the so-called "A Mountain", at the site of the Native American village of Cuk Ṣon, sacred to the Tohono O'odham. There are sections with native plants, referring to the ancient Hohokam and the modern O’odham, a medicinal garden, a mexican garden and many more. 

The area is one of the longest known areas of continuous cultivation in the U.S., and, stewarded by the Tohono O’odham people. Today a "citrus tasting" took place, with fruits growing on the grounds. And, a roadrunner showed up as well:

 

Next stop: Sandia's Pottery (left) with beautiful Talavera (Mexican) pottery. Just a bit too heavy to carry home on the plane,,, 

Further east: The Rincon Mountain District of Saguaro National Park, also a "first" for us. Other than the western section (where we are staying), this unit ranges from an elevation of 2,670 ft to 8,666 ft and contains more different eco zones: desert scrub, desert grassland, oak woodland, pine-oak woodland, pine forest and mixed conifer forest. Also, it gets more annual precipitation than the western section surrounded by the Tucson Mountains. 

 

Oh, well, wish we could stay longer and go on more hikes to be able to easily identify all the different cacti, shrubs and trees, but we tried hard to figure them all out! Saguaro, on top below:

 

Cylindropuntia - Red Cholla

Suicide Cacti - Ferocactus suicide

Cylindropuntia fulgida, jumping or hanging chain cholla

Teddy bear cholla

Dead cholla

Rotting cholla

Pincushion cactus survivor (above) and fishhook spikes

It's been a mix of clouds and sun today, around 70/21 deg F/C. After an interesting hike (without many people) on Freeman Homestead Trail in the Rincon Unit of the park, we left, and, on the way back west we stopped a couple of times - visited a huge thrift store, our favorite supermarket Sprout's, a big record store and Whole Foods to get a seed catalogue - before we called it a day in our cottage. Cooked a big pot of Posole with the ingredients (hominy - corn, green chile, tomatoes, beef, onions and garlic, plus avocado, cilantro, lemon, tacos) we bought yesterday at the Mexican Supermarket. Will be enough for another two dinners!

Just after dinner it started raining! Rincon mountains in the dark clouds (see above). Hasn't been in the forecast! First it started in the eastern mountains, later, also here. Boy, never have smelt rain so intensely. The desert floor and the plants - especially the creosote trees – suddenly were so fragrant! They needed the water, it hasn't rained for a long time.