Thursday, May 17

While out walking together, the boys and I pass this oleander hedge. It’s too bad that oleander is poisonous to pets because it does make a beautiful screen for one’s property.

I’d like a privacy fence around our back yard.  

I thought it’d be easy to choose the type (not so easy to pay for it!).  For years I’ve seen several, attractive fence panels  at stores like Lowe’s or Home Depot.

Since becoming an Arizona homeowner I’ve learned that not all fencing is appropriate for the intense sunshine and heat of the region.

You know how it is when you become interested in something, suddenly you see it everywhere?

Not so with vinyl fencing.  

It doesn’t hold up well in Arizona.  Wood fences are okay but they may require maintenance.  That’s why you see block walls or stucco walls around homes instead.

A neighbor does have a cedar fence for privacy.  One day I ask him about it. He says he treated it with linseed oil when it was installed in the mid-90s and hasn’t done anything more with it since then.  It still looks pretty good.

~ ~ ~

I remember when I first came west.

I was camping with my original crew of Bridget and Spike at Santa Rosa State Park, New Mexico, utilizing that state’s great, annual camping pass.

While we’re on our way to Santa Rosa from the campground, the PTV takes us through cheerful, yellow flowers on the roadside.  It’s like those flowers are cheering for us.  (You see, I’m in the glow of being a newbie full-time RVer, where all the senses are heightened. Lots of oohing and ahhing).

I park on the shoulder to take a photo.  

I put the photo in my blog post of September 2, 2011 (only a couple weeks on the road) with the caption, “A yellow flower leans over and plants a kiss on the PTV!”

Here’s a link to the post:  “Still kickin’ around Santa Rosa, NM.”

That particular day comes to mind as the crew and I ride the Perfect Tow Vehicle today because again we’re on a road lined with flowers.  The large white blossoms sway in the breeze atop their three-foot-tall stems.

At the DesertUSA website, I identify them as prickly poppies (Argemone pleicantha).

Oh, gosh, here I go . . . 

Coveting my neighbor’s goods again.  In this case, I have my eye on a saguaro in his front yard.  It doesn’t have any arms yet, but, man, is it putting forth the buds!

No one lives at the property.  Even so, I’m not going over there with my camera.  Instead I zoom in on the saguaro’s blooms from our yard.

This is the kind of thing I look forward to seeing this summer and sharing with you. I’ll be sure to take another photo when the saguaro is in full bloom.

This week’s weather has been perfect for painting the porch railing.

Thermometers read mid-90s in the afternoon.  However, in the shade of our porch it’s pleasant and balmy.  I start early, around 7 a.m., because later in the day the breeze often becomes stronger and blows dust and pine needles into the paint.

I’m enjoying the project.  It’s more like therapy than work.

Reggie, Roger and I finally go to the transfer station.

I have a lot of trash and yard clippings to get rid of.  The seller of this house left five big wooden pallets that I’ll have to break down in order to fit them into the PTV (thanks, pal!), plus a pile of pine boughs and a large bin full of heavy trash.  It will take several loads before I’m rid of it all.

Then there are the many plastic jugs I used to hold water for boondocking.  Today I toss them into the recycling trailer.  They’re easily and inexpensively replaced.

When all the trash and yard debris is cleared out, I’ll sign up for regular, weekly, trash pick-up.

So goes the transition from boondocker to homeowner.

With slight tugs, I pull the shawl of modern-day comfort more snugly around our lives.

rvsue

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“. . . a kiss on the PTV!”

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