before summer sets in and burns everything to a crisp

Summer time is rushing at us in Arizona. Last Saturday topped off in triple-digit temps. Today, however, we had rain. RAIN! Our yard was blooming all over the place in preparation this morning. Grant and I went out and took some pictures. We finally have had a gardenia open up. The lantana bushes are taking over. The oleander tree is thick with pink. There is fruit on the vines in the garden and on the grape vines growing up along the back of the pool fence. Lots of fruit set on the orange and grapefruit trees. For all the blooms we got on the lemon tree, only one set. It was very perplexing. But Cori fertilized it and we have been diligently deep watering it. It leafed back out and has some new blooms on it. Here's hoping. The mango tree is still pint sized. But considering it nearly died and was reduced to a twig with one emaciated leaf barely clinging to it, we are pretty proud of its progress. 

the mango tree - it will be a glorious sight in about 15 years

the lone lemon

In other fertile news, we welcomed 8 (or so) new little bundles to our fish tank a few months ago. It wasn't a planned addition. The kids took their allowance money to PetCo and came home with three new fish. About a week later, one of the fish was a lot thinner and there were just under a dozen little baby fish flitting around near the surface of the tank water. As it ends up, there are some 3 breeds of fresh water fish that give live birth. We unknowingly bought one that happened to be pregnant. There are two males that were born in the school, and they spend all day agressively pursuing the females in the tank. I'm thinking about giving PetCo a call to see if they would be interested in buying some back from us. At $3 a pop, we could be onto something here. Mama is looking a little portly again these days. And the other breeds of fish in the tank seem to be getting systematically eliminated... Pictured above, the proud mama. Pictured below, one of the brightly-colored scoundrels determined to impregnate the whole tank.