Post Grand Canyon Hiking Poolside Yoga

It was 62F here yesterday, sunny, with almost no breeze.  Warm enough to do post-GC-hike yoga poolside, next to the lavender. The honey bee girls were voraciously gathering lavender pollen, and not paying attention to me on the yoga mat a meter away, except for one stray who landed on my arm, which I accidentally swatted into the pool.  She proved a strong swimmer, and made it to the edge in a few seconds, dried off in the sunshine, and returned to her benevolent pollen gathering.

After the hike on Wednesday night, and again on Thursday, we did some stretching, but immediate soreness was overwhelming.  By Friday, being fully ambulatory, I found the weather and solar warmth an irresistible combination.  The stretching was especially helpful for the quads, calves, triceps and shoulders (trekking poles took a toll).

The Aloe is putting up a fight, but the hybrid lavender's progress is inexorable.

While the Spanish lavender has not yet come into bloom, the hybrid lavender laughed at the recent frosts, and is winning a pitched battle with the neighboring aloe competition and the creeping progress towards reaching to pool itself.  Hard to believe the lavender "hedges" we have now poolside were just 4 small 1/2 gallon containers less than 2 years ago.  Thank you Elgin Nursery for your excellent plant stock!  About once a month, I have to take hedge shears to the lavender to arrest it's pool-ward progress.  Attempts at preserving / displaying in a vase / admiring cut lavender have proven futile, as the bloom stems are much too fragile and wilting sets in within an hour after cutting, shedding purple blossom petals all around the vase.

My girlfriend Anna (or one of her daughters perhaps?) has returned to hang out in the safety of our ocotillo this Winter.  She tolerated my photographing her quite well. letting me get to within a meter from her before she got too nervous.  The spiky ocotillo makes a very safe avian refuge, as you can see below.