Here it is June again!  Hot days and cool nights.  On Thursday last week we were inundated with heavy smoke from the fire just across the state line in New Mexico.  We could not see the Whetstone Mountains just in front of us.  It was like being back in southern California with all that  brownish white smog. It made for some spectacular sunsets.  Even the moon had a pinkish glow for a few nights. That lasted until about yesterday I would say.  Then our constant companion WIND picked up big time and blew much of the smoke away.  So as much as I often curse the wind, there are times when I am grateful for it too.

My tomato plants are getting bigger and are actually producing tomatoes.  It remains to be seen whether or not we will get to enjoy any of them.  There was a good sized one I was watching.  It was starting to turn reddish orange.  I reached around the leaves to see how big it really was and YUCK!  Half of the tomato was already pecked away!  Eaten by birds no doubt!  There are several fruits on each plant now.  I hope they aren't all eaten before they are ripe.  The squash are doing nicely and there are already a few jalepeno peppers on those plants.  I wonder if they will be hotter than the ones in the store.

My geraniums that I transplanted outside are finally blooming like crazy.  So are the petunias.  I also have a large bush in the backyard that I love.  I don't know what it is as it was there before I moved in.  I call it a butterfly bush because it is similar to those.  It's blooms are dark purple and cone shaped.

The saguaro in the front yard is shrinking from lack of rain as it always does this time of year.  One of its branches it also starting to bloom.  As I was taking pictures of the blooms, I noticed a bird at eye level inside the cactus trunk.  I took a picture of the hole, but the bird hid way down inside, too dark down there to get his picture.  

We have been swimming most every afternoon.  It is very refreshing after the temperature hits 100 degrees. I worry about fires and they are popping up all over the West.  We have to hang in there and be extra cautious until the monsoon comes in July, only a few weeks away.