Back home again, in Indiana

Arrived home at 1:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. Every plane out and back was absolutely full. No empty seats - we are all jammed in like sardines in a tin can. Fortunately, my iPod drowned out the crying of the children who also seemed to be in abunance. Good times.

So happy to be home, though!

With some caution I unboxed the cacti and spread them out to dry and enjoy the sun. They seemed to have survived the trip through the USPS just fine. Bob sent a recipe for a mixture of cactus dirt from Cactus John and I will make that up in a garbage bag this weekend and drag it into work next week to be ready for our cactus planting party. Below are the Saguaro pods on my deck railing.

How beautiful they are inside - in researching how we prepare the seeds to grow I found out that the SW Indian tribes make jelly out of the pulp of these pods. And a kind of wine as well. Maybe next time Bob, Debbie, and I can be putting up Saguaro jelly and wine! How delicious that would be with our Klondike bars.

The paper cactus and pine cone cactus (not dog turd cactus - that is politically incorrect so we won't use that name for it) along with some mesquite tree seeds are enjoying the sun as well. I imagine they are mourning the loss of their hot AZ sun and wondering just what the heck happened to them!

And more excitement this morning - I looked out the front window to see two deer strolling down the street. One was antlered and one was not. They weren't in much of a hurry even with Mini barking at them. They usually are in the back of the houses in the woods - munching on my hostas! This is the first time I've seen them wander up the street. This is a bad picture - they were standing still with a puzzled look to them but I think they heard me come out on the porch and thought they had better head back to the trees.