Hamlin Moments

  Is Yard Art a reflexion of your hopes and dreams, your subconscious desire to create, your innate hoarding personality, your desire to be cool or a form of unrestricted self-expression? Rust is de rigueur with vintage cars and farm tools making the top of the list.  Metal artists make and sell giant flowering Ocotillo cacti, mama Javelina with babies following (high cuteness factor) and of course the stagecoach pulled by horses. So, ponder this: in several years when the gas combustion engine is no longer manufactured, will we see old car and truck engines become yard art? Each of the pictures below has a story. All are in within a block of my new location in Wickenburg. 

The Roadrunner is not uncommon here in the high desert, but an Audi is rare. It is illegal to kill Roadrunners according to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 but I am told people have tried to eat them. The homage to the Roadrunner now lives on a 2007 Audi A4 with about 87,000 miles on the odometer. Why this 14 year old Audi has only 87,000 miles might be attributed to my general distaste for driving, although I have made numerous trips to the SF Bay area and to Wickenburg from various locations in California.  But,why this 14 year old Audi sports the Roadrunner hommage is happiness. Roadrunners make me smile. They used to visit us in Palm Springs and would walk right into the house when the steel French doors were open. Heaven.  While the vehicle of choice in the high desert is the Jeep, the Audi feel sufficiently juxtaposed to the local culture that it could be considered a freak. The four-door Jeep Wrangler with desert trolling wheels is the local status ride and the open, two-d

Gorgeous day....quiet...sun...the quiet is overwhelming, ....  quail running around on the hill ... bunny rabbits in the yard looking for food...no javelina.... Three days sifting rock from the sandy soil in this area at the entry of the house yielded a lovely place to plant. I carried each bucket of sifted rock to various places on the perimeter of the yard for later use in reconstruction when the fence posts are removed.  (Long story)   The new plant is a Sego palm in whose container a small fan palm took root. The two are conjoined at the root ball, so it was necessary to plant them together. The Sego, since it is a cycad, cannot endure much sun. Hopefully this area facing north may work, I will add several red yucca plants to complete the arrangement.  Ideally the conjoined palm is a dwarf so it doesn't get 30 feet tall although it might be a statement for a future generation.... Next for the watering!  Sego plants do not like much water, but regular palms like water. Sprinkler