A walk with Maverick

Every morning, Joan and I take Maverick for a reasonably long walk. This house is across the road and a little to the north of Kathleen & Phillip's. Their front garden requires very little water:  succulents and cacti.  

Note the candy-cane Christmas decorations strung with lights. Most of the street opted in to participate and the whole street has a cohesive garland-like string of lights strung on these candy-canes.  It's on both sides of the street! That's the kind of one-block street they live on.  Quite special!

It's winter here, but many plants just keep growing.  Here's a fancy grass that took a foothold in a small crack in the sidewalk. Tenacious or what.

Some bushes have very convoluted flowers.

Next is a blooming crown-of-thorns plant. We've also seen varieties with white flowers.

It was fun having time to make photographs since Maverick is part terrier and spends as much time as possible sniffing his way along our walk.  Here he is, doing what comes naturally.  

More pictures will follow eventually: he doesn't sit as a model very well, preferring to come forward for some loving...

Many properties have these well manicured trees.

Some trees have exceptional bark.

Of course, bougainvillea are starting to bloom and they are almost everywhere.

Here's another plant that we grow as a houseplant 'up North', that grows and blooms well 'down here': the humble jade.

Some ferns are prettier than others...

Here's a plant that I used to have in the greenhouse, decades ago: an aemonium. The thing is, I could never bloom mine...

Here's another small succulent plant with very bright flowers; they line some highways and show huge carpets of white or other bright coloured flowers.

This is a fairly large tree that has very thorny fruit and beautiful red leaves. [you can click on any picture and see them all larger]