Desert Blooms

I was so captivated by the desert blooms that have been popping up everywhere that as soon as I came home from school this afternoon, I grabbed my 40D and Max's 50mm prime lens and ran out to the backyard to snap a few photos of the prettiness.

Bougainvillea in the backyard:

Tiny rosemary buds by the pool:

Aloe in the front yard:

Side yard beauties:

And then, out of nowhere, as I turned a corner... THIS!

One, completely perfect and huge LEMON! Our lemon tree got the worst of last year's freeze and produced not a single flower this past year... or so we had thought. We weren't terribly worried as we'd heard that after a year, trees affected by freeze start to produce fruit again. I have no idea, though, how we missed this guy growing! It was honestly such a surprise to find it (and it looked so goofy there all by itself) that I started laughing out loud.

Our tangelo tree faired much better and is currently bearing its fair share:

What got me most excited were the wee little purple buds you can spot on the left in this lemon tree shot. I'm thinking by this time next year we'll have plenty of lemons. Yipee!