Enjoying spring...

 

Under the shade of the mesquite tree

It was a nice spring morning with clear skies. The weather made for a delightful stop under my favorite mesquite at the Cactus Garden. 

Just looking around here in San Pedro Valley, mesquite is most often a bush. But if you prune it right you can train it to be a nice shade tree. Our across-the-street neighbor on Lot 259 - back when we first moved to our own lot - was Bud Miner; his wife went by Dot. Bud took it upon himself to tend the Cactus Garden by attacking weeds, planting small cactus, pruning trees, whatever. He was pretty bored I guess because he spent a lot of time making The Cactus Garden what it is. It's my favorite stop on my morning walk. By comparison I find Founder's Park at the opposite end of the same street a rather sterile pole barn (a 35' - 40' roof with no walls).

I believe the space for the Cactus Garden was originally planned to be an RV site but it just wasn't big enough to meet the park's criteria. And besides it would have been a lot of $$ to get power, water, level the sight, and especially a sewer connection for just one space. Plus it would have blocked the view. Speaking of blocking the view...

The view to the East from the park went down the toilet when the zoned development space, which sat empty for something around 20 years, has suddenly sprouted houses. They started building in April 2024 and finished about a year later in early May 2025. Now instead of a clear view of the Dragoon Mountains across the valley we have rooftops to block the scene. The loss of the view is not as bad further up the grade but that's not where we live.

It's not that no one wanted to acquire the property: Mick Meilicke did his best to build some support for that when he chaired the Long Range Planning Committee in about 2011 (?). But his enthusiasm was not reciprocated by enough leaseholders and eventually the construction started. 

And wouldn't you just know that those houses that partially block our view here on the North side of the park stimulated folks on the South side of the park to suddenly care about the view on there side. Now the park owns a largish portion of the pasture and open acreage to the East of the South side of the park- just across the access road that leads into the park from the housing development. A little 'not my problem' to my grumpy and prejudiced eye.