A beautiful winter's day in The Tropical Paradise

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It's December 28th and it's another beautiful day in paradise here in Glendale, Arizona. It's at this time of the year that I remember that tourists are here just for the weather, and Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, as you can see, is making the most of it.

It's 60 degrees (F), no wind, and not a cloud in the sky. Absolutely gorgeous. The forecast is for rain tomorrow, but I'll believe it when I see it. We do get rain in the winter, but not much.

As you can see, most of the yard is shaded by the afternoon (it's 12:30 as I write this). The sun is low in the south, so the shade falls to the north, where the grassy area is. The southern part of my backyard is just the area of the path to the side of the house, and the low-lying area where water drains during heavy rain. This means that sunshine in my backyard is scarce in the winter!

The plant that you see in the foreground is a Dioon spinulosum cycad. The two cycads behind Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, up on the slope are Dioon edules. The tree is an Olea europaea, an olive tree. The grass that she is sitting on is artificial. The bush in the upper right is Tecoma capensis, Cape Honeysuckle, a native of South Africa.

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