Smoking narghile with toads in Arivaca

Note that the title is smoking narghile with toads not smoking toads in the narghile. It was merely mint flavored maassel, not toad flavored. As much as I like exotic things, I have refrained from toad smoking. In Queensland it is evidently a major drug problem. Given the poor state of toad smoking addicts there I have no desire to join them.

The other night I was out on the Gazeebo smoking narghile and reading Sacred Clowns by Tony Hillerman when the toads visited me again. I think they might be the same toads. There was a small one and then two big ones. They came to eat the moths drawn by the Christmas lights.

The toads are only some of the strange animals living here. There are also lizards that run on their hind legs, bats, snakes and jack rabbits. That only covers the creatures I have actually seen. I still have not seen any scorpions or rattlers.

The plants are also exotic. There are lots of Cacti. The prickly pears with their bright purple fruit which makes a very tasty glaze are everywhere. Then there are the short barrel cacti pointing south west with their yellow and red flowers. Finally, there are the great big pipe organ cacti.

I really like the landscape of this region of the South West. I have been able to get a fair amount of writing done early in the morning. I usually write one page a day on my cotton paper and two pages a day on Catherine's Grandchildren. I think the natural ecology has been helpful in increasing my writing output.