this year's nests--hummingbirds in the AZ Sonora Desert Museum aviary

...another out-of-town guest, another visit to the AZ Sonora Desert Museum this past weekend...we hadn't been since my wife's parents came last spring...and just like last year, we ended up timing it right for hummingbird nest-viewing:

 ...I didn't get any 'baby-feeding-shots' like last year, but still--it always feels like a treat to be able to see these birds and their nests up close...

 ...some claret-cup cacti in bloom...

 ...and in the other aviary, this male white-winged desert dove:

 ...we'd never seen one of these doves act this way; evidently he was trying to impress the ladies...

...and, on an evening walk in Sabino Canyon with our out-of-town old-family-friend the following evening:

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This out-of-town friend is much more than just a friend; she's known me since I was a little kid in Germany...long story, but she's now lived in Guatemala for several years...

Her home there became our home-away-from-home during our year of living in Nicaragua.

This is the view that she'll return to when she flies back down to Central America:

 The Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango volcanoes, to the northwest of Guatemala City, as seen from the approach to the airport....and, below, Pacaya, the country's most active volcano, as seen from our friend's neighborhood: