Flowers and Snow Herald the Start of 2019

Saguaro National Park West, 1/1/2019

Snow is rare but not really too unusual in the Tucson Mountains. But the beginning of 2019 is also marked by a profusion of blooming Brittle Bush, Desert Marigolds, even some blooming Ocotillos. Along interstate 8, we saw carpets of purple Sand Verbena on our Christmas trip to San Diego. I have not seen so many flowers and snow together in other years, even though the snow often arrives here in late February.
But the insects that are usually visiting those blooming bushes are nowhere to be seen.  So the early flowers may herald a really great wild flower spring for 2019, but the normal rhythms seem quite disturbed.