The Gully (Coat Hanger Valley)

coat hangers

I continue to find old wire coat hangers in the gully. Two of the last three I hung on branches as a sort of emblem. They are more attractive than the other debris I find: asphalt, broken glass, bits of construction metal, nails, tin cans, etc. They get dumped in the trash can.

But the San Simeon gully is looking quite nice. I am spending evening hours in my new seating area staring at the palo verde and acacia trees growing in the little valley. I also glance at the rocks carefully arranged on the hillsides, and the blue and green agaves that I thinned from overgrown patches, then planted among the rocks.

The rock pile we inherited is now replaced by our new gully view seating area.

The east side of the gully now has a hillside path, complete with blooming aloes.

Our outdoor living room.

The aloes were taken out from the pond garden. They are now in bloom along the hillside path and elsewhere over the property.

It rained all day last Saturday. Our area got over a half an inch. Today, Tuesday, the ground is still damp and one can still smell and feel the moisture in the air. I can only hope the spring blooms will be plentiful.


If I had to sit in a room and just look at things, I'd get bored really quickly. If I had to sit outside and just look at things, I would be entertained endlessly.

The nice thing about the Sonoran Desert is that it's pleasant to just sit outside, especially mornings, evenings and nights. Days, too, but not so much in the summer. We can call it desert-TV, just like in Australia they call staring at the night sky bush-TV