Out of the Grass

For the past few weeks Arizona has been experiencing the beautiful yellow blooms of the Palo Verde tree. It is such a striking scene, the magnificent yellow blossoms bursting along nearly every inch of the green barked desert tree. Then comes the allergies, as its pollen fills the air. If you park under a Palo Verde it can appear as though you've been through a dust storm while traveling down the yellow brick road. Your vehicle, covered by an ultra fine yellow dust, acts like a confetti machine as you drive away - blossoms of yellow shooting off in every direction, and from every nook and cranny, including those places you didn't even know existed on your car. But then, summer arrives, and the Palo Verde loses heart, and really gives up the ghost - at least by way of blossoms. Roads, parking lots, sidewalks, literally anything even near a Palo Verde becomes a blanket of dying yellow flowers. How bad can it be, right? The flower can't be any bigger than a hal