The Retail Apocalypse

Yesterday was our last retail foray.  One of the issues of living where we do is that we're in a food desert.  There are stores within 10 miles, but they're not great.  Grocery stores tend to reflect their local demographic in the quality of the items they carry.  Which is not to say the local people are of low quality, it's just that they're not offered higher quality more expensive items.  We've noticed that in the bakery department, everything in there seems to consist of palm oil and sugar and looks like industrial food.  Since we were asked to bring dessert to our friends' house for dinner a trip north was required.

La Encantada is an outside mall smack dab in the middle of a wealthy part of town.  They have a Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma, Crate and Barrel, Johnny Was, and a West Elm will be opening in the spring.  It's going to be a huge West Elm.  The grocery store prices are just ridiculous, avocados are $3 each, vs. four for $5 in the south end.  They're all from Mexico.  Anyway, it was pleasant to see the Christmas decorations.  They also have some lovely cactus there.

I love how this guy is pupping.

This is similar to my Opuntia Gumby.  They could be cousins.

An Agave Parryi, also known as an Artichoke Agave.  We have a prickly pear cactus in the front yard that's not looking so good, so we've been eyeing these as a replacement if he expires from natural causes.

However, look at this bad boy!  There is a lot going on here.  This might be a more interesting specimen to have.  We have yet to find a nursery that carries cool looking plants instead of the cactus you see everywhere.

Dessert was obtained and we fled the area.  There will be no entering of stores until Friday or so.  Hopefully we bought enough food so we can hunker down and wait for the retail nonsense to die down.  Unfortunately it's pouring rain most of this week.  There will be no restorative walks in the desert, which is kind of a bummer.

It's dark here!  The driveway lights are controlled by a light sensor and they were on until 10:00.  None of the solar lights worked well yesterday, and I doubt if they'll come on at all today.