Yikes! What are these things? And where did they come from? They weren't here when we left.

It's the drought, my gardener says. All over Tucson, the Desert Spoons are shooting spikes.

The spikes are huge, over ten feet high. If we'd been here, we could have literally watched them grow. (That would have been scary) It's all very Day of the Triffids. When the wind blows the spikes wave back and forth, terrifying Bao.

They'll eventually flower, and go to seed. So even if the parent plants don't survive, their offspring will be able to wait around until it rains. Which is more than I can say for us. Arizona is not well-placed to survive global warming. Our aquifiers are already tapped out, fuel prices are soaring and let's face it -- southern Arizona without air conditioning is not an option, unless you're a rattlesnake.

People are still arguing about global warming. That seems silly. It's happened before, and it'll happen again. Personally, I think it would make more sense to focus on what we're going to do and how we're going to cope, rather than how to stop it. I don't think we can stop it, just as we can't stop Yellowstone from erupting. And that's happened before, too.