I even thought about just drawing one on the small patio or on the driveway. I like the idea of crushed rock - I could even make my own patio stones with some of the lines... hmm

Feeding birds is a great way to attract little feathers into your yard! :)

I love to imagine that every surface is an altar! It can alter your perception to imagine that *everything* is a surface. For example, being Lakota, I really resonate with Native American culture...I love to string prayer pouches made with tiny bundles of tobacco, corn meal and sage wrapped in fabric- they are strung on a tree. I once saw the coolest tipi made simply with one main pole in the center, and strings coming down to form the tent part. Scarlet runner beans were planted by the strings, and the tendrils were trained to climb up them. These beans grow fast, so in 1 month they had a fully blooming yard tipi! Along those same lines: medicine wheels, dream shields in sticks in the ground, prayer flags, xmas lights, a chimanayo, fountain, gardenia flowers, night blooming jasmine, statues and fairies hidden, wind chimes, arches to separate spaces, small window boxes of kitchen herbs growing. The possibilities are endless!! I always decorate altars using my favorite philosophy of 5 senses. Attempt to focus your altar to honor all the ways we appreciate expression; taste, smell, touch, sound, sight.

bamboo pieces and sticks are good....for sculpture...arbors, tie or nail them together...make crisscross...or stripe designs, anything.

crystal spheres are nice....or any kind of spheres...old bowling balls...glass spheres....they are really nice on the tops of posts....or anywhere really.

hanging lanterns from tree branches....handmade lanterns with stained glass or old tin cans with nail punched designs...

...art mobiles hanging....anything really...use your favourite shapes, colours, fibre etcetera : )

I have a pond with angels lined up all along the back part

I am definately trying to do this now. I purchased a ton of seeds for companion planting but also to draw the right kinda of insects too and away from my garden. I know as well, this will bring hummingbirds and hummingbird moths (which I'd never seen until this year all over the grapefruit tree). I'm so excited to be more interactive with the garden.
Almost makes up for the abismal heat that is to come.

Check with local garden shops and gardening societies to find out what is native (and therefore, needs little water) to your desert home. I am sure the goddess would be very pleased with a space that fosters native flora and fauna rather than one that looks like it should be in England or something. And you have all manner of options for decoration... even if you choose to incorporate, say, things that homour the native people of the land you now live on, don't forget to include things from your own background, to make the space really personal.

It seems that a garden is always a work in progress.