Monday, April 29, 2019

The Bank and Cactus

We spent much of yesterday working on the bank, again.  It was so steenking hot!  We were fried, it was an early night.  Today we went for a nature walk, there was no power walking this morning, too tired.  It was overcast and very windy, so we could go later than normal when it's really hot.  The desert is now eerily yellow.



See the steps in the background?  That's where we just came from.  Look at the blossoms and buds on the saguaro foreground right.  They are also having a really good bloom.


Yellow, as far as the eye (or the camera) can see.  This is the most yellow the desert has been since we started coming for winters in 2007.


The cactus bloom has been stunning this year.

Prickly pears.










Staghorn chollas.  They are an unattractive plant, but they make such pretty flowers.









This is something we have not seen before.  This is a teddy bear cholla, so named because they look furry.  They are terrible cactus, they sort of leap into your flesh.  The bloom is on for the teddy bears.






The weather was very unsettled all day.  It looked like this for awhile, then the wind really came up, it rained briefly and then the sun came out.  We went for a short walk in the neighborhood in the afternoon.  It's a weird weather pattern for this late in April.


I have no idea what this is.  It's in a neighbor's yard.  It has a pretty wild hair-do.

6 comments:

  1. I am so sad ... I'm missing all those beautiful blooms!!!! Thanks for the pictures!

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  2. What a wonderful, colorful spring you are having!

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  3. the saguaros look like they have on toupees! cactus flowers are so pretty and those green ones on the teddy bears are so unusual.

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  4. I don't know any of these flowers, but the small ones remind me of the occasional flower we would have on a cactus on out windowsill. How excited we would be. Actually, I always had decent success with cactus, and was raising half a dozen or so I'd acquired/been gifted. In the end I gave most away to a friend, and one great specimen to the Cleveland Botanical Garden. And no, I never knew the name of any of them. I had one like the cactus in the lower corner of the last picture. Thorns and all.

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  5. Stunning photos! It looks so pretty there, but I would be nervous with Paisley and all the cacti. I think I read that your heat wave was about to end, and I hope that is the case!

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  6. Snowing here this morning in Lovely Ouray. What contrast a few hundred miles can make. Love those cacti blossoms...prettier than roses!
    mark

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