When we got back from our three-week vacation, we discovered that the Devil’s Tongue Barrel Cactus was covered with flowers and buds. It is sure to put on a good show as second spring arrives in our part of Arizona.
This cactus was in a pot when we lived in California, but now it is in the ground in my rock and cactus garden. It sure seems happy to be in the Arizona Desert!
We briefly stopped at Petrified Forest National Park this morning on our way to view the All American Solar Eclipse. Our route takes us by several interesting and beautiful places. This panoramic image was made from five 1.333 aspect images combined into the wide-angle view.
Click on the image to enlarge for the full sized panorama. Use the scroll bars to view.
Verna took this photo today of some cumulus clouds building up east of us with the big saguaro and ocotillo in the foreground. We have been getting storms since Thursday of this week and expect them to continue until Monday according to the National Weather Service.
This evening, we are surrounded by thunder cells with lightning very frequent. We were out in the courtyard a few minutes ago when the International Space Station passed overhead and visible to us through the gaps in the clouds. Very entertaining!
Last evening, we were in the courtyard after some light rainfall. When we looked west, we saw this nice array of colors. I went inside to get my camera to capture this nice colorful cloudscape. Click on the image to enlarge.
About a month ago, this Astrophytum was in bloom. Yesterday and today, it has open flowers again. This cactus seems to have flowers several times a year like our Bishop’s Cap Cactus.
The latter, unfortunately, has not had flowers this year. We have had that cactus for almost twenty years and maybe it’s through with flowers.
This week we bought a bunch of cut pink daisies for the vase along with some purple flowers whose name we don’t know. The colors went well with each other, so I didn’t really care about what they were called.
The flower concession used to label their flowers but lately they have only been stamping them as “cut flowers, monochromatic.” Regardless, we love to have flowers no matter if we know what they are or not.
