Wordless Wednesday (Saguaro Hike)

(note the changing light: from afternoon to late afternoon)

Juxtapositions & Antidotes

I think you can tell which is which, right? How odd--desert cacti against glaciers (well, icicle wall anyway.) A juxtaposition I've never had a chance to see, much less photograph. I may need to play with this idea a bit more!

And even while the entry way tends towards quite cool (I'm about to move all my orchids to a warmer place) the geraniums love this micro climate and have burst into bloom. I thank them for the antidote to winter!

Blossoms and Other Hanging Things

Help! I'm a prisoner in an icy cage that's growing every day. Aren't these icicles amazing & beautiful!?

In fact, I must have some pretty major issues with the gutters here because icicles hang in front of many of my windows now.

And although it was brilliantly sunny for awhile today, the temperature began at 8 degrees and warmed all the way up to....18! Not too much melting going on.

I wanted to juxtapose the hanging ice with the hanging cactus blooms, but I just couldn't find a perspective to do that from. This USED to be an Easter Cactus, but it changed it's calendar. It's an older plant that I got from one of my favorite senior citizen neighbors a long time ago in my Iowa days...so I call it "Marie's cactus." In fact, she had an enormous specimen of this cactus and I grew mine from some small bits that broke off while I was re potting it for her in about 1999.

Such interesting forms.

This is possibly my favorite orchid because I adore chartreuse!

And wow did I ever hit a bull's eye for this year's poinsettias! I tend to favor the salmon pink ones over red or white...so when I found these two big healthy (& matched) ones, to use in my "snow sleigh pot holder" for a grand total of $7...thought I had died and gone to (flower) heaven. My entryway here seems a perfect micro climate for poinsettias and they usually look good all the way to June, so finding the perfect pair is worth the effort!

Tonight's the Night

The amazing flower only lasts for one night. One bud, maybe two, per year. My pair of night blooming Cereus' were a gift from an artist in Tucson when I taught there in 1998. She went into her yard and cut a couple of pieces (arms!) off and told me to plant them. Here, they live in large pots, mostly indoors, in south windows. They have bloomed without fail every summer since I brought them home, miles north from the desert, far away from their native land. The moth that is drawn to them during this one special night, to help pollination, probably doesn't live in our area; at least the cacti have never set seed.

They just offer a couple of nights of amazement, as each of one, two or three buds takes their turn. And tonight is the night.