Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

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California Cacti Acquisition

Cactus Number One Cactus Number Two Cactus Number Three

On our recent excursion to the California Desert, we were honored to meet up with long-time reader and commenter Crotalus, who was kind enough to present us with these three beautiful examples of cacti from his collection. We transported them to the Arizona desert where they seem to be doing quite well.

In our hasty meeting (we were packing up to head home) I was not able to record their proper binomial names, so I will (for the time being) just refer to them as our California Cacti number one, two and three. You can click on any one of the three images above to enlarge to full size.

We are already planning our next visit to the Palm Desert area to meet with our kids and the other set of Grandparents to the new little grandson. By then, we may be able to meet up with Crotalus again to properly identify the varieties of these cacti.

26 Sep 2015 by Blogosphere California Home & Garden Photography

Second Spring

While most of the northern hemisphere marks the beginning of fall, we, here in the Arizona Desert celebrate the beginning of “Second Spring.” The summer monsoons are gone and the flowers are opening again.

Here are three open flowers on my Devil’s Tongue Barrel Cactus with several more flower pods set to open:

Devil’s Tongue Flowers

This Star Cactus flower was open when we got home from California:

Star Cactus Flower

Finally, a lone flower blossomed atop one of the Buckhorn Cholla in the west cactus garden:

Cholla Flower

Click on any image to enlarge.

25 Sep 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Wickenburg Chamber of Commerce Poster

Wickenburg PosterLast February, we bought a colorful poster from the town Chamber of Commerce for twenty bucks. We intended to get it mounted and framed, but as life events dictate (read procrastination), we put it off until last week when we took the poster to the shop in town that framed our bathroom mirrors; we asked them to mount it and frame it suitable for hanging.

The poster, itself, has a collage of notable events, people and other things that define our quaint old western town. Things like our founder, Henry Wickenburg, the Vulture Gold Mine that he discovered and a plethora of artistic and graphic depictions of local lore.

We got the call from the framers yesterday on our way back from grocery shopping, so we stopped in the shop and picked up the masterpiece. We both think it looks great and it is now proudly hanging on the south wall in the guest bedroom.

Click on the image to enlarge.

04 Sep 2015 by Arizona Arts Home & Garden

Hummingbird at the Feeder

Hummingbird at the Feeder

I have a couple of these feeders outside the back patio screen. This summer, I have had to refill them more often than I seem to recall having done so in the past. The tiny birds browse them all day long and into the evening when it’s almost dark.

This little visitor was white with gray and green tones in his feathers. I have no idea what the name of this variety of hummingbird might be, but it is a cute little guy helping itself to what’s left in the east feeder. The bird and feeder were about five or six feet from where I snapped this photo. Click on the image to enlarge.

28 Aug 2015 by Arizona Critters Home & Garden Photography

One Dozen Barrel Cactus Flowers

Devil’s Tongue Golden Barrel

This is the time of year that these barrel cacti show their flowers. On the left above, the Devil’s Tongue cactus in my rock and cactus garden displays six flowers open. On the right, my Golden Barrel cactus shows six more flowers that are smaller than the other ones, but the cactus is a bit larger than the Devil’s Tongue. The two cacti are about three feet apart in the garden.

Click on either image to enlarge.

Fortunately, when we had the massive rainfall in July, the runoff spared most of the cacti in the garden since most of what we transplanted here was on higher ground than the creek that flows when it rains a lot. We plan to distribute the rocks and other landscape items to conform to the flow that will most likely happen again.

21 Aug 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Star Cactus Flower Close-Up

Close-Up

I am always intrigued by the delicate inner parts of the cactus flowers. This is an extreme close-up photo of a flower that opened up on my Astrophytum (Star Cactus) yesterday and was open again today. Unlike the Bishop Cap flowers that are only open for a single day, this cactus offers a second look the flower on the next day.

I also took a photo of the whole cactus flower. Click on the link to the left or on the image above for full-sized views.

18 Aug 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

My Old Faithful Bishop’s Cap Flowers

Bishop’s Cap Cactus Flowers

I posted about this cactus two months ago when it had three flowers. I did not post last month when it had several more flowers. Today, there are five of them open. This cactus has been with us since the late 1990’s and has been faithful about having flowers ever since its first year of blooms.

I will have photos of our other Astrophytum cactus in a day or so when its flowers open. I just love spring, summer and second spring cactus flowers. Click on the image to enlarge.

17 Aug 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

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