Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Flowering Cholla Cactus

Flowering Cholla Cactus

We stopped on the way back from a visit to Mom at the retirement ranch and I took this photo of a flowering buckhorn cholla. This one has many blooms on it. The buckhorn cholla in and around our yard have a few open flowers, but not as many as this one. Click on the image to enlarge.

Snippet from eNature.com:

Opuntia acanthocarpa – buckhorn cholla

The main trunk of this tree-like cactus is short and erect; branching open and low to ground. Branches are cylindrical; the joints light green.

Habit: native perennial shrub; succulent stems, in segments 4-20 in (10-50 cm) tall by 0.75-1.25 in (2-3 cm) diameter; new growth is gray-green to purple-green; old growth has rough, scaly, brownish black bark.

Flower: delicate, lemon yellow to copper to red to pink, 2-3 in (5-7.5 cm) wide.

15 Apr 2013 by Arizona Flowers Photography

Twin Beavertail Cactus Flowers

Twin Beavertail Cactus Flowers

There are so many flowers opening this month that it is hard to decide which photos to post. Today’s winner is this image of two side-by-side beavertail cactus flowers. They will be gone tomorrow or the next day, so we will enjoy them while we can. Click on the image to enlarge.

14 Apr 2013 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Argentine Giant Cactus Flower

Argentine Giant Cactus Flower

There are so many flowers popping out, it’s hard to keep up. We visited Mom at the ranch on Friday and I saw this Argentine giant cactus flower blooming in a neighbor’s yard. So pretty and such a delicate fragrance. I can hardly wait until our giant blooms in a week or so. Click on the image to enlarge.

13 Apr 2013 by Arizona Flowers Photography

Armor for the New Camera

Camera Armor

We ordered armor for the new Canon Rebel T3 this week. It arrived today and we installed it on the camera. The armor is Made by Delkin and is available from Sears online marketplace.

The armor is a must for me since I am always banging the camera on something or another. Armor extended the lifetime of my old camera for an unknown amount of time, but for sure, the silicone rubber cushion saved the camera on numerous occasions.

By the way, the lens protector was not included with the new armor. I salvaged it from the old armor package since it protects the lens and provides a little shade from sun glare. Click on the image to enlarge.

12 Apr 2013 by Photography

A Colorful Prickly Pear Flower

Red and Yellow Cactus Flower

Bob and I went to visit Mom at the retirement ranch today. I noticed this small prickly pear cactus with a beautiful two-tone red and yellow flower near the entrance to the ranch. We stopped at the entrance on our way out and I took this image. Click on the image to enlarge.

11 Apr 2013 by Arizona Flowers Photography Retirement

Caught in the Spam Trap

spamtrap.pngI sometimes just have to laugh at some of the weird sh!t that gets caught in the spam trap here. We have been using a no-longer-supported plug-in called Spam Karma. Regardless of the non-support, it still does a real good job of eliminating an estimated 99.9 percent of spam comments.

The plug-in can be set to email some of the lower-score items to the webmaster. As I said in the first paragraph, some of them can be pretty funny, especially if the spammer is using his whatever-to-English translation software. This one came into the other blog this morning:

I discovered your blog webpage on google and check some of your early posts. Continue to maintain up the extremely beneficial operate. I just additional up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. Searching for forward to reading alot more from you later on!

(redacted vendor they were pushing)

Spam Karma 2 Report:
-0.43 – Link Counter: Comment contains: 1 linked URLs and 0 unlinked URLs: total link coef: 1 >= threshold (1). Non-URL text size: 289 chars.
-4.00 – Stopwatch: Flash Gordon was here (comment posted 11 seconds after page load).
-20.00 – Javascript Payload: Fake Javascript Payload.
-2.61 – Post Age and Activity: Entry posted 1 week, 6 days ago. 0 comments in the past 5 days. Current Karma: -24.
-1.00 – core: Severity settings adjustment.
========
-28.04 – Overall Karma
========

LOL – Searching for forward to reading alot more from you later on! 😆

10 Apr 2013 by Blogosphere Humor

Jump Shot

Here’s an example of the due diligence given to the economy and jobs by the administration . . .

Jump Shot

From Fox Business:

Payrolls increased by 88,000 last month following a revised 268,000 gain in February, with the disappointing report following two others this week that also cast a negative view on the labor market.

“We can now add the monthly employment report to the growing list of data points that simply haven’t met expectations,” Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG LLC in New York, said in emailed comments.

After falling 171 points, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) recovered the lions share of its losses to end at 14,565.25, down 0.3% for the session and 0.1% for the week.

Cartoon via The Patriot Post.

09 Apr 2013 by Beltway Kabuki Money and Business Whacko Politics

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