Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Thimble Cactus Flowers

Thimble Cactus Flowers

My little thimble cactus has lots of open flowers at this time. I had this one out back, but it is now in the courtyard because of the construction. It didn’t seem to mind the transition though, since the tiny flowers continue to open. Click on the image to enlarge.

The official botanical name of this cactus is Mammillaria fragilis. Here’s some information I found on the web at PlantOfTheWeek.org:

Mammillaria fragilis, or Thimble Cactus, is a clump-forming cactus native to Central Mexico. The clumps can exceed 12 inches (30 cm) in width in containers. Stems are up to 1 inch thick and are easily disarticulated. Tubercles are in 5-8 spirals with 12-16 white, radial spines, which are needle shaped and up to 5 mm long. The central spine are brown at the tips, pointed outward and very stout. This cactus is an easy one to grow and very showy in containers.

Blooming: In the greenhouse, our specimen blooms from late summer into fall, with very small pale yellow flowers about 1/2 inch (1.2 cm) long.

I can say that outdoors in the Arizona high desert that our specimen starts blooming in April.

21 Apr 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

Arizona Desert Mining Town

Desert Mining Town

After we took the dogs to the groomer yesterday, we had a couple of hours to ourselves. We decided to head over to an old mining town (and tourist trap) about 25 miles west of Wickenburg.

Unfortunately, when we got there after driving 28 miles on pavement and another 2 miles on dirt, we found that the attraction was closed for the day having been reserved for a photo shoot by some unknown enterprise. We noted a large number of California license plates on the vehicles parked there.

The cowboy that ran things told us that they didn’t have time to notify the media of the closing. He was very apologetic and assured us that if we were to come back on a normal visiting day that he would waive the admission and guided tour fee. I guess we will take him up on that sometime in the near future, before the desert heat gets too out of hand.

The place is called Robson’s Ranch & Mining Camp. We will probably take a trip out there soon.

19 Apr 2015 by Arizona Culture Entertainment Wanderlust

Indications of Summer

Seasonal Brew

It’s still 17 days to Beltane, the mid-point between the Vernal Equinox and Summer Solstice, the latter of which is still sixty-some days away. The daily Low and high temperatures are on the increase and the local supermarket is already carrying summer-seasonal products as shown in the image above. These are all signs that summer will soon be here.

Now, don’t get us wrong; we like the triple-digit temperatures and the fact that all of the snowbirds are gone. The roads and the aisles in the supermarket are clear of the ‘snow zombies’ as we like to call the town’s itinerant winter population.

Plus, I like the Summer Ale.

18 Apr 2015 by Arizona Environment Food & Dining

Cholla Flower Cluster

Cholla Flower Cluster

This interesting photo is of a cluster of cholla flowers in bloom just behind the wall next to the little wash. I liked the appearance of the crimson-tipped yellow flowers framed by the spiky stems of cactus.

Our friend, Crotalus tells us that this is a buckhorn cholla and that there are dozens of varieties of the cylindropuntia family of cacti. Click on the image to enlarge.

16 Apr 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

First Color Image of the Pluto/Charon System

nh-first-pluto-charon-color-image.jpg

NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto released this image yesterday of planet Pluto and it’s satellite Charon. The distance between the imaging spacecraft and the two objects was about 71 million miles when this photo was taken.

At first glance, the colors appear to be quite close to those depicted in space artist Dan Durda’s 2001 illustration (commissioned by NASA) of the planetary system panorama seen here. The reddish color of Pluto is brighter than its grayish companion. Click on the image to enlarge.

New Horizons at Pluto

NASA Press Release:

First Pluto-Charon Color Image from New Horizons

This image of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, was taken by the Ralph color imager aboard NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on April 9 and downlinked to Earth the following day. It is the first color image ever made of the Pluto system by a spacecraft on approach. The image is a preliminary reconstruction, which will be refined later by the New Horizons science team. Clearly visible are both Pluto and the Texas-sized Charon. The image was made from a distance of about 71 million miles (115 million kilometers)—roughly the distance from the Sun to Venus. At this distance, neither Pluto nor Charon is well resolved by the color imager, but their distinctly different appearances can be seen. As New Horizons approaches its flyby of Pluto on July 14, it will deliver color images that eventually show surface features as small as a few miles across.

Some of us have been waiting for fifteen years to see the images from New Horizons. We’re looking forward to seeing more as the spacecraft looms closer.

15 Apr 2015 by Aerospace Astronomy Rocket Science Technobabble

Ring of Tiny Pink Cactus Flowers

Tiny Pink Flowers

This nice little barrel cactus (species unknown) has almost a complete ring of flowers around its crown. Each station where a flower bud appears can be traced back to the crown of the cactus by following the smooth curves that connect the fuzzy peaks along the top. Click on the image to enlarge.

Bob posted some information about mathematical formations in nature along with a photo of this very cactus without flowers a couple of years ago. Just like in the image above, the post showed examples of Fibonacci spirals, both natural and man made.

14 Apr 2015 by Arizona Flowers Home & Garden Photography

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