flying saucer...

The desert is in bloom. I intended on sharing those photos today but no time to write much this morning. This is the queen of them all so for today, the post will be dedicated to our flying saucer cactus.

A couple of weeks ago, it looked like this.

I was sure I took a photo yesterday of the buds again but I guess not. This time of year, I spend more time with the roses and the iris. But this morning, I walked out front and found this.


The blooms are eight inches in diameter.

sacred datura...

The first sacred datura opened yesterday. Sacred datura is a desert perennial. It often opens at night and will be gone within the first few hours of sunlight. Yesterday, it lasted a bit longer. Sacred datura are poisonous so the many critters who love to eat anything around here will leave these alone. The blossoms are about eight inches tall and six inches across.

This is an unopened bud.
Their shape makes me pull out my camera every time.

There is so much beauty to be found in the Sonoran desert.

the ocotillos are blooming...

impossible to understand...

Our prompt for TT this week is celebrate. Of course, this was decided long before the events of yesterday. I tried to think of what I could possibly celebrate today. Then I heard these words.

Our hearts are heavy.


Full paragraph excerpt from President Obama's message to the American people April 16, 2013:

We also know this: The American people refuse to be terrorized, because what the world saw yesterday in the aftermath of the explosions were stories of heroism and kindness and generosity and love, exhausted runners who kept running to the nearest hospital to give blood and those who stayed to tend to the wounded, some tearing off their own clothes to make tourniquets, the first responders who ran into the chaos to save lives, the men and women who are still treating the wounded at some of the best hospitals in the world, and the medical students who hurried to help, saying, ‘When we heard, we all came in,’ the priests who opened their churches and ministered to the hurt and the fearful, and the good people of Boston who opened their homes to the victims of this attack and those shaken by it. So if you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil, that’s it: selflessly, compassionately, unafraid.

"the mom stays in the picture"...

If you haven't read this article, please do. It is SO important. I have spoken about the importance of this in my photography classes but not with the eloquence that Allison Tate does.

Please note this applies to all nanas, grammys, aunties, etc. The mama in this picture knows how important this is. I hope you do too.

rescue rose...

Many years ago, there was a large chain store that had a garden department. The chain store still exists, the garden department does not. The garden area was manned, as chain store garden departments often are, by people who knew nothing about gardening. If you were there within the first week of a delivery, you were in luck. After that, forget it. Needless to say, it was not my favorite place to shop. The garden department was never my sole destination but if I was there for some other reason, I would take a quick peek. One day, I happened to start talking to one of the employees. She was gathering the spent plants to throw away. I asked if I could take the pathetic looking miniature rose. I wish I had a before photo. She was happy to give it "to a good home". While it is not a rose that I would have chosen to buy, I have been happy to give it a good home.

It has thrived.
Later, she found out that this was not a store policy. She could no longer give me plants that were going to be thrown away.

I would have given them a good home.

a rose is a rose is a rose...

I am a flower lover but roses are not my favorites until they start blooming in my garden. Then I can't imagine loving another flower more. Whenever they are not blooming, I wonder why I don't use the space for something else. The April comes and I remember...
And the names! The names are so much fun. Yes, we enjoy dinner on the patio surrounded by Sexy Rexy, Barbra Streisand, McCartney (if they came out with a Lennon, Starr and Harrison, I would not be able to resist), Queen Elizabeth and Marilyn Monroe.

In case you would like a cup of tea with Marilyn, here you go:


Hope spring is finding you too!