Prickly Situation

As I was out and about yesterday I drove down a particular street dotted with older homes. Most of them had fences; wood, chain link, and split rail....and one ingenious family planted their security fence. How cool is this? A row of tightly planted cactus. I don't know anyone foolish enough to go through that barrier!

The first group of cactus was chocked so full of prickly pears that it looked like a decorated Christmas tree! The trunk on this old boy was thick and fat and resembled a regular woody truck of any ol' tree. Probably a good two feet in diameter, this guy was well over ten feet tall. I had to just stand and reach to get this shot. (You can tell by the angle of those pears just how high this cactus was! Arms' reach and a little telephoto!) There were plenty of pears lower, I just loved the vivid yellow clump so close to the ripened deep salmon-y pink pears! Very pretty!

And the flower! One soloist of beauty peaking all that spikiness. Such a glorious flower, almost six inches across and so bright white that my limited camera and skills were going crazy just trying to get it on film! Can you see that halo of light around the flower in the third photo? Wow.

I'm sure that the travelers passing by had a good story to tell once they got to their destinations about the nut-case woman standing in all kinds of goofy ways to get her shot! Those last three shots were completely blind takes! I had gotten myself as high as my stumpy little legs would take me and just thrust my hand as high as it could go and clicked away hoping for some luck.

The last three photos are completely unedited. I adore that green and yellow center! The green is freaking amazing! Can you see the tiny stamens peeking out from underneath the second layer of petals? I am in love with this flower.

Lesson for the day: Always carry your camera with you. Never be afraid to make an idiot out of yourself for a good shot!

Hint for the day: If you want to see something really amazing on the actual photo and it will take you to the photo in a very large format. So large that you can almost taste the sugar on the petals! Cool.