Photos from a Beautiful Saturday

Okay, granted, the monsoon season has just begun, and the humidity, at least by Arizona standards, has been obnoxious, but today was a beautiful day, all the same. I made a morning excursion to the Desert Botanical Garden, which I haven't visited since last October. It was a real pleasure to see all the cactus and native desert plants, even though I visited too late to capture the saguaro in bloom, which was a goal of mine for the spring. Oh well, maybe next year. At least the beauty of the saguaro itself, as seen in the photo above, served as consolation.

Here is the flowering stalk of a "century plant," or agave. The height of these stalks is just amazing, as they rise to tower just above many single-floor buildings. There is a certain minimalist grace to these stalks.

Purple prickly pear, above and below.  I love the unusual color of this cactus' foliage. If I recall correctly, their blooms are a pale yellow, which is a bit of a disappointment to me, as I would prefer red as a bright offset, but the coloring as seen here is beautiful enough to suffice.

This is part of the Desert Botanical Garden's grand cactus entrance, with one of the red buttes of Papago Park in the background.

I believe the cactus above is a type of barrel cactus about to bloom. This is the type of festive, fruity red I was talking about, a colorful relief from the dusty color of desert rock and parched earth.

I believe the above is also a type of prickly pear, or at least a relative.

Above, New Mexico cholla, which blooms a refreshing shade of magenta.

Not a native plant, but the Desert Botanical Garden also has a vegetable and herb garden. Above, the pom-pom purple of blooming artichoke.

Above, and in the next three photographs, close-ups of the towering native Sonoran saguaro.  I am learning that sometimes the best way to capture the beauty of cacti in photography is by zooming in on the details.

Deep verdant prickly pear, above. Just beautiful. This was one of my final photos of the morning, after I had about enough of the flies that were engaged in a biting frenzy today.  No matter.  Afterwards, I made it to the cinema and saw Man of Steel.  What a powerful, fantastic film!!