Day 144: My Blossoms
Posted in Project 365+1 2008 on May 23rd, 2008 by Karin
This is my Night-Blooming Cereus (Peniocereus greggii) at about 5:30 Friday morning. I got up early to photograph them because I wasn’t sure how long they would stay open and there is not enough light where they are to get good photographs in the dark. (Plus it was rainy and cold last night. Actually it was rainy and cold this morning, too.) There were 18 blossoms in all.
Because of the overcast rainy day, the blossoms were still open at 10 am, so I got some better shots when I wasn’t shivering so much I couldn’t hold the camera steady!
The night bloomers open up at night and by the next morning, they close up - such a short life span for a beautiful blossom. They also have a lovely fragrance, but when it’s wet, the livestock smell tends to overwhelm everything, so I can’t describe it for you this time. This is actually the first time that these guys have bloomed since we moved them from our old house 5 years ago, so I was pretty excited to see them!
And finally, another rare sight - sweaters and long pants in Phoenix in May. It didn’t get above 65° today and it was cold and rainy all day long. That’s just not something that you see in May very often. In fact, I can’t remember it ever being this cold at this time of the year in my lifetime. We even had to dig some of LG’s long pants out for her to wear today! But, I’m not complaining - we got some gardening/yard work done today and it was really enjoyable to be outside. A far cry from the record high of 110° we experienced on Monday!
Taken May 23, 2008.
