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Opuntia, mures, and sunshine
The prickly pear in the church garden is in bloom.
Big deal? Yes. The cactus grows intense yellow flowers, with red centers, that bloom for about three days. It doesn't bloom every year, and it's become one of the events of my and Andy's spring-summer calendar. We have no control over it, and no responsibility for it--all we have to do, all we can do, is notice and observe and enjoy.
On a whim, I crossed the street on my way home last night to check, and saw a huge yellow flower.
This morning, there were two, crammed together so the second couldn't open to its full roundness, and a couple of buds. A good year for cactus, or at least for this one cactus at the northern tip of Manhattan.
It's also a good year for mulberries.
After I wrote "mulberries later," I picked some for a co-worker, who was delighted. Then it rained, and washed all the flavor out for a day or two, as the trees took up all that nice water.
We waited, the sun shone, and this morning the berries are ripe and sweet and excellent. I'll get more tonight, when I'm actually hungry: the forecast is for two hot, sunny days, and with plenty of water in the soil, we should get wonderful berries.
It's getting on to time to go up in the hills and see if there are black raspberries yet. Wildly optimistic, I suspect, but they follow mulberries, and we saw a dayflower in bloom near the cactus.
Rain, sun, and anything is possible.
Big deal? Yes. The cactus grows intense yellow flowers, with red centers, that bloom for about three days. It doesn't bloom every year, and it's become one of the events of my and Andy's spring-summer calendar. We have no control over it, and no responsibility for it--all we have to do, all we can do, is notice and observe and enjoy.
On a whim, I crossed the street on my way home last night to check, and saw a huge yellow flower.
This morning, there were two, crammed together so the second couldn't open to its full roundness, and a couple of buds. A good year for cactus, or at least for this one cactus at the northern tip of Manhattan.
It's also a good year for mulberries.
After I wrote "mulberries later," I picked some for a co-worker, who was delighted. Then it rained, and washed all the flavor out for a day or two, as the trees took up all that nice water.
We waited, the sun shone, and this morning the berries are ripe and sweet and excellent. I'll get more tonight, when I'm actually hungry: the forecast is for two hot, sunny days, and with plenty of water in the soil, we should get wonderful berries.
It's getting on to time to go up in the hills and see if there are black raspberries yet. Wildly optimistic, I suspect, but they follow mulberries, and we saw a dayflower in bloom near the cactus.
Rain, sun, and anything is possible.