What a treat to make a remedy from the Night Blooming Cereus that graced us with beauty and gifted us with its essence this past Wednesday in Cave Creek. It was another confirmation that nature is approving of the Lotus Pinwheel energy that is taking shape (more to come on this). My friend and homeopathic colleague Debbie Noah and I sat in awe and without hesitation came to the conclusion that this year’s message from the night bloomer was happiness and celebration.
Enjoy the photos of the Argentine Giant (Tricocereus Candicans) blooms that with a little help of some hardware mesh survived the appetite of the javelinas this year.
The blooms survive the javelinas surrounded by the hardware mesh
They begin to open just before sunset
they are beautiful from every angle
They are impossible to ignore
The light changes as the sun sets
The blooms start sending out a subtle fragrance
The sky is a magical pink
and the owl visits silently
Until we sit in vigil, the screen remains in place
A young baby toad visits
We are ready to begin
We ask permission and accept the gift of beauty
We offer candle light
and water
We are told that it is about Happiness and Celebration
May we all give ourselves permission to bloom and share our beauty with those around us.
I love the white and green blooms that look waxy and unreal. They burst forth with such vigor that the majority of the time, they keel over from the weight of their being. When I see them in the medians I wonder why they didn’t just stop growing. Why isn’t anyone watering them? And I remember, oh yes, this is the desert.
The plant leaves are sword shaped and have a tendency to stab and cut you if you are not careful.
This particular cactus deserves a post of it’s own. It is breathtakingly beautiful and once open, the blooms last only one night.
It is a night blooming cereus that starts to open as the sun sets and starts to wilt as soon as the sun touches it the next day, and by evening, the bloom is shriveled, wilted, and dead.
Here is a photo of the bloom, 4 days before it opened.
And another photo taken this morning of the entire plant.
You can see the start of a brand new bud (looks really fuzzy) on the arm that is to the left of the one with the bloom. And yes, I took the time to clean up the dead branches in the foreground. I had placed them on the path in front of the cactus to protect the bud from the javelina that frequent the yard and like to feast on new cactus growth. If they were determined, the branches wouldn’t have stopped them.
Here’s another closeup taken this morning at sunrise. The flower was over 8 inches in diameter.
On April 3, 2012 – I captured a photo of two flowers in bloom at the same time. I called them Sisters.
If you would like one of these beauties in your year, the common name is Argentine Giant and you can find it at local nurseries labeled either as Trichocereus Candicans or Echinopsis Candicans.
When I look outside and see the blooms, I feel an urgency to go out and take photos. The sun is out all day and with the heat, already the grass has begun to dry. The Cactus blooms in many cases last only a day or two at most.
On the one hand, I’m pleased with the results. On the other, I know that the photos don’t do it justice. What the photos leave out are the scents and sounds of a desert that refuses to be washed out and silenced.
It is close to impossible to capture the enormity and the scarcity of it all and so I opted to be intimate with the blooms.
My meditation the last few days has been a familiar one.
Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Despite my attempt to be present, I stepped on some spines that went through my shoe. I was looking at the flowers and not the ground.
I continued to take photos with a mindful limp. I figured that soon enough I will have my tweezers and I knew from the sting that this has only been a warning.
Fool! This is the start of snake season. Look before you step. I change my meditation.
Look. Look again. Then, Walk as if you are kissing the earth…
And, with all this beauty outside, I walk into my kitchen to find that the Christmas Cactus, perhaps feeling a bit envious, decided to bloom.
I used to think that the desert lacked the change of seasons because it seemed that we were always in a perpetual state of sunshine. But now, after having lived here for 23 years, I have learned to redefine my expectations and my definitions of seasons.
Backyard blooms
Here’s a bouquet best left where it stands. Enjoy.
Polka Dot Prickly Pear
Prickly Pear about to bloom
Hedgehog cactus in bloom
Hedgehog bloom closeup
Golden Barrel
Occotillo Bloom
Occotillo in bloom
Prickly Pear
Prickly Pear
In the gallery above, are some of the different cactus that are in bloom around the house. I’ve captioned them with the common names… There are many varieties that are referred to by the same name.
The moon was awesome tonight and the weather cool enough to cause me to linger and catch up with my neighbour at the top of her driveway while our dogs played.
With a moon like that, you can be sure that if you hear the sound of police or fire sirens it will be followed by the howling of the coyotes within earshot. Tonight we were surrounded. They were too far to see but there were many. The dogs fortunately stayed close by.
As I started walking towards the wash, I noticed that if I looked right (to the east) the moon was rising and that almost exactly to the west, the sun was setting. I stopped and took two photos.
Looking East.
Looking West.
There’s hardly anything left blooming. We’re at the end of the summer and everyone is looking forward to the early mornings when we actually get to open our windows again to enjoy the cooler temperatures.
A staghorn cholla bloom surprised me at the end of our walk.
Oh, and the dog is not a pup anymore but to me she will always be.
The moon was awesome tonight and the weather cool enough to cause me to linger and catch up with my neighbour at the top of her driveway while our dogs played.
