Desert Flowering Bullies

The macho chollo cacti in my front yard (who love to reach out with their spines and scare neighborhood dogs - cats are too smart for them) have been sooo excited by the unusual rains this year in our high plains desert home. They're blooming everywhere.

There's nothing more beautiful than the desert after a wet spring.

A simpler name you might know my pesky cacti by is "Walking Sticks." The delicate flowers they produce in a rainbow of colors are always such a surprise, that I can't resist taking pictures of all of them. When I first moved here eight years ago, there were no chollo in the yard. Now, there are two of them (somehow brought here by birds, I think).

They're huge and growing steadily. I commented to the hubs the other night that we might think about trimming them back to spare unsuspecting walking passersby.

In typical KISA (Knight in Shining Armor) fashion, he replied, "Fine. But who are you going to hire who's not afraid to get close enough to cut the darned things?"

I guess that means he's not volunteering...