Hug My Flower With Your Eyes

Oh, Kimya Dawson. Your music is so true.

The title of the post, if you aren't aware, is from her song Tree Hugger. Love that song.

Enter the two story saguaro cactus that tipped over during a storm. And died.  You can read more about it here and how we got rid of it here and here. Seriously, it was a sad day. So we saved the arm. We put it in a pot with the three-eared bunny (another cactus that was small at that time but is now so big it needs to be moved). Now, a year and a half later, the cactus is blooming. Dead, but blooming. Boy, they sure hold water well, right?

I just thought it was a nice little bit of pretty in an otherwise stark desert landscape.

And because it is a flower. On a cactus. I found it fitting to tell you this:

And the rattlesnake said,
"I wish I had hands
so I could hug you like a man."
And then the cactus said,
"Don't you understand,
My skin is covered with sharp spikes
That'll stab you like a thousand knives.
A hug would be nice,
But hug my flower with your eyes."
 -Kimya Dawson, Tree Hugger


And because you are reading this online instead of physically being here, hugging the flower with your eyes is your only option. Hug away, friend. Hug away.


p.s. I'm actually away at tech camp in Tucson this week. It's full of campy fun. Oh, wait. No. It's fun, but not campy. More details when I get a second to breathe. And the instructor quits giving me dirty looks. Yikes.

Cactus, Revisited.

Remember how the cactus fell during the storm? You can revisit it here and here and even here .
Remember how I said that I wanted to save the rods or ribs or whatever they are called?
Here we go:
Keep in mind that this is simply one chunk of the cactus. It was over two stories tall, so Jeremiah cut it into smaller pieces. We let it sit in the front yard for awhile (The neighbors? They love us.) and then sawed chunks of the skin/whatever off to expose the ribs. Eventually it looked like these pictures. We moved everything to the backyard. Jeremiah will sand them down and they will become ART. In the house. I'm super excited.
Dig it? I think it will look super cool. We've got a bunch, so we'll have to design something great.

You don't know (cont.)

Here I am taking care of business. I really did cut two chunks off. This is not just for show, people. The picture above shows Jeremiah taking the grande cactus chunks into the back yard. Dollie (sp?) compliments of Mary-Next-Door. Frank-Next-Door-on-the-Other-Side also offered to help. Aren't they nice.

You don't know what you got till it's gone...

So we bought a saw from Lowe's. I now recognize several employees at the store. That's completely off-topic, but it tells you how often we end up there. Jeremiah did most of the sawing, I tried it out, too. When cut into the cactus released what can only be described as ectoplasmic goo - like in Ghostbusters. It was otherworldly. And it didn't taste great. I know. I tried it.



Here are some of the cactus rods. We're going to try and save some. My cactus, my cactus guts.




























Next we have the close - up shot of Jer cutting into the cactus. I just really like this picture. I think my camera and I did a nice job. Pat on the back for my camera and me.






Manly.

Death of a Cactus

Sadly, our cactus met his fate. During the storm of '10. It was about two weeks ago-ish. It was a Thursday. Night. Stormy. Rainy. Windy. I thought of me mum telling me that I should park my car in the garage in case the cactus fell. I sort of thought, "yeah, right". After all, how many tipped over saguaros do you see on the side of the road? Well, in Michigan, none. But none here, either. And we do have saguaros. Anywho, we were watching a movie. Charlie Wilson's War. When the movie ended, we did our nightly ritual of checking to make sure that everything was all locked up tight. It's my OCD ritual, but Jeremiah willingly takes part. He checks the front door. As he is checking the screen I ask him jokingly if the cactus is still up (we had heard a low BOOM during the movie). He turns to me with huge bug eyes and says, "NO!". Holy Moly. He wasn't kidding, people. The cactus had, in death as he did in life, treated us kindly. He fell in the only clearing possible. Didn't hit our cars. Or the garage. Or the house. Or the neighbors cars. Or the street sign. Or the pole. Just went down. I believe there was some Subaru intervention, too. Cacti do not fall on Subarus.

Somewhere over the rainbow, finches (and flickers) fly

The hummingbird above is called an Anna's Hummingbird. It has a bit of purple on the throat that is just barely visible in the picture but is beautiful up close. Below is a picture that Jeremiah took (right in our front yard!) after a rainstorm.

Finches! They eat out of my finch feeder and the hummingbird feeder!
My most beautiful woodpecker/flicker. He sits right on the fence that borders the patio and noisily waits to get his food.

Outside pictures

So pretty!