Collies & Cacti

Friday night constitutional. Midtown Tucson. The sun was starting to go down as I walked the girls. It wasn’t wretchedly hot. What a nice dog walk.

Earbuds in, strolling along, I was having a lovely chat with my sister in New York. “How was your day?” and “What are you doing tomorrow?” I could hear her cat, Mittens, meowing in the back ground.

Lovely chat.

“I HAVE TO HANG UP!”

Cuz…

“Ok,” she said, concerned.

I’m sorry but these guys only bloom ONE day a year! They’re brilliant for half a day, mainly during the darkness of night, then they turn into a wilted clump of petals. And, as I mentioned, the sun was starting to go down.

Photography tip: 

When you see one of these, you must act quickly. No matter how much you love the person you are talking to, you must instantly and rudely stop talking to them. Next, as if this is the last flower you will ever see, you have to take as many photos of the single flower as possible before it dies (12 hours later). 

Next, and most importantly, you must pose your pet in front of the cactus, for scale and for optimum cuteness.

Cacti live in very harsh environments. They have to conserve energy, and therefore, can not be throwing out bushels of blooms all summer long. They have to be as big and colorful as possible to attract as many pollinators as they can in the course of one dark night. They are rare and resplendent and they supersede all phone calls.

I’m lucky to have a sister who loves plants, and understands how much I love plants. Also lucky that she tolerates me getting distracted around bright flowers, rare plants, cute dogs, cute cats, people I haven’t seen in a long time and therefore I instantly must know how they and their cute dog and/or cute cat are doing. There may also be ad hoc hang-ups when:

I see a horse and need my dog to say “hi!” to it.

There is water in a desert river. That doesn’t happen often and when it does, I need a video NOW!

Butterfly.

Bee.

Actually….any animal I haven’t seen at least once already that day.

I love you Terrie.