Nature’s little miracles…

Not sure how long ago it was that I photographed the cactus flowers that I was seeing on the dog walk around the neighborhood. The flowers were gorgeous, while they lasted, which wasn’t very long. But I’m surprised to see that we are having a round two, the cactus plants are covered in buds again. With one difference, each plant seems to have a few red buds in amongst the green ones. I keep watching and waiting to see what sort of flower emerges from those red buds, but they don’t seem to be in a hurry to do anything.

I wrote that a week or two ago, and I’m still waiting to see red flowers.  Because on another walk around the neighborhood I saw that these red buds aren’t buds at all. They are woody, with a little string-like extension hanging from them. My friend also sees these cactus plants in her neighbor’s yard, and she too expected to see a red flower. Her neighbor said that no, it’s how they reproduce, and the moths come and visit to propagate them. What I’ve been seeing is the last of the flowers still open in the morning, they really bloom all night, and that is when the moths work their magic. We humans are presumptuous enough to assume that we are the center of things, when in fact there are tiny miracles happening all around us every day, needing no assistance from us. Mother Nature is always at work, all we need to do is open our eyes…