Cactus, Cactus Everywhere. The Desert Botanical Garden

Before yesterday, my experience with the desert was largely limited to 1960s and 70s television episodes of Big Valley, Ponderosa and Wild, Wild West. The desert was bleak, lifeless and, most of all, BROWN.

So here in Phoenix, I had no idea what to expect at the Desert Botanical Garden.

I had focus groups last night, so I decided to get an early start to the day and arrived there at 8 a.m. It turned out to be a smart move because by the time I left at noon, the temperature was 96 degrees!

I am still toying with the idea of posting a photo of myself from the trip. I cut quite a fine figure.

I’ll start at the bottom and work my way up with a quick description. Sneakers. Waders (cropped pants). Brown tank top. Binoculars. Bird guide. Desert guide. Camera. Floppy hat. I was a sight to behold and no doubt looked like the photos you see of avid birders. In fact, the birders I encountered at the garden seemed to take me as one of their own with little insider chit chat. I, of course, just nodded knowingly at whatever the were saying.

There is so much to report I can’t spill it all right now. But I will say that I was in awe the whole time I was there. I was amazed at the variety and the beauty. There were so many FLOWERS everywhere. And the plants are so very clever at surviving in a hostile environment!

I took 100 photos. No, I don’t intend to post them all. But I will be posting more into the photo gallery as I figure out what they all are.

A few I’ll post here include a Gila Woodpecker I found nesting in the hollow of an old saguaro cactus and an octupus cactus.

I head to Memphis next where I plant to visit Graceland and some other historic points of interest. Oh, and I have work to do. Drat.