This dangerous looking cactus was lurking only a few feet away from the "Fuzzy Logic" cactus I posted a few days ago. No doubt both designs are effective in keeping their native predators at bay. But talk about contrast!For those interested in details the name for this is the Cowhorn Euphorbia and it comes from South Africa. We found it in a botanical garden in California.
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Thorny Problem
in Nature
This title is not at all descriptive of the subject of this photo. The title suggests how I felt when we visited California. The fact that I had never seen a plant like this (in the Norton Simon art park in Pasdena, California) suggests that I was a bit of an alien. Sorry, but I don't know what it is called.
Amidst the concrete jungle of LA there exists an occasional green oasis, including this beautiful hilltop, illuminated by the morning sun. Below this hill lies the Hollywood Freeway. And if you looked up from the spot, you would see 
That there should be no snow or ice in Pasadena, California, might be enough for South Dakotans enjoying a brief spring break. But that there should be greenery and flowers and warm breezes is enough to erase a whole, harsh winter.
Today I will serve up some iris from a garden we visited in Japan. I call this the promise because now that the snow is melting, I can see bare earth in my wife's flower garden. It won't be long before we see our own iris.
After a week of "warm," but rainy and depressingly cloudy weather, I can see grass along the edges of our driveway. But the grass is brown, not verdant ("green with growth"). On the way to the mailbox, however, I saw the top of a Rainbird sprinkler head, which made me smile. In a matter of weeks (6?) I will be hearing the "chk, chk, chk" sound of the impulse sprinkler head watering my lush, green lawn. . . . 
The only wildlife I seem to photograph is captive, such as the butterflies I've posted. And now a lumbering brown bear, on display at a zoo a few miles south of Sitka, Alaska, named "The Fortress of the Bear." This young bear is one of two at the compound. They were orphaned after their mother had to be be destroyed. The crime the mom had committed was that she had made her way into the kitchen of a resort. Once a bear has tasted peanut butter and jelly, she is less inclined to eat berries and salmon. And before you know it, they'll be back in your kitchen. 
I saw these berries at a sidewalk market in Florence (Italy), though they could have been for sale at our HyVee. The blackberries take me back to my childhood because when we would go to Washington to visit my aunt, we would go blackberry hunting. I loved the blackberries but didn't like the thorns on the canes. Why is there a phone named after the berry? I don't know.
