July 3, 2006

July 3 Final Update

I felt somewhat tired today, but we still went out to dinner with friends. As always, I brought a box of leftovers back with me.

I was a couple we haven’t seen for a while. They recently lost their 40-year-old son to a drug overdose. It happened while they were on a trip in Europe. But they seem to be holding up well.

I’m off to bed very soon and looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning.

By the way, the flower you see is the Vorlon Wife’s Prickly Pear cactus flower. They grow wild in South Jersey. In the winter, they look dead. But they quickly come back in the spring and will overrun one’s flower garden, if you let them.

You also need to wear gloves when working around them, unless you want to get stuck. Their stickers are pretty nasty. They are very tiny, so you can feel them, but they’re hard to see. It sort of like handling fiberglass installation with bare hands.

The flowers themselves only last one day, so if you want a photo you have to be quick. They are pretty flowers, but do to their aggressive growth and their prickliness; I would rather not have them.

But it is the Vorlon Wife’s flower garden. What she wants in it, she gets.

Posted by The Vorlon at July 3, 2006 8:36 PM
Comments

The flower is beautiful. If you look closely around the edge, I think you can see the thorns.

Posted by: reborrell at July 4, 2006 9:30 AM

Those are not the prickers that get you. The prickers are almost invisible. I'll see if I can get a photo.

Posted by: Ted at July 4, 2006 9:32 AM

For some dumb reason I had Prickly Pear as a houseplant. (Must be I didn't realize at the time that it would have wintered over.) It was actually a very nice looking plant. But I agree, that the spines are nasty. When in the house, they would become airborne by simply walking past. Then at some point you would fine yourself scratching an area of skin with no visible reason to do so. I finally gave it away. I couldn't take it anymore. Their spines actually grow in clusters. They look more like a little red fuzzy bump than your typical catus spine.

Posted by: KATHY at July 5, 2006 11:53 AM