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[ellarien]

Red prickly pear flowers Tucson, April 2006

I went cactus-hunting today, a mile or so down the road and up the side-streets. I found a few yellow prickly pear blossoms, and a moderate abundance of buds, and the odd open bud on the big Indian Fig trees, and a few plants of these rarer red-orange prickly pears. I also spotted a small rabbit, in what looked a singularly inhospitable bit of stony ground and cactus-sprawl, a lone gambel's quail pacing along a stuccoed garden wall, a lizard the size of a small rat, and an honest-to-goodness grey squirrel, far less common around here than the ground variety. It was hot, but not unbearably so, grey and windy; the hazy light made things easier. There are more pictures on Flickr, here.