Rain in the Desert

We had a wonderful week of rain here in the dry southeastern New Mexico desert. Because of the dirt road in front of our property, we tried to minimize the driving we did when the weather was so wet, but welcomed the wonderful smell of the rain and much-needed moisture. It came just in time to give additional water to our newly-transplanted pecan trees, as well as the native cacti on the property. Here are photos of the blooms that came soon after the rain:

The prickly pears look like they’ll be producing fruit, so maybe I’ll try my hand at prickly pear jelly after they ripen…

Prickly Pear Blossoms

When we lived in the Ft. Worth area, I also had the chance to taste nopalitos (strips of the green cactus are made from the flat ‘leaves’ of the prickly pear cactus and steamed or boiled and served as a vegetable or an ingredient in burritos). Perhaps I’ll don gardening gloves and try removing the sharp prickles from them to make homegrown nopalitos sometime. I have to admit that our cactus is still not looking pretty enough to try this. Quite a bit more rain is needed, in my opinion.

Prickly Pear

Prickly Pear Cactus

Blooming Chollo

Especially pretty was the rather large chollo (cho-yoh) cactus with the lovely pink blossoms. As I approached to snap this photo, I began hearing the constant buzz of the happy bees, gathering nectar.

Bee-covered Chollo blooms

This next photo catches the faint distant view of Mount Capitan. Our back porch will face this direction, so we look forward to nice views once the house is complete.