FOTD – November 19 – Blooming Cactus

Sometimes, photography reminds me of living in Israel. There was a decision when the country was formed that it would not import food but would grow our own. As a result, whatever was coming into season was plentiful.

There were times of the year when you couldn’t find an orange to save your life and other times when they were almost free and occasionally, if you were working with people who lived on a moshav (collective farming community) or a kibbutz (communal), they would bring in bushels of whatever was ripe and you would eat quince until your stomach screamed “NO MORE!”

I remember bushels of plums and and endless sabra fruit which no matter how hard I tried, always left my hands full of nearly invisible prickly thorns. Sabra — Israel’s cactus fruit — is identical to American cactus fruit since the “Sabra cactus” was brought to Israel from the U.S. by missionaries in the 1600s. For some reason, I always found that weirdly funny.

I take pictures of what there is to take pictures of. Sometimes I find myself in possession of hundreds of pictures of little red squirrels or hairy woodpeckers. Or goldfinch or house finch or big grey squirrels.

Right now, I have a gazillion pictures of flowering Christmas cacti because they are blooming. There is another reason. A while back in a beknighted attempt to get a variety of photographs with various tints, focal depth, etc. — I set my camera up to take brackets. I thought it would take two, maybe three photographs at a time. Little did I know that every time I use that camera, I find myself with hundreds of pictures.

I am not a fast processor. I can’t race through hundreds of pictures or figure out which dozen shots from a few hundred are the best. I’m methodical and that means I work slowly. Obviously, I am going to have to reset the camera and I will do it. Every day, I intend to reset it. Because I’ve been shooting entirely macro or closeups and focus can be a bit tricky — especially when the light isn’t bright and the lens isn’t fast — I keep delaying the change.

I have to admit, I have dug myself into a deep hole. I have to delete at least a couple of hundred pictures from each day of shooting and I’m falling behind, then behinder. My email is piling up. I haven’t written anything because all I’m doing is working my way through this mountain of photographs.

There’s no one to blame. I have done it to me and if you want to tell me I’m my own worst enemy? Go right ahead. I can’t find anyone else to blame.

I spent a few hours — before I downloaded the photos — searching for the right fertilizer for this particular type of cactus. I knew there were going to be a huge number of pictures, so I didn’t download them until after dinner. Now as all the chiming clocks are ringing the midnight hour, I have some pictures to show you.

The season for cactus flowers is brief, as was autumn. Abundant, but brief. And until the blooming season ends, I suppose there will be a deluge of pink and red Christmas or Thanksgiving cactus blossoms. And then, the season will end and I hope the orchid season will be then have begun.

Categories: #Flowers, #FOTD, #gallery, Anecdote, Cee's Photo Challenge, Christmas cactus, Flower of the day, Gardens, indoor garden

Tags: #ChristmasCactus, #Flowers, #gallery, #Photography, Marilyn Armstrong