this week's feature: from L.A....and saguaros in bloom

This week, on the afar.com homepage:   

...and below is the highlight:

(always a thrill to be published)

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This morning, after I finished my Sabino Canyon run,

I grabbed my iPhone out of the car

and went back to take a few photos--

this year, a few weeks earlier than usual,

the saguaros are already blooming:

The cacti can be decades old before they start blooming,

and each hand-sized bloom stays 'fresh' for only a day;

bats and doves love to pollinate them...

The blooms are often hard to photograph since they're usually on the arm-tops,

but occasionally, you get a low-reaching limb:

  

Saguaros aren't the only cacti blooming;

cholla flowers are coming out too...

Summer's almost here...just three weeks left in the classroom...and the thermometer is climbing...