Spring time blooms,
have long since passed,
as summer sun bakes the land.
Prickly cacti,
wake and yawn.
Emboldened by the heat,
they burst with blooms.
Delicate blossoms,
grace the garden.
Cheers to you from The Holler’s Summer Bloomers~
Gorgeous flowers! We were in Scottsdale after rare rain and the desert burst into bloom. It was the most gorgeous and amazing sight.
Oh lucky you! You saw this! It has to be timed just right, but when it is, the sight is just incredible isn’t it! Such delicate beauty blooming so briefly, but in such abundance, in such a harsh environment. I know, it leaves a lasting impression and I am glad you have witnessed this. <3
Me too! It was unforgettable!
Spectacular! 🙂 xo
Ahhh, hugs to you sweet Bette <3
Gorgeous! I love the desert blooms.
Aren’t they awesome, there is something about such delicate beauty coming from such a prickly parent that is moving <3
Reblogged this on ravenhawks' magazine and commented:
Beautiful!
Ahhh, thank you so much!
All beautiful! But I am particularly taken with the white frilly ones. Yum.
There are about 50 of them this year, each as big as a dinner plate. I thought of holding up a measuring tape, but it wrecked the visual gestalt. I am glad you like them.
Gorgeous blooms and colors!
Beauty in the harshest of environments <3
Your photos are so crisp! Wow!
Thank you, I was just drooling over your photos of Marrakech.
These are lovely Cindy!
Bless your <3
Bless you Cindy! You brighten the day! <3
Your summer bloomers have warmed me up on this Zero degree morning(Again) in Geelong, I’ll send you an Ivor flower.
https://ivors20.wordpress.com/2018/02/14/day-lily-and-love/
What a beautiful lily and even more beautiful sentiment. Thank you Ivor and stay warm.
😊 My pleasure Cindy, but it’s not warm here 😊
Lovely. I enjoyed the joining of images and words in this way.
Ah, that is so nice. Thank you & cheers too!
WOW!!!The holler bloom rules! Lucky you, Cindy!
BTW: amazing pics!! <3
I love my super talented blogger friends like you sweet Resa. Be well my friend <3
<3
❤️
<3
You are my inspiration, Cindy. Those lovely cactus flowers reminded me of my dear friend in Germany who is growing these magnificent desert plants in his greenhouse. Perhaps I will publish a guest post on these marvellous wonders of nature in the next couple of weeks.
Please do. I would love to see them. We saw large greenhouses full of cacti in Switzerland and New Zealand, in public parks. It was a strange sensation to see them growing there.
Having lived in Arizona, I’m not a fan of cacti but the blooms are gorgeous! 💕
I hear you. Cacti, like some prickly people, can be difficult to love. My grandfather, after he retired, had a famous cactus garden that was featured in multiple magazines. I remember helping him with the garden. He especially loved the blooms and planted them all to bloom in synch. I still have his photos.
Wow! Now that would be an amazing garden! 😁💕
It was the best cactus garden I have ever seen. He was an immigrant from Eastern Europe and like many Europeans was fascinated by cacti because he had never seen them growing wild.
Thanks for sharing your summer blooms Cindy, they are gorgeous.
Leslie
Ahh, thank you Leslie and be well my friend <3
🙂 <3
Some of those do appear to be yawning!
They do! It is like they rumble through the seasons, and then when July hits, they yawn, and say, “I’ll show you!” And boy do they.
Cactus flowers are not something I’m very familiar with (living on the wet west coast), but they sure are beautiful.
They are amazing, and self sowing, once you plant them. The white ones are as big as dinner plates.
Wow! I had no idea they were that big.
these are beautiful, cindy –
Thanks my friend & happy week to you <3
Just what the doctor ordered! thank you for shooting beauty all over the blogosphere, and beyond. <3
Picked up by you sweet friend and ricocheted right back to me. Love to you Linda. <3
These are gorgeous! Are they all in your garden?
The Holler blooms are pretty amazing this year, which is strange, since our big rain was last year, but the best blooms are this year. Cacti are hard to figure out….
Gorgeous!!
Thank you & cheers to you!
And to you! 🙂
Gorgeous blooms! Happy 4th of July sweetie
Back to you sweet friend and your fur family. Love your new addition to the pack <3
Thank you sweetie, Lucy crossed rainbow bridge on May 25th
Your photographs are surreal. 🙂 Love these so much, especially the last flower…
Ahhh, that is a purple African Daisy. A rather rare flower. Thank you for noticing <3
Beautiful! Perfect for the first day of July. Hope your summer is a good one, Cindy!
And yours too Carrie. I would imagine you are taking your family some where exciting. Enjoy my friend & be well <3
We just got back from a Caribbean cruise. Nice and relaxing.
Your blooms are lush, colorful and lovely.
And you are sweet to say so! Have a wonderful week <3
Thanks Cindy
These are gorgeous!
Thank you and thank you for taking the time to tell me!
I keep on thinking of Georgia O’Keeffe’s thought: “nobody see a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time…” You have shown that it is possible to see flowers and create a place where friends can meet. Hugs!
Awww. You and I go back a long way now Rebecca, and you are such a special and valued friend. Love to you and thank you, always, for your persistent kindness. We need so many more people like you in this world <3 <3
Such lovely photos!
Such a lovely comment! Thank you & cheers to you~
What desert jewels. You have a lovely place.
And so far this summer, no rattlesnakes!!! Yippee tay yay yo!
Yay for that, too!
Beautiful flowers.
Thank you Beverly & cheers to you <3
Excellent.
Merci beaucoup mon ami!
They’re glorious Cindy.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
So pleased you enjoyed them & have a wonderful week David!
Wow!! Amazing to see these beautiful and fragile-looking flowers on the giant cacti … a wonderful glorious juxtaposition! I’m a huge fun of cacti and had many small ones as a child, two which grew quite large. The occasional flower but it would be fantastic to see these flowering in the wild! Enjoy the show and thank you for sharing! 🌺🌻
Thank you for such a thoughtful comment Annika. I am glad you have seen cactus flowers as they are quite lovely. I wish I could beam you over to The Holler to see more <3
You certainly color my world with your vibrant photos! Thank you so much.
Thank you more for your kind appreciation~
Reblogged this on Musings on Life & Experience and commented:
Gorgeous summer blooms from Cindy Knoke.
Hugs to you sweet Patricia & have a wonderful week my friend <3
How gorgeous are these beauties!
The white ones are the size of dinner plates and there must be at least 50 this year!
Lovely
Thank you kindly.
Liebe Cindy, die sehen so toll aus, komme gesund durch die Woche.
Danke mein lieber Freund und habe eine wundervolle Woche!
du auch, liebe Cindy, möge dein Tag schön sein.
<3 <3 <3
I love the vibrant colours of these flowers. They make me feel happy!!
Making you happy, makes me happy I posted! <3
Nice Pics Cindy! So vivid
Thanks so much and hope all is well with you my friend <3
Cactus flowers are so vibrant, almost need sunglasses on to look at them
It is always so incongruous to see such humble, prickly plants, create such lovely flowers!
They always amaze me with their beauty
Brilliant colours and wonderful images, Cindy. It has been an especially cold winter thus far in my part of our beautiful world, so to view your spectacular summer blooms is quite uplifting. The purple African Daisy is my favourite.
Thank you Russel and it is lovely to hear from you! I am happy the flowers cheered you, and hope you stay warm my friend~
It certainly is summer…the sun won’t let us forget!
It will not, and neither will the cacti. They love the sun so! Did you hear someone reportedly shot one of the last living jaguars in the US. As they go, so shall we. Cruel hunters.
Yep, I heard about that a few days ago. I shared the original news story a while back:
https://thejaguarandallies.com/2018/06/26/yooko-a-jaguar-that-once-roamed-the-united-states-has-been-killed/
Gorgeous flowers and images Cindy. It’s nice to be surrounded by so much beauty!
Thank you Brad and I am happy you enjoyed them. We all need positive imagery everyday!
Thank you Cindy! Lovely to see some blooms in this heat we are having!
Amazing that cacti bloom like this in the sun!
Mother Nature continues to amaze me at ever turn 🙂 What a resilient being this Earth.
I am in full agreement <3
Love this post of colors! Beautiful captures, Cindy!
So appreciated! Thank you so much & have an awesome week~
Like young girls at a summer party. Great pictures
Never enough beauty these days. Thanks
We need more beauty and more kindness. Cheers to you my friend~
Incredibly beautiful. Made me feel peaceful and wrapped in beauty.
Ahh, I am so happy you felt that way. I want you to feel like this <3
Pingback: Holler Hot Summer Blooms~ — | Rethinking Life
What beauties!
Muchas gracias mi amiga <3
So vibrant and colorful. I love all that sunshine too. 😀
So happy you enjoyed & hope you have a wonderful week!
Mow I know what they mean by “color popping”.
Mother Nature rocks her colors doesn’t she!
Beautiful summer set of pictures!
Thanks so much & cheers to you Alexander!
Wow! fantastic photo. My wife has a flower farm and sells fresh-cut bouquets. I wish we had your talent for photography. It would sure help with the marketing. 🙂
If I lived close I would do a post on your farm!
your summer blooms are gorgeous Cindy. I still love your gorgeous pictures
Ahh, I am honored thank you & be well.
you are welcome Cindy.
You must really enjoy photography. Your pictures are so “REAL”.
So happy you enjoyed and thank you for letting me know!
<3
Such a delight to see your closeups of flowers in bloom, sun shining and life as still surrounded in beauty. 🙂 <3
There is such beauty, isn’t there, everywhere. Like there is in you. Be well my friend. <3
Aw, you are special my friend. <3 🙂
Visa versa 2 U X 2!
<3
Gorgeous!
Alison
Are you still in Japan?
No, back in Vancouver after 4 weeks in China after Japan. Blog is way behind as usual. xo
So good of you. You did this on your own. Must feel quite amazing, and possibly a lot of other emotions and thoughts. All of which I wish I could hear. But just know, I admire you greatly. Always.
Thank you. Humbled. Next post (tomorrow or the next day) is about all the emotions. <3
You go Girl? <3 I can't wait to read and see it.
Grossartige Bilder Cindy. Danke fürs zeigen…
Danke fur Ihre freundliche Aufmerksamkeit, Ernst
I see that your words are blooming too–a lovey poem there, scattered among the desert flowers.
Ahh, so kind of you to notice and comment. Thank you & cheers too~
Aren’t flowers just magnificent !? You have captured their beauty well.
There are little Mother Nature’s little miracles <3
Summer is baking the UK this year, too. I have a garden full of brilliant but thirsty flowers, and those in pots need watering twice a day, but they’re worth all the hard work. I’m afraid my garden and the sunshine are a major diversion from my computer, hence my long absences from visiting my dear friends’ blogs. Please forgive me, Cindy. I’m sure the rain will come again and drive me indoors!
Heat waves are impacting all over the globe right now, but twice a day watering in the UK sounds rather intense. I hope you are enjoying the warmth & cheers to you Sarah <3
Yes, I love the warmth, as I’m skinny and normally feel the cold, which means the winter is utter misery to me. I’m not into sunbathing as such, and like to sit in the shade to read outside, but love going for walks in the sun and doing my gardening.
I remember being in Burford for the summer when I was young and a heatwave hit. I have never seen so many sunburnt people all at once in my life! So good for you, stay in the shade. Britain is so very beautiful in the summertime <3
Though we had to water our plants regularly the extreme beautiful Summer gave Europeans some lovely time to enjoy nature, though we here have no opportunity to see such beautiful cacti flowers thanks for sharing them with us.
I read your post about the effects of the heat wave and other bloggers have been talking about it too. I am sure it made the summer lovely especially in the colder areas. It has been the hottest year on record here too. Thank you for your kind thoughts & cheers to you <3
It’s a little startling, sometimes, the beauty of the flowers that come popping out of a prickly cactus. And I’m struck by how much the pistil looks like a particular type of coral polyp.
Oh, yes, as soon as you mentioned the coral, I knew exactly what you were saying. Coral blooms do look like flowers.
The details are amazingly beautiful, Cindy! We hope to get some rain…
Thanks much and we would love some rain too!
Pretty, pretty. Cheers to you!
Cheers & Happy 4th <3
the flowers are so perfect they look like crepe paper flowers, my Mum bought me a book of how to make paper flowers and I think I’ll use these photos for ideas and colours 🙂 looking again at these I think it’s important to put in a few different colours and brown some of the edges to make them more realistic.
Yes, that would be lovely. I used to make tissue paper flowers and I still delicate flowers with this wrinkly texture by this name. Happy Creating Charlotte <3
Gorgeous flowers🌺🌺🌺
We are blessed with beauty all around us <3
Yes🌹🌹🌹🌹💖
It always amazed me that such lovely flowers would grow on cactus plants… Cindy these are amazing shots — the lighting, clarity… and the detail is extraordinary. Happy Fourth of July. Hugs.
You are such a sweet friend Teagan, not to mention the awesome co-creator of the wonderful Hula-Baloo-Lulu. Happy 4th my friend <3
Beautiful!
Merci beaucoup mon Ami <3
The photos of the flowers are lovely. Absolutely gorgeous. I love the baby owl story. So sweet. I’m finding it hard to comment on post and WordPress still won’t let me like any posts. It’s so frustrating. Cheers to you Cindy. Thank you for sharing such wonderful life-giving moments.
Time to email WP Happiness Engineers so they can make you happy again with WP! Good luck my friend <3
It’s really quite amazing that something so delicate can arrive on these prickly cacti ! You really must have to watch where you walk or back up in your garden 😀 Being such a klutz, I’m sure to be the one you’d find impaled in there. I guess you don’t have any problem with critters nibbling on your plants either. It’s all very exoctic and beautiful through your lens. It’s the only view of the desert I’ll probably ever enjoy because I fear the heat. I’m so climatized to cooler weather, even Washington, DC was too hot for me. I damn near turned Alys and Pauline into popsicles with the AC in our room, LOL ! x K
I am reading a book titled, “The Last Frontiersman,” about a guy from Wisconsin who is one of the most isolated homesteaders in Alaska. He says 20 below is mild, “sweater weather!” I was in 50F below once and that was enough for me. Silly me thought it was warming up since the frozen river was smoking. I stepped outside and learned fast! Both extreme heat and cold suck the sap out of you. 105F hits your body like a force much like deep water pressing on you from all sides, 115F and up, just sucks the life out of you, quickly.
Holy snap! 115F and I’d be finished for sure. If it his 30 C (86 F) I’m whining big time. it was 32 C here a couple of weeks ago and I couldn’t even be outside. I’m with Mr Frontiersman, cool is better but I wouldn’t be out in a sweater at -20 F (-28C), LOL….but that’s pretty normal here over winter. It’s the wind that get’s you though 😀
Stunning
Thank you very much & lovely to meet you!
Spectacular blossoms Cindy!! the texture, the color!!! Cactus are under rated!! Hope your summer is going so well! Any travels ahead??!
All sorts of things are coming up, travel and twins! My daughter is almost in her third trimester. She is calm as can be. I am a wreck 😉
So exciting!! Our daughter is expecting her 2nd beginning of September. Is she close by?? Hope so. It’s hard to not want to rush out and get all those cute baby things (and books!) when you know there’s a new baby about to appear. So happy for you– twins!!! I know she’ll be glad to have your help! xox
Unfortunately for me, I don’t need to rush out. Amazon is extremely helpful in this way. I wrote myself a note saying “No More.”
Laughing.
She isn’t here. She is in Northern California and I am in Southern, but I will be there soon, with her, for our last days together before she becomes a mother. OF TWINS!!!
I know she’ll be so grateful to have your help and encouragement. Our daughter is up north too (in SF) so I’ll be heading up in about 4 weeks. Blessings on those 2 new little lives. So much joy! xox
I am heading up in 2.5 weeks. Maybe sometime we can meet <3
Soon! How is she feeling?? Sleeping?? I know she’ll be glad to have you come in the door! Such exciting days! God Bless these two new little lives. xox
She is working as a psychotherapist, but has gone to half days. She is feeling great, but at 26 weeks hasn’t gotten to the can’t find a comfortable position phase, and she is quite petite, so I imagine it will get a bit crowded. God Bless the little children, each and every one, and you too Rhonda.
So much ahead! Praying with you that all goes so well and you’ll find so much joy welcoming this new little life. Glad she can manage to work half days–and be baby ready! Here’s to all the fun of watching these little ones grow and flourish!! Enjoy every minute Cindy!
Hugs to you Rhonda & cheers too. <3 <3
Oh, my, there are beautiful blooms. It is amazing that something so lovely can come from something like a cactus!
It is indeed. Prickly cacti make the most delicate blooms. Miraculous~
Amazing photos!
Thank you very much & lovely to meet you!
nice
Thank you & lovely to meet you~
How beautiful Cindy.
So kind of you! Thank you & cheers to you <3
You take us to dreams, Thanks.<3
I so enjoy having you along, so thank you more <3
Thank you, my pleasure ❤️
<3 <3
Beautiful pictures…thank you!
Thank you much more.
Beautiful ❤
Takk fyrir!
Merci beaucoup!