While the prickly pears were growing all their fabulous new paddles, claret cup buds and blossoms were popping up all over the foothills.
Turns out there are a lot of claret cup cactuses along my morning walk, but I didn’t start noticing most of them until about six weeks ago, when little bursts of red seemed to be everywhere I looked.
One morning, a scarlet glow caught my eye. I realized there was yet another cactus growing within some turbinella oak. On that one day, it was illuminated by the sun filtering through the oak. I got down on my hands and knees, stuck my camera through a small opening in the branches, and somehow got a few decent shots.
Even though I’ve looked for it since, I’ve never been able to find that particular cactus again. It was that morning, with that light, that allowed me to see it.