An Explosion of Desert Color

While waiting for the green light to travel safely, an explosion of colors has certainly captured my attention. What a visual feast are these cacti blooms found right in our yard. A word of caution, one does need to be quick for a photo op. These blooms live but only a day or two. We've learned the front yard is fair game for javelinas nighttime grazing. The backyard fares better for lasting being walled and fenced in. Many of the cacti have buds ready to pop.  
Hope these pops of color brighten your day!🌞

Mary O'Neill's " Hailstones and Halibut Bones " is a children's classic of rhyme and verse first published in 1961. This book has been used often in schools as a supplementary tool for teaching poetry. In the book there are 12 vivid poems where O'Neill explores colors using the senses. Not only do the rhythmic lines lend themselves to song but writing one's own color poem.

What I like best about the book is how each page has imaginative verses that explore the meaning of a color. Each page begins What is... and then names a color.

The Colors live
Between black and white
In a land that we
Know best by sight.
But knowing best
Isn't everything,
For colors dance
And colors sing,
And colors laugh
And colors cry-
Turn off the light
And colors die,
And they make you feel;
Every feeling there is
From the grumpiest grump
to the fizziest fizz.
And you and I
Know well
Each has a taste
And each has a smell
And each has a wonderful
Story to tell...

ending page from "Hailstones and Halibut Bones" by Mary O"Neill