It's Open!!

Yes, our cactus didn't keep us waiting so long this year, and already many of the buds are open. They remind me of a TV programme trailer that is on every night, showing a group of little star fish all scampering over one another to find some space. There are six open today. One had the good sense to shoot off to the side but one is rather squashed on the bottom layer, and there is a seventh one that actually started to open first but it had no space so it has remained screwed up and is now dying. But there are lots more buds to come. They get the full force of the morning sun for a couple of hours, so that may well shorten their life. As I remember it, the one flower we had last year opened to grey cloudy days and lasted for ages.

Although they don't smell offensive at all, something about them seems to attract flies. There were loads buzzing around them today and they were shiny green-bluebottles, not the usual little house flies that are such a pesky nuisance here. But at least it is keeping them away from me so I'm not complaining. As I have said before, it is not the most beautiful flower in the garden, but it is really striking and interesting, and quite different from anything we had in the garden back in England.