Cacti and Dale Chihuly

Prickly pear

Purple Prickly Pear

Teddy Bear Cactus

Golden Barrel

We visited the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix.  At the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston I'd been blown away by a huge Dale Chihuly sculpture - a massive cactus-like tree made of thousands of handblown glass spikes.  It was serendipitous that there was a Chihuly exhibition on at the Botanic Gardens.  Aren't they marvellous?  Almost as good as the cacti, which I have totally come around to after never being much of a succulent fan.  They were so varied and extraordinary.  Some were like geometric puzzles, some were prehistoric, some were delicate, some over-the-top.