It's that time of year when the prickly pear says one thing but intends another. It yields a soft, colorful flower, with a legion of spines close at hand to protect its imminent (and edible) fruit. You'd expect to find this cactus in a desert, but it grows right here all around the mountain, areas of which actually mirror a desert biome.
Then a bumble bee buried itself in the yellow petals to feed on nectar and reemerged in a flash to collect pollen.
