night blooming cereus

we had this plant for years underneath the rubber tree in our f-7 house. then it suffered while we were in arizona. finally it came back to us in 2009, a shadow of its former self. we made two pots of the plant and they grew well over the last four years but produced no flowers. then, in june two buds appeared, but it was during those days of intense dry heat when the temperature was over 45 degrees. the flowers shrivelled before they could bloom.

and now these. it's august 26th and i have been photographing the buds since yesterday. they was still unopen this afternoon at 5, but i was sure they would bloom tonight. and just after 10 pm i began taking photographs. i put on the two porch lights, and added on with a flashlight, as i don't like using the camera flash. 

the flowers are faintly fragrant now, but i expect they will be fully fragrant by midnight. or maybe that's just my imagination.

august 25th

august 26th, 5 pm

august 26th, 5 pm: buds

this, and the following, were all taken at
ten o'clock onwards

nathia gali in august: season of mist

yesterday i posted the last five pictures in this post. the ones i'm posting now are from last year's eid trip.

gravestone from the raj
old kalabagh cemetery

gravestone from the raj 
old kalabagh cemetery

after the rain, an afternoon 
view from shangrila pines hotel

view from shangrila pines 
hotel, afternoon after rain

hydrangeas in ursula's garden: a throwback 
to my childhood

cedars along the pipeline 
walk, dunga gali

tree trunk along the pipeline walk

another throwback to the 
raj: inscriptions along 
the pipeline walk, dunga gali

throwback to the raj: inscription along the 
pipeline walk, dunga gali

a rose from the shangrila pines garden

sunset after the rain, from 
shangrila pines garden

pines in the mist

monkeys

pines

pines

this last photo, like many sunset photos, doesn't 
do justice to the reality. but here it is 
anyway: sunset after an afternoon of heavy rain.

spring in my garden: blossoms

nature photos: mostly green

to think that for a long time i disliked the idea of photographing plants!

all about yellow.

before the rains, in those very hot days of late june, i went over to my friend shazieh's to photograph her sunfowers. she had planted a hedge of them to give her lawn privacy. each flower was enormous, and all of them were in different stages of blossoming. wonderful. i spent a good hour around 5.30... i should have waited for the sun to go down a little more but had to go elsewhere. but i'm happy with what i got. each flower had it's own personality, each seemed to be saying something.

i'd like to make one or two of these into etchings at some point...just focusing on the centre of each flower, which are so like the sun's corona. to add to my nature photo-etchings.

or perhaps make a book featuring the centres of each flower. after learning about the fibonacci sequence, i have found the seed patterns, which are also found in daisies and other flowers, fascinating.