Cactus ticky tacky

What is it about cacti that makes otherwise sensible people a tad tacky? The Cactus Shop somewhere in Utah or Nevada may have moved, but the happy Saguaro (staring at the burning trash can) is permanently there to remind us that this is the West with a capital "W"!

And here a cement subspecies of Saguaro has infiltrated the otherwise impeccably tasteful garden of Bill and Sandy Snyder. I don't blame the statue--what  a great garden to hang out in (I do it frequently)...but Cement?

There are many who say they hate cacti. And the stems and pads are not all that user friendly, to be sure...Here Coryphantha sulcata perks up my garden on and off all summer long with these heavenly chalices of gold. Some day perhaps I shall track it to its native hills in the Great Plains of Texas....

The land were "Shenandoah, across the wide Missouri" was composed is inceasingly a site for tchotchkies and wind mills, and endless slag heaps. I am amazed that so many Westerners are under the delusion that unbridled development and waste of resources are somehow patriotic...

Just back from a whirlwind, 2500 mile five day trip out to the West Coast and back...There are still lots of relatively pristine mountains and sagebrush valleys...but more and more signs and signatures of humanity, who loves the idea of wildflowers, but meanwhile we are busy paving, mining and simply ignoring (when not destroying) the last tattered wildflower vestiges on Mother Earth...

You see, I'm not optimistic and cheerful ALL the time.