Phoneography Challenge: Macro (from the desert)

If you follow my blog, you already know I’m on vacation in the Phoenix, Arizona area with limited internet access.  My first entry for “Macro” is from one of the cactus plants in my parents’ natural yard.  The spines don’t deter the birds, however, and there’s a next not far from my photo of one of the cactus fruits.  Serendipitously,  the location of the spines reminds me of some bizarre (is there any other kind?) of costume Madonna might wear or a space alien who clutches victims to her voluptuous bosom, stabbing them with the poisonous spines.

The second, more prosaic but still beautiful, photo is of the buds of a hyacinth that I didn’t get out of the pot and into the ground in time and which decided to bloom again during the winter.  Both photos were taken with my iPad and only cropped.