A heartbreaking affair.

The recent "Black South-Easter" wind has left its indelible mark.

We call them organ pipe cactii, and sadly they were wrecked by the recent devasting storm wind.

I can only imagine that these are some +20 years old, and they stood up against many storm winds in the past, but sadly not this time. The tree branches that protected them in the past, turned out to be their enemy, as the wind flashed the branches around at speed and you can see the damages to the cactii. Thankfully some are still intact, but the majority were either bent over, or had their tops ripped off. I can tell you that it was not a very pleasant sight.
I also included a Century plant to show you, after the cactii.

You can see that the cactii recently flowered and it was a lovely sight.

This concludes the cactii section.

I used this busted flag scene as a line breaker.

And here below is the Century plant.

Flowering time was over, and when the century plant raises that stem to flower, then after flowering and dropping its seed buds, the plant dies.
I think that some of you will remember this plant as I posted it a while ago. Now I want to show you what the wind did to it.

The top was gone and some of the lower stems were also ripped off the main stem.

Here below is a closer look.

I found this, but I couldn't discern if it was the top, or one of the side stems.

In any case, I think the neighboring century plant saw the destruction and now it will be hesitant to raise its stem. Only joking as plants don't think like humans do :)

What's the use of crying (song lyrics), and yes, it is true in this case, as we are all powerless against nature's forces. For all that we know, this could all be turned into a desert in a few years. Bad news about the weather worldwide often hugs the headlines in the media, and somehow, I think that things have gotten worse lately. Not that there were no tragedies in the past, but I sense an escalation in the occurrences, almost as if the world is rushing into disaster. Fires, floods, earthquakes, and even the destruction of bombs during the wars have an effect on the planet, but on we go. Never mind the tons of toxic gases that are pumped into the atmosphere, or the tons of plastic that are dumped into the ocean every day, it seems that mankind is in a rush to destroy itself.
And all for what? Profit? Luxury? Convenience?
Such is life.

I do apologize if this sounds like a rant, but you can see my heart in the pictures, as I love the wonders of nature.

Photos by Zac Smith-All Right Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowerShotSX70HS Bridge camera.

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