Sunday, June 14, 2009

cactus

Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it's the answer to everything. To "Why am I here?" to uselessness. It's the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it's a cactus."
~Enid Bagnold
1889-1981

Enid Bagnold was a British author and playwright, best known for the 1935 story National Velvet which was filmed in 1944 with Elizabeth Taylor. She began her writing career with poetry, then novels, and then at age 53, published her first play.

She was born in Rochester, Kent and brought up mostly in Jamaica. She went to art school in London. During World War I she was a nurse, then a driver. In Diary Without Dates, she wrote of her hospital experiences and in The Happy Foreigner, her driving experiences.

In 1920 she married Sir Roderick Jones, but continued to use her maiden name for writing. They lived at North End House in Sussex, the garden of which inspired her play The Chalk Garden.

photo by me ©2009 (taken in Arizona at the Desert Botanical Garden)

16 comments:

  1. I love the picture, who knew a cactus could be so beautiful!

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  2. I love the photo and the quote - very inspiring!

    P.S. I have been to the Grand Canyon but just briefly - we went on a full moon night, though, which was incredible! But I would love to go with Brian's niece - she's been there a long time and she knows so much about it! (I am still amazed that she has that job - it is a hard one to get, but she's an outstanding person.)

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  3. Wow this cactus is so beautiful !! Really amazing,i have never seen such a beautiful cactus before..Thanks for sharing..

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  4. Beautiful photo and lovely quote! Your posts are always so inspiring to me.

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  5. A beautiful photo and a lovely quote. Thank you for providing the background information on Enid Bagnold it was very interesting.
    SQ

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  6. I love getting in close with a camera. the wonders you can discover....Nature is a magnificent miracle with such amazing attention to detail. I want to discover that and celebrate it.

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  7. That's a really interesting quote!

    You've won an award :)
    http://roseworksjewelry.blogspot.com/2009/06/showing-off.html

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  8. That's the most beautiful I've ever seen a cactus look!

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  9. Beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing!

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  10. The variable purple hues in that photo are marvelous!

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  11. And another one here http://kittydesignes.blogspot.com :)

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  12. Lovely post. Beautiful photo too!

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  13. I am intrigued by cactus. They can hurt when you touch them but their blooms can be so beautiful.

    I loved National Velvet.

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  14. Again! You've done it with your photography! Stunner!

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  15. beautiful photo....you know I'm a sucker for flower pics. Good eye!.

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Your comments make my day! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!