Greek Orthodox Monastary & Cacti

On Sunday we were invited to Neil & Dorothy's for dinner...we visited and Neil said that we should go out to the monastary.... so away we went. From Mesa we headed east to Florence Junction then south on Route 79 towards Florence (which is on the way to Tucson). We got there and they were closed for tours. So we decided that since we were going to visit Memory on Monday that we would go via Florence. Florence by the way is a prison town..both state and federal. In the monastary grounds you cannot enter unless your legs and arms are covered...ladies had to cover their heads as you can see here...yes that is mom and gran. The monastary was started only 13 years ago by 4 Greek monks...there are over 40 monks living there now. All the material and engineering is from Greece. There were several buildings...a church and several other places of worship and residences.
The grounds were lush. Several palms, an olive grove, several fig trees, an orange and grapefruit grove as well. Much new construction going on as well. The two pictures of the grounds were taken from the gate on Sunday... I ruined all my Monday shots with an incorrect exposure...except for the one of my two girls.Cacti really made me smile... these little lovlies are called prickly pears...
This is a prickly pear in full bloom... it is so strange to see these beautiful blossoms coming out of the cactus.More cacti...I cannot find these in my book....
And these are my absolute favorites...they are the saguaro...apparently (sawaro). These are gorgeous... apparently the saguaro is 75 years old before it gets its 1st arm... these babies must be ancient...also found in lowere elevations. As we drove to Sedona..in higher elevations...there were no saguaro cacti.