Red hot pokers

Gardening today, and the sun on my back was wonderfully almost too hot. I've tried over the years to take some good pics of the red hot poker cactus which in reality is quite spectacular and I'm not even that happy about this one. But I like it against the blue sky. The umbrealla pine in the background was burnt in a forest fire a few years ago and has never recovered. You can see what a lucky escape we had. The fire didn't cross into the garden because I had been watering it so much but the tablecloth on the table outside was covered in a rash of small burns from the flying sparks. All the street was evacuated - my next door neighbours just took their dogs and their money with them.