It's Timing Was Perfect

This beauty bloomed last night.  I was afraid it was going to hold out till tonight and I won't be around to see it tonight - heading back to Far From Home later this morning.

It's not just gorgeous, it smells divine.  It's a Night Blooming Cereus and they are one of the most fragrant flowers I know of but they don't bloom very often.  I think I heard something about them being a seven year flower.

This is the whole plant - gives a little perspective on how big the flower is and what the plant looks like.

This is the back side of the flower - I really love all those feathery bits.

It was still open this morning so I got a couple of quick pics.

This is it next to my hand because I wanted to show perspective.  The only problem is that my hand is sort of in front of the flower because I was doing this by myself - would have been better to use someone else's hand.  The hand in front makes the flower look a bit smaller than it really is - it's about 9" across.

And this is a water lily that's been blooming like crazy all summer and is still blooming.  It's more purple/blue than it looks in this picture . . .