A long way to grow!

When we bought the house in October 2010 the only plant that the previous owner Marc left us was a weary looking cactus in an even wearier pot. (One of the Opuntia Genus I think. The most common plant in the optunia genus is the nopal opuntia, or prickly pear cactus. So my guess is it is a prickly pear)

It remained there, on the rear patio, all winter and by the spring was all but dead. However Elizabeth, the green fingered gardener, planted what remained in the new bed at the front of the house from where we had removed the Leylandii trees. We had both given it up for dead but in the summer we noticed it had actually grow a new leaf with two ears!!.

Remarkable for what we thought was a dead cactus... It  however still has a long long way to go to be the size of the Cacti (hedge) we encountered on our trip to Faye-la-Vineuse last month.

I am not sure the two are the same but it is nice to think that in ?? years ours could be this grand!!