Views along the lower third of Bug Springs Trail Near Catalina Highway. — Images by kenne
This area experience a wildfire several years ago. Signs still stand as grass and other desert plants slowly take hold. This time of year everything is dry and windy. There will probably not be any rain between now and the summer monsoon, which normally begins in July. Hopeful, this area will not experience another wildfire.
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into
and above the clouds.
— Edward Abbey
Bug Springs Trail Panoramic View Toward The Higher Elevation Segment Of Catalina Highway — Image by kenne
Manzanita tree, oh so sweet! Glued to bluffs hard to beat Hanging out in the sun Centuries pass having fun.
Twist and turn You make knots to churn Slow to grow Time makes you glow!
Manzanita branches such a treat! A shrub so stout quite the feat, You weather time with fine design Always looking just so divine!
Skeleton branches gray on the outside But what a delight to find what’s inside Manzanita, you transform wood oh so red! Manzanita, you do turn heads!
Rich in gifts With flowers and leaves You make honey and potions Or wedding stands and notions.
Treasures in wood so rich and red Working with you, I never dread! You finish so smooth I think I’ll never move.
by Ron Bazar
The manzanita plant is one of my favorite desert plants because of its unusual color and shape with branches are dark red-mahogany color, intertwined with gray dead sections. In the Catalina mountains, the manzanitas are primarily found between 5,000-6,500 feet. This time of year, the manzanita plants are in bloom along the Bug Springs trail.
One of the most brilliant of Sonoran desert wildflowers, the Mariposa lily is one of two common lilies found here — the other is ajo lily (desert lily). Since this is the second recent posting on this desert wildflower, you might guess that I’m quite taken by this flower.
Although common to the desert southwest, they are scattered and do not bloom every year. These and those in the earlier posting were a few miles apart at about 4,000′ feet elevation.
Trail Rock Guarded By Shin Diggers (agave lechugilla) — Image by kenne
This small agave can make a lasting impression if you run up against them, therefore the name “shin digger.” Here it seems to be providing this rock, security. In thick ground cover, the spins can be crippling to a hiker or horse.
Cowgirls are special and work hard every day They feed their own horses, and stack their own hay They know who they are, and where they are from Their family comes first, but when the chores are all done
We get in the saddle in rain or in shine It’s not the destination, but the thrill of the ride! On horseback all our problems just slip away Just workin’ and playin’ the cowgirl way.
“Sissy: You really don’t believe in political solutions do you?The Chink: I believe in political solutions to political problems. But man’s primary problems aren’t political; they’re philosophical. Until humans can solve their philosophical problems, they’re condemned to solve their political problems over and over and over again. It’s a cruel, repetitious bore.
Sissy: Well, then, what are the philosophical solutions?
The Chink: Ha ha ho ho and hee hee. That’s for you to find out. I’ll say this much and no more: there’s got to be poetry. And magic. At every level. If civilization is ever going to be anything but a grandiose pratfall, anything more than a can of deodorizer in the shithouse of existence, then statesmen are going to have to concern themselves with magic and poetry. Bankers are going to have to concern themselves with magic and poetry. Time magazine is going to have to write about magic and poetry. Factory workers and housewives are going to have to get their lives entangled in magic and poetry.
Sissy: Do you think such a thing can ever happen?
The Chink: If you understood poetry and magic, you’d know that it doesn’t matter.”
I love the music of Tom Russell, he is a singer-songwriter who is in touch with those who ramble the earth. In the introduction to his 2012 book, “120 Songs” Russell writes about how songs beckon you to move a little closer, “Let me tell you a story.”
“They beguile us with their sing-song rhyme and tinkle-down melodies, yet they are imbued with trued feel for human history, poetry, emotion and cold hard facts of life, than a thousand dusty tomes from social scientists, poets, politicians, theologians and academic historians. Songs travel.”
Russell’s songs are about real people, their suffering and survival, and times when whiskey needs to be drank like wine — songs for as long as forever is.
GUADALUPE
There are ghosts out in the rain tonight, high up in those ancient trees Lord, I’ve given up without a fight, another blind fool on his knees and all the Gods that I’d abandoned, begin to speak in simple tongue and suddenly I’ve come to know, there are no roads left to run
Now it’s the hour of dogs a barking, that’s what the old ones used to say It’s first light or it’s sundown, before the children cease their play when the mountains glow like mission wine, then turn gray like a Spanish roan ten thousand eyes will stop to worship, then turn away and head on home
She is reaching out her arms tonight, lord, my poverty is real I pray roses shall rain down again, from Guadalupe on her hill and who am I to doubt these mysteries? Cured in centuries of blood and candle smoke I am the least of all your children here, but I am most in need of hope
She appeared to Juan Diego, she left her image on his cape five hundred years of sorrow, cannot destroy their deepest faith so here I am, your ragged disbeliever, old doubting Thomas drowns in tears as I watch your church sink through the earth, like a heart worn down through fear
She is reaching out her arms tonight. . .
When you read the words in Russell’s songs, you can see the influence of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Federico Garcia Lorca and Charles Broskoski. The words and songs, “. . . suck us in, slap us around, kick us in the belly and heart, and then push us back out into the world with a memory we’ll never purge from our blood.”
Agave plant at the early stages of its flowering stalk looks like a giant asparagus — also called a Century plant because of the popular belief they live for a century before flowering. The stalk can reach as high as 25′.
For a lot of us, when we hear the word agave cactus, we think… “Tequila!” “Margarita!” Or, that first tequila night!
When there is talk of tequila, it is natural to share stories — where to get the best margarita; tequila sour; your favorite tequila; worm stories; poetry, yes, poetry!
Tequila The word makes people smile Why? Tequila means freedom from our mind “Take another shot of courage” “Tequila makes your clothes fall off” Like a toddler who rips off her diaper and runs through the sprinkler Joyful! Laughing with glee! As the Divine watches through her eyes See the world as a little child You will see the Kingdom of Heaven I have a friend with flaming red hair that looks like fire in the sun I call my friend “Redbird” Redbird and I were at a party The hot tub looked so inviting We didn’t have swim suits No problem… We had tequila! The water was warm Our breasts floated in the bubbles Redbird and I were laughing with glee!
Joyful!
Like a toddler running through the sprinkler
Freedom!
Both of us grandmothers
I guess we forgot
Redbird and I were out of our minds
Joyful freedom! This is good for the soul A Divine witness watched through our eyes A wonderful memory Will we do it again? Probably not Yes tequila gives you courage Yes tequila makes your cloths fall off Now when Redbird say the word, tequila We giggle A lot!
Views along the lower third of Bug Springs Trail Near Catalina Highway. — Images by kenne
Bug Springs Trail Panoramic View Toward The Higher Elevation Segment Of Catalina Highway — Image by kenne
