Horse Corral In Monument Valley — Image by kenne
— Lauren Salerno
Looking South from Lower Sabino Canyon — Image by kenne
— kenne
A view of the Tucson basin from near Windy Point Vista with thimble peak in the center-right. — Image by kenne
— from The Explorer by Rudyard Kipling
Douglas Spring Trail — Image by kenne
— kenne
Courtyard Door — Photo-Artistry by kenne
— kenne
Always More Saguaros On The Sunny Side of A Hill ( November 8, 2022, in Sabino Canyon) — Image by kenne
Yetman Trail — Panorama by kenne
— kenne
Clouds Over The Catalinas — Image by kenne
The first month of the monsoon has not been good for Tanuri Ridge. It seems as if it has been raining
only somewhere else. For the month of July, we have received only about an inch.
— kenne
Desert Landscape — Image by kenne
“Alone in the silence, I understand for a moment the dread which many feel in the presence of primeval desert,
the unconscious fear which compels them to tame, alter or destroy what they cannot understand, to reduce the wild
and prehuman to human dimensions. Anything rather than confront directly the anti-human, that other world
which frightens not through danger or hostility but in something far worse – its implacable indifference.”
― Edward Abbey
Near The Wave Entrance in the Coyote Buttes Wilderness Area in Vermillion Cliffs National Monument in Northern Arizona
— Image by kenne
Known for its colorful swirls of slickrock, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is a sherbet-colored dream world
filled with fantastical rock formations like The Wave, White Pockets, and Buckskin Gulch.
West of Tucson — Panorama Image by kenne
The trail is dusty
Stirred only by our steps,
A soft breeze unable to lift
The dust above our boots
Often coming together as strangers
Sharing a love of the wild
And a desire to hear sounds
In nature’s best.
Nature walks are fine
Surrounded by experts
Who share their knowledge
Born with a feel for the moment
An eye for beauty and form
Nature speaking to the senses
Where nothing is perfect
And everything Is perfect.
— kenne
Spring View Off The Patio (Palo Verdes Blooming) — Image by kenne
Ocotillos produce clusters of bright red flowers at their stem tips, which explain the plant’s name.
Ocotillo means “little torch” in Spanish — Images by kenne
Waiting It Out
Desert display
as Saguaro’s spiny arms
raise to the darkening blue sky.
Days of heat waves
chase Ocotillo flower buds
drooping slowly in the mauve air
very still … and then,
with the distant rumble of thunder
and a flash of lightening,
comes a first drop.
Coming fast, the rain begins
a flood within the gulch
and there, from nowhere,
from the nothing dust,
from the ether
reconstituted
as out of a mirage
appears by the side of the road …
a toad.
— Sue Mason
Spring Flowers Along The Trail — Image by kenne
— Wendell Berry
All Tangled Up In Barbed Wire — Image by kenne
I don’t know, why I don’t
Put it out baby
We kiss and the flames
Just get higher
But yeah I know
When I hold onto you baby
I’m all tangled up in barbed wire
I get burned, I don’t learn
I’ll be back, give it time
Yeah, I know it sounds crazy
But guess I like playing with fire
— from Playing with Fire by Thomas Rhett
Becoming is Superior to Being 