I have learned a lot from my hiking friends. — Image by kenne
Learning is all about connections,
and through our connections with unique people,
we are able to gain a true understanding
of the world around us.
Archive for the ‘Hiking’ Category
Learning 1 comment
Desert Spiny On His Throne Leave a comment
Desert Spiny Lizard On His Throne — Image by kenne
Kiss me if you like
Better like a lot of tongue
I’m a great lover.
— kenne
Where All The Desert Beauty Runs Together — Sabino Canyon Leave a comment
View from Blackett’s Ridge of Sabino Canyon (11/01/13) — Image by kenne
Canyons, big or small
Gathering nature’s beauty
Takes your breath away.
— kenne
A Lesson On Correcly Identifying Monarch, Queen and Viceroy Butterflies Leave a comment
The Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists (SCVN) have been preparing a new kit for Elementary School Program, which will be on pollinators. I was asked to provide some photos of pollinators. One of the photos first appeared on this blog in a grunge art piece I did in September of 2015, which I mistakenly identified as a viceroy.
One of the Pollinators kit developers is SCVN member Fred Heath, whom we consider our butterfly expert. Fred let me know that I had misidentified the butterfly —
“The orange and black butterfly is a Queen and not a Viceroy.
As you probably know, the Viceroy is a mimic of the Monarch and Queen.
In the east where there are more Monarchs than Queens,
the Viceroy is a brighter orange. Out west and in the south where there are more
Queens than Monarchs the Viceroy is more of a burnt orange like the Queen.
The one quick way to distinguish between the Queen and the Viceroy,
that that the Viceroy has a black median band,
which goes across the hindwing and the Queen doesn’t have that band.
This mistake is made a lot. There was a billboard that advertised Mexico and the Monarchs,
but the butterfly in the billboard is a Viceroy.
When I google Viceroy, the first picture they show is a Monarch.”
Fred Heath Slide for One of His Butterfly Presentations
Life Beyond Stop 9 Leave a comment
“Life” — Digital Painting by kenne
Life Beyond Stop 9
Twisting trails to Hutch’s Pool
Switchbacks from Stop 9
Reaching the canyon wall trail
Down to East and West Forks —
Creek waters are high, some
Hikers are turning back to Stop 9.
I lead others up to where the falls
Form a mountain swimming pool.
Block by a lower ridge
Mt. Lemmon is due north
Bringing water over large boulders
Slippery and dangerous to climb.
Now, noon, I set by the pool
Encouraging others to rest
Sharing the spirit of downstream
on the southern slope of Mt. Lemmon.
— kenne
The Final Belief . . . Leave a comment
Desert Hibiscus — Image by kenne
“The final belief
is to believe in a fiction,
which you know to be a fiction,
there being nothing else.
The exquisite truth
is to know that it is
a fiction and that
you believe in it willingly.”
— Wallace Stevens
Cold Blooded and Warm Blooded Animals Are On The Move 2 comments
Desert Spiny Lizard in the Saguaro National Park (April 2, 2018) — Image by kenne
Most days here in the Sonoran Desert are averaging in the 80’s causing reptiles to be on the move and our “snowbird” friends to start packing for their journey north.
With morning lows around 50 degrees, this Desert Spiny (Sceloporus magister) was more interested in sunning than our nearby presence. This native of the Sonoran Desert is a large (up to about 142 mm or 5.6″ from snout to vent), stocky lizard with large, pointed, keeled, overlapping scales. The Desert Spiny can live up to six years, which explains the one that has been a patio friend for several years now, which I visit with each day.
— kenne
