End of Blackett’s Ridge Trail — Image by kenne
Archive for the ‘Nature’ Category
End Of The Trail Leave a comment
“The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.
A Light Exists In Spring 1 comment
Saguaro Family — Image by kenne
A Light Exists In Spring
A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period —
When March is scarcely here
A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.
It waits upon the Lawn,
It shows the furthest Tree
Upon the furthest Slope you know
It almost speaks to you.
Then as Horizons step
Or Noons report away
Without the Formula of sound
It passes and we stay —
A quality of loss
Affecting our Content
As Trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a Sacrament.
— Emily Dickinson
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The Raven 6 comments
The Raven — Image by kenne
“Deep into that darkness peering,
long I stood there, wondering,
fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams
no mortal ever dared to dream before.”
— from The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
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Hiking Esperero Trail In The Spring 3 comments
Hiking Esperero Trail In the Spring (Santa Catalina Mountains) –Image by kenne
In each line’s strange syllable: she awakes
as a gull, torn
between heaven and earth.
I accept her, stand with her face to face.
—in this dream: she wears her dress
like a sail, runs behind me, stopping
when I stop. She laughs
as a child speaking to herself:
“soul = pain + everything else.”
I bend clumsily at the knees
and I quarrel no more,
all I want is a human window
in a house whose roof is my life
–Marina Tsvetaeva
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Sutherland Trail Wildflowers 2 comments
Purple Owl’s-Clover, Desert Poppies, and Western Honeybee On Sutherland Trail — Image by kenne
“I dream of a quiet man
who explains nothing and defends
nothing, but only knows
where the rarest wildflowers
are blooming, and who goes,
and finds that he is smiling
not by his own will.”
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Dragonflies Mating Leave a comment
Dragonflies Mating — Photo-artistry by kenne
All nature’s creatures join to express nature’s purpose.
Somewhere in their mounting and mating, rutting and
butting is the very secret of nature itself.
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Spring Wildflowers In The Sonoran Desert 2 comments
This book by Frank S. Rose is more like a bible for naturalists walking and hiking in southern Arizona.
The abundance of wildflowers varies from year to year, and this year is definitely one of the better years.
“I was lying on the ground in Molina Basin, camera at the ready, attempting to photograph a flower. I had no idea what it was, but I had a list of the plants in the Santa Catalina Mountains. How, I wondered, would I connect what I was seeing through my camera lens with a particular plant on the list? Then I heard a woman’s voice. ‘Ooh, another plant photography.” I looked up to see two women approaching. The person who spoke introduced herself as Joan Tedford, and, to my delight and amazement, she was the person who had made this list I was using . . . Joan invited us to join a group that takes a weekly nature walk in the Catalinas. Every week for the summer and into the fall I happily followed the leader, Bob Porter, as we explored many different trails, noting plants, birds, and anything else of interest along the way. So began a ten-year adventure, some of the happiest hours of my life, spent in the company of Joan Tedford, Bob Porter, and other Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists who helped us explore the extensive trail system in this Sky Island range.” — Frank S. Rose
(Click On Any Of The Tiled Photos To See A Larger Image.)
“The Sonoran Desert is nature’s giant watercolor.”
— unknown
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Saguaros In Sabino Canyon Leave a comment
Saguaros In Sabino Canyon — Image by kenne
“People trample over flowers, yet only to embrace a cactus.”
— James Joyce
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Bottle-brush Blossom Leave a comment
Bottle-brush Blossom — Photo-artistry by kenne
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Costa’s Hummingbird — Another View Leave a comment
Costa’s Hummingbird — Another View — Image by kenne
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Lasting Scars On The Sky Above And The Earth Below 4 comments
Mining Scars In The Valley Below Madera Canyon — image by kenne
We Scar The Things We Love
There is always something worth trekking
in the Sonoran Desert.
Sometimes, the treks start early in the morning,
driving across the Tucson basin over
occasional low water crossings and cattle guards
on narrow roads, stopping for big yellow buses.
A canyon road leads out of Green Valley,
a quiet, peaceful community
along the banks of the Santa Cruz River
covered with oaks and walnut trees
and a rich history with the Tumacacori Mission
to the south and San Xavier del Bac to the north.
Crossing one-lane bridges through a grassland bajada,
the road climbs toward Madera Canyon
nestled between Mt. Wrightson and Mt. Hopkins
on the eastern slope of the Santa Rita Mountains,
forming one of the Sonoran desert’s Sky Islands,
an oasis above this bowl-shaped canyon.
Although some are called “Friends of Madera Canyon”
all visitors, be they hikers, birders, walkers,
or just those relaxing at one of the beautiful vistas
share a love of nature and being outdoors,
forming a friendship that helps bond
memoirs of a shared love.
“All the while, jumbled memories flirt out on their own,”
intruding on nature’s beautiful vistas
where a river once ran through, now shadowed
by a high wall of tailings surrounding a pond,
altering nature’s beautiful vistas above the canyon,
producing lasting scars on the sky above and the earth below.
— kenne
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Red-winged Blackbird Leave a comment
Red-winged Blackbird — Image by kenne
Blackbird up in tree
With a red patch on your wing
Stopping for a moment.
— kenne
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Sky Reflection 3 comments
East End Park, Houston, Texas — Image by kenne
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Death In The Desert Leave a comment
Dying Saguaro Cactus — Image by kenne
Death in the desert
Stands as if in defiance
Against gravity.
— kenne
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Common Collared Lizard 1 comment
Common Collared Lizard — Image by kenne
