Monsoon Clouds Over the Santa Catalina Mountains — Image by kenne
A rainy day is a perfect time to walk in the mountains.
— kenne
Archive for the ‘Santa Catalina Mountains’ Category
Sleepy Orange & Dainty Sulphur Butterflies Leave a comment
Monsoon Clouds Leave a comment
Clouds Over The Catalinas Leave a comment
Clouds Over The Catalinas — Image by kenne
The monsoon brought below-average rain this year
that is unless you are up in the Santa Catalina Mountains.
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Too Close To The Edge Leave a comment
Tucson Basin, August 31, 2022 — Panorama Image by kenne
Blue sky above
a winding highway
on a sunkissed morning.
Tourists in rental cars
stop at Windy Point vista
climbing boulders
for a better view —
children too close
to the edge.
— kenne
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Monsoon Weather Has Moved On Leave a comment
Monsoon Weather Has Moved On — Santa Catalina Mountains Image by kenne
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Sycamore Canyon Painting Leave a comment
Sycamore Canyon Painting — Photo-Artistry by kenne
I think back
Hiking the canyon
Up and down.
— kenne
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Camphorweed Blossoms On Mt. Lemmon Leave a comment
Camphorweed Blossoms On Mt. Lemmon (August 31, 2022) — Image by kenne
Photographer
He focuses,
greens and yellows
blooming has started
surrounded by buds
museling their way
to the next stage
unraveling on
writhing stems.
— kenne
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Arizona Sunset Leave a comment
Mountains of Southeast Arizona — Photo-Artistry by kenne
“Arizona – Land of extremes. Land of contrasts. Land of surprises. Land of contradictions.”
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Baby Jesus Trail In The Catalina Mountains Leave a comment
Baby Jesus Trail Near Catalina, AZ — Panorama by kenne created by merging three images in Photoshop
This trail is one of several hiking trails on the southwestern slopes of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
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Standing At Nature’s Alter 2 comments
Standing At Nature’s Alter — Image by kenne (Monday Morning Milers — August 29, 2011)
Standing at Nature’s Alter
When we stand at the
altar of nature,
we stand with the greats;
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Henry David Thoreau,
and John Muir,
each having helped define
our relationship
with nature and language —
“Every natural fact is a symbol
of some spiritual fact,
. . . words are signs of natural facts.”
Nature’s beauty becomes
a source of spiritual energy
connecting all things
into a universal whole
with the power of our
thoughts and will.
We stand at nature’s altar
not separate from her,
seeing us in the flowers,
insects, animals, mountains,
creating a unified landscape
of our inward and outward senses.
Like all relationships,
the experience depends
on the degree of harmony
between us and nature,
therefore becoming a gift
granted while walking with nature
as she is embraced in our minds –
Enlighten, she shares her secrets,
making the universe more “transparent.”
Yet, the gift may only offer a glimpse,
to be shared in images and words,
charming all living things.
— kenne
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. — John Muir
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Saguaro Cactus In The Canyon Leave a comment
A Many-Armed Saguaro Cactus (Sabino Canyon) — Image by kenne
Mighty Saguaro
Saguaro cacti rise up like mighty sentinels
boldly claiming the high desert plains
tall and proud, their prickly arms
forewarn intruders to stop and beware.
A daunting presence, bold and majestic
toughness flows through their cacti veins
Saguaro endure long hours in the barren wilderness
their roots persevere under the dry, hard crust.
With no respite, save for the night
Saguaro rule valiantly in a god forsaken land.
— Laura Leiser
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Arizona Madrone At Sunrise Leave a comment
Arizona Madrone At Sunrise — Image by kenne
Arizona madrone is a small tree, sometimes a large shrub, found in the mountains of southeastern Arizona,
southwestern New Mexico, and northern Mexico. It can reach heights of 50 feet. The trunks of these
trees are gray and checkered, and the branches are reddish with smooth bark.
Arizona madrones are found in canyon bottoms and hillsides in oak-pine zone at elevations of 4,000 to 8,200 ft.
Look for this handsome tree while hiking in the mountains around Tucson.
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Early Morning Walk In The Canyon 2 comments
Early Morning Walk In Sabino Canyon — Image by kenne
Desert flower blow
Blighting early morning walks
What more can you want?
— kenne
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Invoking the Full Meaning of Life 6 comments
I’m Just A Traveler In Other People’s Reality — Image by a Fellow Higher On The Trail
Invoking the Full Meaning of Life
How best to express sharing new life
when each moment deserves its face.
What seems apropos for the moment,
when the next moment fosters a unique experience.
Is it in a number?
The number of days?
The number of thoughts?
The number of heartbeats?
The number of turns?
The number of prayers?
. . . you can count the ways,
only to still not know life’s score.
Is it in a word?
Loving?
Caring?
Sharing?
Giving?
Sheltering?
Words to communicate thoughts and feelings
when manifested in knowledge and experience.
Or is it in art?
Transforming thought,
expressing feeling,
experiencing emotions and
the desire to evoke life,
even when distance
appears to separate a lifelong bond.
I wrote this in the 1990s. Since then, retirement and moved 1,000 miles from where we had spent 25 years, putting distance between bonds. In the twelve years since moving, we have watched the bonds drift away, causing me to question the desire to evoke life, even when distance can’t separate a lifelong bond.
We moved to the Sonoran desert with the illusion that friends and family would be beating a path to our new home in the desert southwest — not such luck. So we try staying in touch through social media, often questioning whether the bonds were ever real — confirming that we remain tourists in other people’s reality.
I once read a posting by blogger Old Jules, “These damned ego-warts.”
Old Jules was a 70-year-old hermit, living with three cats somewhere in the Texas Hill Country and writing a blog I enjoyed reading from time to time. Old Jules, who passed away April 21, 2020 at 74, had concluded that he has spent over a third of his life “being insignificant in the lives of others.”
In 1992, after 25 years of marriage and a career of 20 years, he began a new career and life in Santa Fe.
“All secure in the knowledge the extended family and friends remaining behind were part of my life in which I’d been and remained important.”
Over time he concluded it was all an illusion.
“Kids, young adult nephews, and nieces I’d coddled and bounced on my knee pealed out of my life-like layers of an onion. Most I never heard from again.”
He began to realize that he was merely tolerated, “. . . a piece of furniture in their lives.”
Over time he rebuilt his life with a more potent dose of skepticism concerning his worth and place in the lives of others, which resulted in his becoming a hermit.
“I no longer assume I’m important in the lives of other human beings and get my satisfaction in knowing I’m at least relevant to the cats.
Because cats, though sometimes dishonest, aren’t capable of the depth and duration of dishonesty humans indulge regularly.”
Old Jules had come to believe “. . . that life is entirely too important and too short to be wasted in insignificance.”
His new awareness of life is now in teaspoon measurements, “. . . measured in contracts with cats not equipped to lie. A determination in the direction of significance measured in teaspoons of reality,
as opposed to 55-gallon drums of dishonesty and self-delusion.”
“Teaspoons, I find, don’t spill away as much life in the discovery
when they’re found to be just another ego-wart of pride and self-importance.”
Bonds, illusion or not, have difficulty being when the moments are separated by time and distance, becoming gleams of light, for an instant, in the long night.
I understand where Old Jules was coming from and feel his disillusionment. There is, however, a binding force that comes from a homesick longing to be whole, to have completion, as Plato described in the myth of the human halves passionately striving towards one. Like all mythical totalities, humans are subject to the triple dramaturgical rhythm of primal completeness, separation catastrophe, and restoration. The most significant attraction effect occurs between the second and third acts of life’s drama, which is where I find myself today — maybe this is also where Old Jules is. I am learning to understand myself from a new divide, one half experienced, the other inexperienced — in such a way that I’m learning to understand myself in new ways.
But then, there are the darn cats!
Kika, what do you think?
Kika (She passed away December 10, 2011.)
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Sabino Canyon Green Panorama Leave a comment
Monsoon Rains are Greening Up Sabino Canyon — Panorama Image by kenne
It’s not easy to tell, but saguaros are getting plump sucking up the water — believe me.
— kenne
Becoming is Superior to Being 
Sleepy Orange & Dainty Sulphur Butterflies On Narrow-leaf Aster Wildflowers (Santa Catalina Mountains) — Image by kenne
“And anyway, what is the difference between self-knowledge and self-obsession?
One encourages a defeat of the ego, the other encourages a feeding of the ego.
One a deeper experience of connection to ourselves, which enables a more
nourishing connection to others. The other, disdain for the deeper needs of the self,
which leads to disdain of others.”
— from On Connection by Kae Tempest
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