Archive for the ‘Southern Arizona’ Category

Stumble On   Leave a comment

Hiking Shoes — Photo-Artistry by kenne

Stumble On

My hiking shoes rest in the garage

Next to the hiking poles, yet

I continue to stumble on — 

Stumble on down life’s path.

A life of jogging, enduring pain

Followed by a decade of hiking

Enduring pain in an old man’s body,

Yet I continue to stumble on —

Stumble on down life’s path

Trying not to let a stumble

Become a fall on life’s path.

— kenne

 

Monsoon Sunset   Leave a comment

Monsoon Sunset — Image by kenne

With just a few days left in July, Tucson has already received 5.71 inches of rain, making this the fourth-wettest July.
I have recorded 7 inches on our patio in the Catalina Foothills. This amount of rain will help Southern Arizona recover
from the ongoing drought, improving from a D4-exceptional drought to a D3-extreme drought (National Weather Service).
There are indications that monsoon activity will start uo again toward the end of the week.

Giant Saguaros   1 comment

Giant Saguaros off of State Highway 77 — Image by kenne

At first glance, you may not notice how thin the giant Saguaros are. Saguaros can survive in drought conditions
for over one hundred years by taking on a lot of water during the two rainy seasons each year in the Sonoran Desert. 
They can expand, take on hundreds of gallons of water, then contract as they use the stored water during the
hot-dry time of the year. Unfortunately, the combined total rainfall from last summer’s monsoon and winter rains
was less than half the average amount. As a result, many of the older and diseased saguaros are now dying. 

As we enter this year’s monsoon season, we hope for plenty of rain to fatten up the symbol of our desert.

— kenne

Corral Fence Line Art   1 comment

Corral Fence Line — Photo-Artistry by kenne

“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast….a part-time crusader,
a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight
for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here
.” 

— Edward Abbey

Agave Plant   Leave a comment

Agave Plant — Image by kenne

“Nearly all agaves, along with most bromeliads such as pineapple, are somewhat peculiar in their flowering habit.
They grow vegetatively for many years (though not the hundred years that gave rise to the common name of
century plant) without producing a single flower, and then when they get the urge to reproduce, they send
forth an enormous stalk with hundreds and hundreds of them. These plants that flower and set seed only once
in their lives are called monocarpic.”
— Source: Succulent Gardens

Another Year of Few Wildflowers   Leave a comment

Another Year of Few Wildflowers In The Sonoran Desert — Image by kenne

Spring wildflowers in the Sonoran desert depend on fall and winter rains. When there are little to no rains, as
has been the last few years, then there are few wildflowers in the spring. The above image is in the Molino
Basin, where in non-drought years, there are plenty of wildflowers to photograph. This year there are only a
few patches to be found.

— kenne

Wildflowers on King Canyon Trail   1 comment

Wildflowers on King Canyon Trail — Images by kenne
(Click On Any Image For Larger View)

“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure some of them are sandy.”

Lupine Wildflower   Leave a comment

Lupine Wildflower — Image by kenne

Lupine Wildflower
Claimed by Texas as its own,
“Texas bluebonnet.”

Can’t own wildflowers
Nature doesn’t have borders.

— kenne

 

Arizona State Route 83   Leave a comment

Arizona State Route 83 Vista in Southern Arizona — Image by kenne

Southern Arizona Fence Line   1 comment

Southern Arizona Fence Line — Photo-Artistic by kenne

I would like to write a poem about the world
that has in it, nothing fancy

Like our travels, our workdays
burned upon the world.

And forgetting everything I will leap to name it
as though for the first time

Turning always in my mind toward you,
your slopes, folds, gentle openings.

As a poem or a prayer, can also make
luminous any dark place on earth.

Maybe we’re necessary to each other,
and this vacant place has need of us both.

Calling us back to why, how and whence
such beauty and what the meaning.

To its joy we come together–the seer
and the seen, the eater and the eaten,
the lover and the loved.

— Mary Oliver & Wendell Berry – A Found Poem
   (Source: Simply Blessed)

Tumacácori National Historical Park   1 comment

Tumacácori National Historical Park — Images by kenne (Click On Any Image To See Slide Show.)

“Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal,
for the present moment is infinitely small; before we can measure it, it has gone,
and yet it exists forever….” 

– Alan Watts

Homeless   4 comments

Hut In Southern Arizona — Image by kenne

Homeless;
– Down by the muddy Mississippi
Skinny as a rail,
Sleeping under the old Eads bridge
Feeling low, dirty, and frail –
Homeless;
– With less than two coins
In both pockets,
Empty eyes
Look through sunken sockets –
Homeless;
– So many people walk right on by
I wonder how many care,
They all keep moving
Even though they stare –
Homeless;
– Lost a job
Lost a home,
Lost a family
Lost all hope –
Homeless;
– Where will I go from here
What should I do,
I’m so thankful when the weather’s fair
And the skies are blue –
Homeless;
– Don’t know the day nor season
And, yea, it sure gets cold at night,
I’ve got an old sleeping bag
I’ll be alright –
Homeless;
– There’s so many of us out here
Without a home,
Even so
I feel so very alone –
Homeless;
– It’s a tough situation
Not pretty, just true,
And at any time
It could happen to you –
Homeless;
– Hey buddy…
Could you spare a dime,
And say a prayer for us
… sometime –
– I’m just homeless, not less human…

— Smoky Hoss

Little Green Bird   Leave a comment

Green Heron — Image by kenne

A little green bird

Standing near the water’s edge

Don’t fly away yet.

— kenne

Fall Landscape   Leave a comment

Fall Landscape — Photo-Artistry by kenne

“It is precisely because we resist
the darkness in ourselves
that we miss the depths
of the loveliness, beauty,
brilliance, creativity, and joy
that lie at our core.”

— Thomas Moore

Cattle In The Dusty West   Leave a comment

Cattle at Watering Hole-Edit-5-art-72Cattle In The Dusty West — Photo-Artistry by kenne

Once beautiful desert grassland,
Now destroyed by overgrazing 

On land unable to sustain 
The native desert environment

Draining the groundwater levels in a
World of “pay me now, or pay me later.”

— kenne

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