Archive for the ‘Tanque Verde Wash’ Category
“Goldfinches”– Photo-Artistry by kenne
Tomorrow is my grandson, Kenne Jaxon’s 8th birthday. It’s been about two years since we have seen our grandsons, Jaxon and Nick, so we had planned on visiting them in New Hampshire in May. Because of the pandemic, our plans have been put on hold. So I began to look for a gift to send Jaxon and in doing so became aware of a poetry book for children, The Lost Words, by Robert Macfarlane. It’s a collection of acrostic spell-poems, beautifully illustrated by Jackie Morris, each one devoted to a word removed from the Oxford Junior Dictionary.
Robert Macfarlane is a British writer and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He is best known for his books on landscape, nature, place, people, and language.
“Books, like landscapes, leave their marks in us. (…)
Certain books, though, like certain landscapes,
stay with us even when we left them,
changing not just our weathers but our climates.”
— kenne
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Images by kenne
Two pre-schoolers live with their parents at the end of Tanuri Drive making it easy to put lessons on the street.
Everyone in Tanuri Ridge is now sheltered at home. There are only 72 homes in our community
where many of us are spending some of our days walking the streets of Tanuri Ridge.
Some of us wander off down by the Tanque Verde Wash.
Stay safe, everyone.
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One Beautiful Bird (Turkey Vulture) — Image by kenne
I had walked since dawn and lay down to rest on a bare hillside
Above the ocean. I saw through half-shut eyelids a vulture wheeling
high up in heaven,
And presently it passed again, but lower and nearer, its orbit
narrowing,
I understood then
That I was under inspection. I lay death-still and heard the flight-
feathers
Whistle above me and make their circle and come nearer.
I could see the naked red head between the great wings
Bear downward staring. I said, ‘My dear bird, we are wasting time
here.
These old bones will still work; they are not for you.’ But how
beautiful
he looked, gliding down
On those great sails; how beautiful he looked, veering away in the
sea-light
over the precipice. I tell you solemnly
That I was sorry to have disappointed him. To be eaten by that beak
and
become part of him, to share those wings and those eyes–
What a sublime end of one’s body, what an enskyment; what a life
after death.
— Robinson Jeffers
Turkey Vultures leaving their overnight stay along the Tanque Verde Wash as they continue their migration north.
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Turkey Vultures Migrating North — Photo-Artistry by kenne
This is the time of year when hundreds of migrating turkey vultures
spend the night along the Tanque Verde wash, each morning they start
circling up seeking wind currents in their ride north.
This image is a composite of four images placed on a sky background.
— kenne
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Cactus Blossoms — Image by kenne
Turkey Vultures Migrating North — Image by kenne
The other morning we counted over 250 turkey vultures
leaving the Tanque Verde Wash just south of our community.
This time of year hundreds of turkey vultures spend the night in trees along the wash.
— kenne
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Turkey Vultures Against A White Sky — Image by kenne
“Turkey Vultures are large birds, cloaked in loose-fitting brown/black feathers that make them look shaggy and unkempt when perched. The legs and feet are sturdy and unfeathered; the color, where not coated in excrement, is cherub pink.
The face is ruddy and wrinkled and topped with an embarrassingly sparse cap of feathers. Its expression is uncommonly serene and there is something about it that suggests infinite patience. Huddled on their perches, wrapped in shabby vestments, the birds look like a group of balding monks gathered in prayer.”
— Pete Dunne, The Wind Masters
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Somewhere Along the Tanque Verde Wash — Image by kenne
Life,
Hiding in the shadows
Giving distinction to words
Passing with each moment
Death,
Longing to connect
Extending a hand
In its dark silhouette
Seeker,
Walking in the aura
Existing on the watch
Rotating with each reflection
— kenne
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Bougainvillea — Image by kenne
We all love the beautiful Bougainvillea blossoms. They add a lot of color to the Tucson landscape. However, maintaining them can be very frustrating. For starters, they have very long thorns, so pruning must be done very carefully, and they will die at the first frost, which can happen easily since we live near a wash allowing the cold night air to drop lower than the surrounding areas.
He loves bougainvilleas
but hated the thorns.
He wanted to know
why all beauty came
with such pain and
was it as answer less as
where eggs came from
when life is all about the eggs,
“because we need the eggs.”
— kenne
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Last Of The Migrating Turkey Vultures — Images by kenne (Three images in a slideshow format.)
Usually, by 1st of April, the last of the turkey vultures rousting overnight near the Tanque Verde has completed the spring migration north. This year we have counted upwards of 100 leaving each morning now well into April.
— kenne
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Turkey Vulture in Flight Over the Tanque Verde Wash — Image by kenne
Late afternoon
Brings the big birds
Circling in for a landing
In the dead trees
By the Tanque Verde Wash.
Their stay will be brief
Before warming up
In the morning sun
Before liftoff, circling
Gaging the currents.
Each day for most of March
The turkey vultures return
In their journey north
To their northern home
Only to return next fall.
— kenne
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“Liftoff ” (Turkey Vulture in Dead Tree Along Tanque Verde Wash) — Image by kenne
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Another Sign Of Spring, Turkey Vultures Overnight by the Tanque Verde Wash
