Nature Abstract by kenne
Archive for the ‘Sonoran Desert’ Tag
Nature Abstract Leave a comment
Blooming Saguaro Leave a comment
Blooming Saguaro — Image by kenne
Blooming saguaro
A clear shot with pristine light
I see these presences.
— kenne
Share this:
It’s That Time Of Year In The Sonoran Desert Leave a comment
Saguaros Are Blooming Everywhere — Image by kenne
Share this:
Bee On Monument Plant Blossom 2 comments
Bee On Monument Plant Blossom — Image by kenne
If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze
that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house
and unlatch the door to the canary’s cage,
indeed, rip the little door from its jamb
— from Today by Billy Collins
Share this:
Cactus Blossoms Are Everywhere This Spring 1 comment
Cactus Blossoms Are Everywhere This Spring — Images by kenne
Prickly pear cactus
Yellow, the color of spring
Lights up the desert.
— kenne
Share this:
Saguaro National Park-East Leave a comment
Saguaro National Park-East — Image by kenne
Many hiking trails
Through the saguaro forest
In this desert park.
— kenne
Share this:
Spring Time In The Desert 2 comments
Ocotillos In Bloom — HDR Image by kenne
Red torches light up
The desert in the springtime
Many shades of red.
— kenne
House Finch On Ocotillo — Image by kenne
Share this:
Puerto Peñasco Water Front 2 comments
Puerto Peñasco, Sonora Water Front — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Puerto Peñasco, Rocky Point, is a Mexican fishing and resort city on the Sea of Cortes. It’s known for dune-backed Sandy Beach
and Bahía la Choya’s tidal pools. The Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans has gardens and a fin-whale skeleton.
Rocky Point is often called “Arizona’s beach” because it is close in proximity to Arizona and easy to get to rather quickly.
Share this:
Taking A Breather Leave a comment
Hiking the Italian Springs Trail (April, 2012) — Image by kenne
bushed
a trail cursed
and charmed
taking a breather
in solitude
and shade
alligator junipers
mountain pines
overlooking a
big sky pass
scrambling time
and seasons
whence we came
where we went
Redington road
to the plateau
beneath Mica
mountain summit
till you get there yourself
it remains our paradise
sharing our wanderlust
in this virtual world
— kenne
(This hike was one of many I did with my old hiking buddy, Tom Markey, who passed awayAugust 17, 2022.)
Share this:
Tanque Verde Ranch 1 comment
Considered one of the top cattle and guest ranches in the southwest, Tanque Verde Ranch is located on 60,000 acres of
Tucson’s most breathtaking desert landscapes in the Rincon Mountains foothills adjacent to Saguaro National Park and
Coronado National Forest.
Established in 1868, Tanque Verde Ranch is recognized as the last luxurious outpost of the old west providing guests with comfortable
accommodations, unparalleled amenities, and a vast array of exciting activities, including horseback riding, mountain biking,
fishing, hiking, and more!
Originally purchased and settled as a cattle ranch by Rafael and Emilio Carillo, the land was sold to Jim Converse
in the early 1900s. It was sold in 1957 to the Bob Cote family, which has owned it ever since.
Tanque Verde became a guest ranch under Converse, who saw the move as an opportunity to attract those
interested in cowboy life. The number of guest ranches in southern Arizona has dropped
since the 1950s from around 55 to seven or eight today,
A wall in the Tanque Verde Ranch sales office.
Kiva Dinning Room
A statue near the original ranch house.
Mesquite trees shadow the path to some of the cottages.
The Desert Garden cottage area.
These days, the ranch has added hiking, tennis, mountain biking and nature programs, as well as a health spa, for its guests.
It has also brought in televisions and wireless Internet.
Photo Essay by kenne
Share this:
Purple Owl’s-Clover Leave a comment
Purple Owl’s-Clover — Image by kenne
Share this:
Great Year For Wildflowers In The Southwest Leave a comment
Great Year for Wildflowers In the Desert Southwest — Image by kenne
The flowers stand among
the creosol and saguaros
as a hummingbird hovers
nearby, then gone.
The migrating birds
have passed on
as April becomes
summer heat.
The flowers like
a nearby stream
gone in the dry air.
— kenne
Share this:
Yucca Blossom Time Of The Year Leave a comment
Yucca Blossom Time of the Year In the Sonoran Desert — Image by kenne
Did you know Yuccas are members of the lily family with blooms of similar form but much different foliage?
Share this:
Our First Spring Cactus Blossom 3 comments
Our First Spring Cactus Blossom (March 31, 2023) — Image by kenne
“I’m an observer of life. I like to watch people, and I like to watch cactus.
I like to talk to mountains and communicate with my friends in the other spheres and dimensions.”
— Frederick Lenz
Share this:
Santa Catalina Mountains Panorama: Western View Leave a comment
Santa Catalina Mountains Panorama: Western View from Wasson Peak– Image by kenne
“The day warmed and on the margins of a steep ravine splitting the side of the mesa I found dry rocks to scramble up. I liked that about the desert.
Morning snow and afternoon warmth, the winter equivalent of a spring freshet, but for which I had no word. In some ways, words were superfluous.
They didn’t help—no words came to mind—as I pulled on a loose boulder and leaped awkwardly out of the way of its crashing descent,
its delicate angle of repose inadvertently re-reposed. All the rocks in this ravine were similarly precarious, and I continued with greater care
as the ravine steepened near the top of the mesa. I had lost sight of the ravens, and they of me. I had not spotted a
bighorn sheep the entire day. I was pleased the boulder did not take me with it.”
— from 1/21/21 by David Jenkins
(Anthropologist David Jenkins is the author of Nature and Bureaucracy: The Wildness of Managed Landscapes (Routledge 2022). He has taught at MIT and Bates College and worked in the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology at the University of Arizona. For the last dozen years, he has worked in public lands management, where he tries to do some good for the planet.
Becoming is Superior to Being 