Empress Leilia Butterfly Collage by kenne
Archive for the ‘Southern Arizona’ Tag
Year-Round Resident In Southern Arizona 1 comment
Crested Caracara 1 comment
Crested Caracara — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Crested Caracaras are large birds with wingspans up to four feet. Males and females have the same plumage:
a black-topped head, a bare, reddish-orange face, and a white neck. The back and wings
are dark browns to black; the legs and talons are yellow. The underside of the wings has white tips.
The underside of the blacktail has white at the rump. In-flight, caracaras could be mistaken for black vultures.
(Arizona Daily Independent)
Recently, my friend and fellow Sabino CanyonVolunteer Naturalist Ned Harris shared some of his recent
images of crested caracaras. He is an amazing photographer!
Check out Ted’s Flickr account. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ned_harris/
Crested Caracara On A Saguaro — Image by Ned Harris
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Praying Mantis Egg Casing Leave a comment
Praying Mantis Egg Casing — Image by kenne
This praying mantis egg casing was probably created late last fall. Here in southern
Arizona, they are commonly found on mesquite tree branches. Each casing holds up
to 200 eggs, which hatch approximately eight weeks after the eggs are laid. Tiny
praying mantis nymphs will emerge through the narrow slits of the egg case. Unless
you can find the small nymphs (1/8 inch), it is impossible to tell if the egg cases have
actually hatched — the egg case will not change in appearance.
— kenne
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The Desert Land Leave a comment
“The Desert Land” — Image by kenne
The Lure of the Desert Land
Have you slept in a tent alone—a tent
Out under the desert sky—
Where a thousand thousand desert miles
All silent round you lie?—
The dust of the eons of ages dead,
And the peoples that trampled by?
Have you looked in the desert’s painted cup,
Have you smelled at dawn the wild sage musk,
Have you seen the lightning flashing up
From the ground in the desert dusk?
Have you heard the song in the desert rain
(Like the undertone of a wordless rhyme?)
Have you watched the glory of colors flame
In its marvel of blossom time?
Have you lain with your face in your hands, afraid,
Facedown—flat down on your face—and prayed,
While the terrible sand storm whirled and swirled
In its soundless fury, and hid the world
And quenched the sun in its yellow glare—
Just you, and your soul, and nothing, there?
If you have, then you know, for you’ve felt its spell,
The lure of the desert land,
And if you have not, then I could not tell—
For you could not understand.
— Madge Morris Wagner
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A Little Bit Of Southeast Texas In Southern Arizona Leave a comment
Japanese Azalea — Images by kenne
Our potted azalea plant has lost a lot of its leaves over the last couple of years,
but it’s still healthy enough to bloom this for us here in the desert.
Often it’s the little things that bring so much enjoyment
here reminding us of the years we spent in southeast Texas.
— kenne
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The Window of Yesterdays 5 comments
“Window of Yesterdays” — Photo-Artistry by kenne
The Window Of Yesterdays
Like Cinderella’s
Glass slipper
Only one shoe
Had the right fit.
In life’s early years
It took time
Searching
For the right fit —
Trying on
Many different shoes
Before the music
Brought us together.
I
Slipped into you
Tying you
To my body –
Knowing
Only you
Could get so close.
We
Have walked
Many miles
Not always in step
But at the start of each day
You were there.
You
Supported each step
Through the good times
When we danced together
And the bad times
When the music stopped.
Over the years
I knew
Where we were going
You knew
Where we had been
As our souls
Have now worn thin —
Broken
Held together by twin
Only now expressing
The secret face
Of our enter selves.
Having been seduced
By a lover’s
Darkest kiss
No longer laced together —
Merely to be left behind
In the window
Of yesterdays
Kissed only
By tomorrow’s sun.
— kenne
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Winter Fenceline Painting Leave a comment
Southern Arizona Winter Fenceline Painting by kenne
I love fences
while loving
entrances,
a reflection
of my being
in a world
of contrasts
and opposites.
— kenne
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Cattle Watering Hole In Southern Arizona — Pay Me Now, Or Pay Me Later Leave a comment
Cattle Watering Hole In Southern Arizona — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Once beautiful desert grassland,
Now destroyed by cattle raising
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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Desert Mountains Leave a comment
Desert Mountains of southern Arizona — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Towards the blue mountains,
a place shadowed by dark spaces
leaving a sort of a loneliness —
instead a Zen window where
thoughts become poetry
though never in a book
where true poems flee
into a world of deep silence.
— kenne
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Otherside of Nowhere 1 comment
“Old Watering Hole” — Black & White Image by kenne
OTHERSIDE OF NOWHERE
Still dusty and dry
the old place ain’t
what it used to be.
In the desert it’s hot
Thirsty for summer rains —
Yesterday was windy.
Vultures circle above
I turn away only to look back
Disappearing into clear air.
The mountains sweep up
As if floating a gray color
Over the old corral.
Soft breeze at mid-day
Vanes slowly turning
The noisy water pump.
A shadow network
Of the sunshine moves
Across dry sandy ground.
I cut down an agave stalk
To become my walking stick —
An old phase made real.
High on the ridge-side
I follow my own trail
To the otherside of nowhere.
— kenne
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Understanding Global Warming for Nonbelievers 5 comments
Image by kenne
Insolation Controls in the Age of Anthropocene
(Understanding Global Warming for Nonbelievers)
anthropocene
newly coined
unknown to
joe the Plumber
a new human
condition
argued as
invalid
only to be
based
on the invalid
alignment of
insolations
maxima and minima
questioning the new
condition
of our condition
— kenne
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Western Corral 3 comments
Western Corral — Image by kenne
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome,
dangerous, leading to most amazing view.
May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
— Edward Abbey
