Sonoran Desert Winter Sunset (January 6, 2022) — Image by kenne
A painted sunset
With many rainbow colors
Mercy to the clock.
— kenne
Archive for the ‘Tanuri Ridge’ Tag
Sonoran Desert Winter Sunset 2 comments
A New Year’s Eve Rainbow Leave a comment
Yesterday’s Rainbow (December 31, 2021) — Image by kenne
What this rainbow didn’t have in color, it made up for it in brightness.
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A Foothills Night Leave a comment
A Foothills Night — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Clouds move in
Over the mountains
Lightning strikes.
— kenne
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Gila Woodpecker Leave a comment
Gila Woodpecker — Image by kenne
Gila woodpecker
Pecking holes in saguaros.
Headache, what headache?
— kenne
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Questions Without Answers Leave a comment
Santa Catalina Mountains — Image by kenne
It’s peaceful to sit on the patio,
to sit under the olive tree
gazing at the autumn setting sun.
The mountains rise up as shadows
move across the Catalinas
soon to fade as darkness sets in.
The weather is kinder this time of year.
Soon stars will light up the sky,
completing the change from day to night,
becoming background for a shooting star.
Many questions without answers.
Is it better to know?
Questions without answers
are better left unasked.
— kenne
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Careless-weed Has Taken Over The Tanque Verde Wash Trails 2 comments
Images by kenne (Click on any of the images to see in a slide-show format.)
October is the time of year the Turkey Vultures are migrating south to Mexico, and for years they would overnight near the Tanque Verde Wash.
I have many images of them in the trees near the wash. I planned to photograph again this year but was waiting to see the vultures circling up,
usually around 8:30 AM. By this time in October, we have counted hundreds leaving in the mornings circling above headed south to Mexico.
For days now, I’ve been looking skyward for the circling vultures with no sign of them. Was it climate change delaying the annual migration? Where were the turkey vultures? Maybe I had not been paying attention.
So, this morning I grabbed my camera and walked down to the wash. I had not walked the trails along the wash since before the
summer monsoon. What I discovered was shocking. First, there were no vultures to be seen. Second, almost all the trails had disappeared,
covered by two to three meters of careless-weed (Palmer amaranth). This year’s heavy rains in July and August had brought on
a massive crop of this native weed. I walked through thick weeds, sometimes over my head. When I did find parts of a trail, its
path would soon disappear in the weeds.
Still, I kept walking, trying to find some old markers, especially the Margarita Berg memorial. Margarita had passed away in the spring of 2010, months before we moved to Tanuri Ridge in late June. At the time, I would often spend early mornings
walking the trails near the Tanque Verde wash, and in doing so, I discovered the memorial under a mesquite tree near the wash.
In fact, it was too close to the wash that the tree and the memorial were washed away in the winter of 2019.
However, pieces of the original monument were found and placed at the foot of another mesquite tree much farther north of the wash.
After spending over an hour walking through the weeds, I found the memorial, hidden by all the careless-weeds — a weed worthy of its name.
As for the turkey vultures nowhere to be seen, could all the careless-weed growth of two to three meters cause them to feel their usual perches
are now too close to the ground?
— kenne
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Four Butterflies On A Mexican Bird of Paradice Leave a comment
American Snout, Spring Azure, and Two Cloudless Sulphur Butterflies on a Mexican Bird of Paradice — Image by kenne
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Orange Sulphur Butterfly — The Brightside of Darkness 1 comment
Orange Sulphur Butterfly — Photo-Artistry by kenne
The Brightside of Darkness
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Praying Mantis 1 comment
Praying Mantis — Images by kenne
In today’s world, “even the mantis has stopped praying.”
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Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly Leave a comment
Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly — Images by kenne
my symbol of life
rests on a nearby flower
wings keep on moving
— kenne
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Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly Art 1 comment
Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly Art — Photo-Artistry by kenne
“Thou winged blossom, liberated thing,
What secret tie binds thee to other flowers,
Still held within the garden’s fostering?
Will they too soar with the completed hours,
Take flight, and be like thee
Irrevocably free,
Hovering at will o’er their parental bowers?
Or is thy luster drawn from heavenly hues,—
A sumptuous drifting fragment of the sky,
Caught when the sunset its last glance imbues
With sudden splendor, and the tree-tops high
Grasp that swift blazonry,
Then lend those tints to thee,
On thee to float a few short hours, and die?”
— from Ode to a Butterfly by Thomas Wentworth Higginson
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White-lined Sphinx Moth 1 comment
White-lined Sphinx Moth — Image by kenne
White-lined sphinx moths are among the largest flying insects of the deserts, with adult wingspans exceeding 5 inches.
Larvae can be just as long, up to 5 inches, with most having a prominent horn at the rear of their fleshy body.
When alarmed, these larvae rear up their heads in a threatening sphinx-like posture and may emit a thick,
green substance from their mouths.
The body of the white-lined sphinx moth ranges in length from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches. It has a prominent brown head,
a brown thorax with 6 white stripes and a brown abdomen with paired dark spots on each segment.
The forewings are brown with a buff-colored band from base to tip and veins outlined in white.
The hind wings are pink, turning to dark brown near the margins.
Source: http://www.desertusa.com
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Butterflies Everywhere 1 comment
Cloudless Sulphue Butterflies On Mexican Bird Of Paradice — Image by kenne
gone from the desert
back to butterflies and bees
a record monsoon
— kenne
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Road Trip Preparation Leave a comment
Our yard and patio have a lot of drought-resistant plants, including several types of cactus and succulents. Additionally, we have a few tropical plants that need regular watering, even during the monsoon season. Irrigation being irrigation, meaning problematic, I routinely have to replace sections of PVC flexible hose. Since we will be gone for a little over three weeks, I’ve been working to minimize any potential problems. In the past couple of weeks, I have repaired four leeks and yesterday replaced the timer.
— kenne
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.”
— Stephen Crane
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Panoramic View From The Patio Leave a comment
Panoramic View From The Patio After Monsoon Rains — Photo-Artistry by kenne
clouds hug the mountains
after monsoon rains move on
my heart leaps with joy
— kenne
Becoming is Superior to Being 