A warm wind from the Sonoran Desert

Last year on this date, I wrote a blog about the Sonoran Desert, Cochise Stronghold, and the Chiricahuas.    Although the heat can bake a person's brain, body, and soul in summer, the area is an extraordinary place, particularly in winter and spring.

The list of trees I love includes aspen, oak, Ponderosa pine, juniper, and the Palo Verde.  The  Palo Verde below has been abused by humans and assorted other animals, but it has so much character, drama, and color, that the image remains one of my favorites.

Regardless of the amount of moisture, there is one certainty about the desert.  It will come alive, and cactus will bloom.  This is a nearly perfect prickly pear cactus in bloom

Depending on the amount of moisture a claret cup cactus has received during any given year, the blooms can be about as gaudy as they come.

There is a spring wind blowing this morning.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

Winter remnants

The human brain is an amazing thing.  At some point during the summer, when the night breeze moves lightly over our faces, I will barely be able to recall the depths of winter.  But at present, it is not quite ready to vacate the mesa.

The elk seem to be very active right now.  A herd of about fifty animals, all cows and only one bull, were literally thundering over the land just before sunrise last week, kicking up the newly fallen snow.

I call this image "Snow Nude" because of the graceful way the snow fell and folded over itself in a drift.

And a sign that the snow does melt to nourish the land for the growing season.  

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

Red on black

In the world of Hallmark cards, perhaps because of greeting card manufacturers, many of us in the United States tend to associate the color red - full of drama and passion - with Valentine's Day.  Despite the shade or tone of red, it is one of those colors that photographs well.

The roses shown below are not even quite red, but sitting on a black shawl that artist Gail Goodwin gave me, these stunning works of nature demand more than a casual glance.

Let us think often and with kindness about the things and people we love.

until next Monday,

DB

a passion for the image

Back at the fort

The sun is shining and a lazy snow is falling from a thin cloud layer.  February has arrived, the Superbowl is history, complete with its extravaganza of commercialism, and it is time to ponder life as it might have been on the eastern plains of New Mexico at Fort Union.  There were actually three forts constructed on the site, and the remains of the last fort are what we see today.  It was occupied from 1863 to 1891 when it was no longer deemed necessary to protect the Santa Fe Trail.   But life in the first two forts must have been substantially less comfortable than in the final collection of buildings, constructed by skilled builders rather than the troops, using adobe, native stone and brick.

You needn't travel too far in your brain to imagine the activities that once took place in the Mechanics' Coral.  I look at the scene here and think of clinking bridles as the wagons were brought in, and farriers' hammers rebuilding wagon wheels.

Looking at the window and doorway rhythm of the final Fort Union, it appears that the designer was thinking far beyond 1860.

The use of native stone and adobe in the building process was brilliant.

until next Monday

DB

a passion for the image