A Walk in a Desert Garden

Desert Garden Path

Desert Garden Path © 2013 Bo Mackison

The desert, when the sun comes up…I couldn’t tell where heaven stopped and the Earth began.”
~ Tom Hanks

A walk at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum was the place to see a profusion of desert flowers. The museum isn’t a “desert in a building” – it’s a botanical garden, zoo, and natural history museum. I visit several times a week and there is always something new to see or explore.

A few days ago I spent the day in the desert – I hiked in the Sonoran Desert at Saguaro National Park in the early morning, then came to the Desert Museum for several glasses of prickly pear tea and a walk through the blossoming gardens.

Penstemon

Penstemon © 2013 Bo Mackison

Penstomen is the snapdragon family’s desert representative. Its bright pink blossoms on four foot tall stems are easy to find — in gardens and along roadsides, too.

Orange Blossoms on Hedgehog Cactus

Orange Blossoms on Hedgehog Cactus © 2013 Bo Mackison

This is one of the first cactus to bloom in the Sonoran Desert near Tucson. This was the first cactus I saw bloom when I first visited the desert four years ago. Then, I was thrilled to see a showy orange flower at the end of each stubby cactus arm. The thrill has never diminished. I smile every time I see one of these beauties.

Aloe in Bloom

Aloe in Bloom © 2013 Bo Mackison

The aloe always put on a colorful show. I love how the colors blend from brilliant orange to the cooler greens, blues, and whites.

Evening Primrose

Evening Primrose © 2013 Bo Mackison

The fragrant tufted evening primrose has soft white blossoms that turn a light magenta as they age. The blossoms don’t last long, so it is typical to see buds, white blossoms and aged flowers on the same plant.

Spring Flowers

Desert Spring Flowers © 2013 Bo Mackison

Yellow desert marigolds, a yucca with a flower shoot just starting to grow, and a patch of pink penstemon combine for textures and color in the desert garden.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She continues to discover beauty and inspiration while exploring the Sonoran Desert

To Walk in Silence

Walking Down Old Baldy

Walking Old Baldy ©2010 Bo Mackison

The more zigzag the way, the deeper the scenery.
The winding path approaches the secluded and peaceful place.
~ Huáng Bīnhóng

The theme at Abbey of the Arts for September is silence. An invitation was extended to visually reflect on what silence looks like. I pondered what my photographs of silence might look like, and then went wandering (apt word) through a few of my photo catalogs. I immediately felt drawn to the many photos I have of paths or trails leading into wilderness areas, paths I walked alone and in silence. Meditative walking.

Whether I am walking along a sand dune, part worn boardwalk and part shifting sand . . . or through a green forest, thick with green vegetation, towering leafy trees, wildflowers sprinkling pastel colors amidst my feet . . . or tramping on a desert trail, worn deeply into the side of a mountain, stretching through stands of cactus, climbing over piles of tumbled rock . . . or strolling on the smooth pavement in a tended garden, walking further and further away from the crowds, deep into the recesses where few wander, but much joy is found . . . or hiking along a snaking path through the wilderness of badlands, a barren maze of eroded land, ridges, peaks, and mesas — all of these I walk in silence.

In listening to the silence, for silence has a sound, I find answers to my questions, and more questions seeking answers. I find my way through the wilderness and then I am home.

Forest Path

Forest Path ©2011 Bo Mackison

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle.
But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air,
but to walk on earth.
Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize:
a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black,
curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes.
All is a miracle.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Cactus, Rock and the Trail

Cactus, Rock, Trail ©2012 Bo Mackison

“Walking is the great adventure,
the first meditation,
a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind.
Walking is the exact balance between spirit and humility.”
~ Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild

There Was a Crooked Path

There Was a Crooked Path © 2011 Bo Mackison

“A fact bobbed up from my memory,
that the ancient Egyptians prescribed walking through a garden
as a cure for the mad.
It was a mind-altering drug we took daily.

~ Paul Fleischman, in Seedfolks

Storm Approaching

Organ Pipe Path ©2012 Bo Mackison

Our way is not soft grass,
it’s a mountain path with lots of rocks.
But it goes upward, forward,
towards the hidden sun.
~ Ruth Westheimer

Badlands-Two Trees

Two Trees in the Badlands © 2011 Bo Mackison

That’s the best thing about walking, the journey itself.
It doesn’t matter much whether you get where you’re going or not.
You’ll get there anyway.
Every good hike brings you eventually back home. ~ Edward Abbey

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Walking is her daily pleasure, her daily meditation.