Articles by Bo Mackison

Senita – A Hairy Cactus

Whiskery Cactus?

https://hymnsandhome.com/recipes-3/ Whiskery Cactus? © 2011 Bo Mackison

Order Xanax No Prescription This is the Senita cactus, one of the three largest cactus species found in a few areas of the United States. The Organ Pipe Cactus and the Saguaro Cactus (third photo in linked post) are the other two specimens that are found in the southern Sonora Desert in the US. They are more abundant in Mexico.

Senita

follow Senita © 2011 Bo Mackison

watch Senita usually grow about 10 to 12 feet tall and it looks very similar to the Organ Pipe Cactus, except for the long and bristly gray spines which densely cover the top third or so of each mature cactus arm.

click The word senita is derived from a Spanish root meaning “old” and could roughly be translated “little old woman,” which I suppose seems appropriately named.

source url One of the things I found most interesting when I was doing a little research on the senita — the senita is very long-lived. According to A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert, published by the Arizona – Sonora Desert Museum, “when sites in Baja California photographed in 1905 were revisited in the 1990s, nearly every senita was still present.” The book didn’t say, but I’d love to know how much these cacti grew in that nearly 100 year period.

Hairy Senita

source url Hairy Senita © 2011 Bo Mackison

source link I am more than careful when it comes to touching the plants in the desert. This is extremely hard for me to stop, because I learn best through the techniques of visual and tactile (or kinesthetic) learning.

Order Klonopin Online I want to get as close as I can to see the tiniest visual detail AND I want to touch all the parts of the cactus, too. Not so wise, but I did touch the gray spines of the senita — very carefully, I assure you — and they were very bristly and sharp.

follow link Not unlike Sherpa’s two-day growth of beard when he is roughing it and forgoing shaving. (Ouch!)

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https://thesentinelgroup.com/harmful-drugs/ Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Bringing you photographs and natural history notes from the Sonoran Desert, at least for a few more days.

Spanish Bayonet

Spanish Bayonet Agave

Get Online Xanax Prescription Spanish Bayonet  © 2011 Bo Mackison

Buy Prednisone Online Without Prescription We need a renaissance of wonder. We need to renew, in our hearts and in our souls, the deathless dream, the eternal poetry, the perennial sense that life is miracle and magic. ~ E. Merrill Root

Buy Soma Overnight There is much in the desert that prompts a sense of wonder. These agave leaves — long, narrow, remarkably rigid, and  with dangerously sharp tips — are capped in a bright red, and make me think immediately that this plant has repeatedly engaged in  battles with inquisitive fingers.

https://www.52editions.com/complaints/ It’s not the least bit difficult to understand why one of this agave’s English names is “Spanish Bayonet.” Perhaps requiring more imagination that I possess, I do not know why anyone would call this same plant “Our Lord’s Candle,” but my reference book, The Natural History of the Sonoran Desert, says it is so.

https://anthonynewmancamps.com/tennis-camps/ I did some manipulation of the original photograph so the cluster of tips in the center of the plant remain visible, but the background leaves seem to be melting into abstraction. Maybe it is like a candle! Or maybe my imagination got the best of me!

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Tramadol 50 Mg Price Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Loving the desert and its amazing plant life. Must remember everything in the desert, however, is sharp — no unplanned movements.

Three Views of a Saguaro

Saguaro Spines

source site Saguaro Spines © 2011 Bo Mackison

Get Tramadol Online Lately I’ve picked one subject to photograph in many ways, exploring it up close and far away. Exploring it from different views – from the top, all sides, from low while lying upon the earth. The desert has made me adapt to her ways, as I haven’t yet found a way to lie comfortably on her floor. I do not trust even a small area that looks gravel-y and clear of sharp objects.

Cactus spines, tree thorns, cholla stickers – my eyesight will never be acute enough to judge a space safe enough to lie upon.

It is making me explore alternative methods, for I have a strong connection to photographing earth’s living creatures while lying on my back, feeling fully connected to the earth itself.

Not a problem is Wisconsin, but a definite concern in Arizona.

Cactus Catch

Cactus Catch © 2011 Bo Mackison

Sherpa and I did a running count yesterday as we walked in the Sonoran Desert. We counted the number of “cartoon” cacti that we actually saw. Remember those “Beep, beep!” road runner cartoons? The desert would be a huge void, the ground sandy, much like a beach or a child’s sandbox, and at repetitive intervals a saguaro cactus would drift in and out of view. The cactus was always a one-armed or two-armed version of a Saguaro.

Obviously the cartoonists simplified the desert for the children, or perhaps they’d never seen the living desert themselves. Although there is space in the desert — most plants are not crowded together, but stand at respectful distances from each other, giving most plants enough space to provide the needed moisture — there are no large, open spaces of sandy terrain. Various cacti, bushes, trees and other vegetative species occupy a good amount of the land.

So I need to figure out a solution to my “lying on the earth” dilemma. Lightweight so I can carry it, impervious to sharp, sticky things, non-destructive to the desert floor. Hmm…

Cactus Portal

Cactus Portal © 2011 Bo Mackison

I am always amazed at the unusual things I see in the desert. In the above photo, there is a hole in the saguaro allowing me a peek at the saguaro standing behind it. Not only was I able to show this secret space, but the sunlight cast lovely shadows of the saguaro spines upon the cactus surface which gave the added treat of diagonal shadow/light.

See? The desert gives many gifts to those who wander there, observing the obvious and the not so obvious. I am very grateful that I am able to have another desert experience this year.

Desert Redux.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is thrilled beyond words as she can again explore southern Arizona, especially the Sonoran desert.

 

Garden Gate

Garden Gate

Garden Gate © 2011 Bo Mackison

My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been.  ~ Diane Arbus

Travel and blogging – a difficult pair. I always have much I could write about when I am traveling. But I never have much free time. And when I have free time, I am at the end of my day and my motivation to ready a photo and write are struggling with my needs to relax a bit or go to sleep in order to be ready for the next day.

I’m not in my more accustomed Tucson mode. This is trip one of two trips to Tucson in the next few months. Sherpa and I decided November was a safer time to drive the art trailer to Arizona. Less weather drama. And after last February’s travels through rain, sleet, ice and snow, we decided “no more winter travels, not if we can avoid them.”

Sherpa hooked his remaining vacation days to the long Thanksgiving holiday and so, on this first trip to Tucson, we are officially on vacation. We’ll return to Wisconsin for most of December, and then I’ll return to Tucson in January and be here for a few months to do a few winter art shows in Arizona.

Today I am going to do one of my favorite things – go where I have never been. (Diane and I must have a lot in common!)

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.

An Evening Out

El Charro

El Charro © 2011 Bo Mackison

Sherpa and I took the evening off and went out to dinner at a nearby restaurant. After three days of nearly non-stop driving,  a great Thanksgiving, and then a whirlwind weekend setting up for winter housekeeping in the condo, we appreciated an evening to sit down and relax, and have dinner served to us with a smile and no kitchen duty.

Since I am staying put for the next week, I will take my Canon out of the camera bag and return to my “slow” photography. I enjoyed my week with my iPhone camera, shooting with the Hipstamatic app. I never quite knew what would show up and that was part of the fun. And I’ll readily admit it did make traveling less stressful both for me and for Sherpa.

But I miss my big camera and I miss macro-photography. I’m ready to break out the gear for my first visit on this trip to the Sonoran Desert.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer, owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is on a ten-day explore in Tucson with Sherpa. Bo has experimented with iPhonography enough for one week, so tomorrow it’s the Canon’s turn.