A Matter of Perspective

Ocotillo Thorns

https://penielenv.com/qzh14f8ysk4 Ocotillo Spines @ 2011 Bo Mackison

https://alldayelectrician.com/ajf4vfv44s4 This is an ocotillo, one of the most plentiful plants in the Sonoran desert. It offers a great lesson in perspective. When you look at the ocotillo, do you first see its long, sharp spines? And when you notice the spines, do you see them as a threat to you or do you see them as the protector of the plant?

http://www.mscnantes.org/rdr1tz4 The ocotillo, a major shrub in the Sonoran desert, acts more like a succulent than a woody plant. It can absorb sunlight for photosynthesis through its leafless stem during the dry seasons. And when there is a desert rain, it will produce full grown leaves within three days. This plant has both primary and secondary leaves. When the primary leaves fall off the shrub, the remaining woody stalk elongates and becomes a spine.

Ocotillo Blooming

source url Ocotillo Blooming © 2011 Bo Mackison

Buy Cheap Tramadol Overnight Delivery Perhaps your attention is first drawn to the bright cluster of flowers at the tips of the branches, to the beauty of the tightly clustered  red cylindrical blooms.

https://guelph-real-estate.ca/0hi0re6olf Ocotillos are a favorite of migrating hummingbirds. The ocotillo is often the only spring desert flower in abundant bloom, even in very dry spring seasons. Hummingbirds, which migrate  from Mexico to their breeding grounds as far north as Alaska, pass over the desert in huge numbers and get their nourishment, the nectar, from the bright red tubular flowers.

Ocotillo Star

https://purestpotential.com/wkwsukric3 Ocotillo Star © 2011 Bo Mackison

https://www.mbtn.net/?p=uz3at0tu Or perhaps you see the ocotillo in a different way. Perhaps, when you look at the ocotillo from a unique angle, you can imagine a desert full of woody stars.

https://getdarker.com/editorial/articles/v3ydu9fd So many perspectives, all from the same plant. Just depends on what you focus on, what you notice, and how closely you look. What part of the ocotillo first attracts your attention?

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https://www.brigantesenglishwalks.com/scswxvq96gk Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is living in Tucson through the first week in April, exhibiting her photography in art fairs, taking photographs in deserts,  and blogging about “Bo goes solo”. She is learning much about life as she studies the plants in the desert.

here

Bird Cage, Ocotillo, and Freedom

Study in Brown

click here Freedom © 2011 Bo Mackison

https://geolatinas.org/685665osv A visit to Tubac Presidio Historical Park in Tubac, Arizona, gave me an opportunity to photograph some amazing objects from an early historical period in Arizona–from the middle of the 18th Century through the early years of the 20th Century. The above photo shows a part of the historical museum’s veranda. The wooden bird cage is hung from a ceiling made of ocotillo, a thin, wood-like desert plant.

https://mocicc.org/agricultura/2e33l2big1 The park protects the ruins of the oldest Spanish presidio in Arizona, founded in 1752. It is the site of the first European settlement in  Arizona.

follow site Tubac is one of only three presidio sites to survive into modern times. The second (if you can consider this surviving) is buried under downtown Tucson, the third in is Cochise County. The Tubac Presidio Historical Park was Arizona’s first state park, dedicated in 1958.

https://www.marineetstamp.com/tdqpb1bamd7 In early 2010, the state of Arizona decided to close the park due to severe budget cuts to the Arizona park system. Santa Cruz County administrators and the Tubac Historical Society stepped up to thwart the crisis.  The county assumed the role of governmental agent for the park and the Historical Society took on the administration and maintenance of the site — a bold move to protect a historical gem in the town whose motto is “where history and art meet”.

https://lpgventures.com/1hke017v All of the people who take care of the Presidio are volunteers–a difficult, though rewarding job–and they deserve big thanks. Without their many hours of time and effort, the park would be boarded up and fall into a state of disrepair. So kudos to the Tubac Historical Society docents.

The park preserves three historical buildings which are on the National Register of Historic Places:

Old Tubac Schoolhouse

Old Tubac Schoolhouse © 2011 Bo Mackison

  • Arizona’s second oldest Territorial school building, the Old Tubac Schoolhouse, built in 1885.
Otero Hall, Tubac Presidio Historical Park

Otero Hall © 2011 Bo Mackison

  • Otero Hall, an adobe building built as a community center and later used as a schoolhouse, built in 1914.
1930s Kitchen

1930s Kitchen © 2011 Bo Mackison

  • And the Rojas House, a typical adobe row house that has the original furnishings of Luisa Rojas, a life-long resident of Tubac, built in 1890, and restored to the period of the 1930s.

On a personal note, I love the photograph of the empty bird cage. It is very symbolic to me–I feel like I am tasting a type of freedom and independence I haven’t experienced since my college days.

I’m learning that independence gives not only freedom, but also demands responsibility. I woke up this morning with such amazing feelings, almost too hard to describe–feelings of wonder and accomplishment and the knowledge that whatever needed to be done today, well, I’m the one that had to do it. But the responsibility feels good; it makes me feel competent, effective, satisfied.

And so I love the photo of the empty bird cage–the bird has flown to freedom.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is living in Tucson for the next eight seven weeks, exhibiting her photography in art fairs, taking photographs of Arizona landmarks, both historical and natural, and blogging about photography, art fairs, and learning to live on her own. Her mantra is “Bo goes solo!”

Ocotillo

Moody Desert in Black and White

Moody Desert in Black and White

Candle Wood, Coach Whip, Flaming Sword, Jacob’s Staff, Slim Wood, Vine Cactus – all are various names for the Ocotillo cactus.

Found only in the Sonoran desert in the Southwest United States and adjacent Mexico, it is a practical plant. Its branches, covered with spiky thorns, makes a naturally effective fence. Those thorns are sharp, nothing to be reckoned with.

But its silhouette is a source of beauty, rising from the floor of the desert, reaching upwards to the blue skies.