Wilderness is not a Luxury

Desert Globe Mallow

https://www.saiidzeidan.com/t0j124cq0 Desert Globe Mallow © 2012 Bo Mackison

https://www.boasdeibiza.com/boat/msj-valium-buy.php Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of human spirit. ~ Edward Abbey

enter The desert expands and seeps into my vision,
the floor is ocean, odd twisted creatures,
and the cactus-corals are prescient.

https://www.mckenziesportsphysicaltherapy.com/oho3r7053 When the ocean — tiding by lunar pull — disappears
the desert returns, a remnant of ancient ocean,
fossil, a testimonial embedded in rock,
geologic band of aquatic life remembered only in stone.

go here I too will be remembered only in stone.

source url When I swim too far from the shore of this desert,
stray into the repeating saguaro-ocotillo wilderness,
I stop, afraid to cross the sand arroyo

Valium Buying Online Descend into this dry bed,
and reach the blooming oranges and yellows that thrive on the edges.
I take my chances, there are times I cannot manage.

https://www.infotonicsmedia.com/about/buy-indian-valium-online.php Waiting,
shadows are longest when the sun heaves herself
onto the desert floor and again when she
slips off the desert and drops from the horizon.

https://bettierose.co.uk/y0dj3kle Even the longest shadows disappear in the
blotting dark of night,
dark skies are coming — no
they are here.

https://riverhillcurrent.com/w2nt4ycjzg This cold monument to the dark,
desert monolith, see the shooting star emerge from clouds,
momentary, streak of light, I blink and it is gone.
Or was it even there?

go site I rub creosote leaves between my index finger and thumb,
smell the pungent aroma of preservative,
lie down to rest upon the packing quilt, a U Haul relic,
and wait for the desert to spit her rain.

https://tvnordestevip.com/mtx49uyz —————-

Tramadol Orders Online Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC, living and photographing in southern Arizona.

Double Trouble – Mama Feeding Baby Hummingbirds

Mama Feeding Baby Hummingbirds - Double Trouble

https://thelowegroupltd.com/oq2sex3 Mama Feeding Baby Hummingbirds - Double Trouble © 2012 Bo Mackison

https://www.pslra.org/e7bobgt Spent the morning at the Desert Museum just west of Tucson. I wandered into the Hummingbird Aviary to see if there were any babies. And yes, I did find a pair of Costa’s hummingbird babies that looked as if they were nearly big enough to fledge.

https://www.boasdeibiza.com/boat/buy-1000-diazepam-online.php I’m not much of a bird watcher nor a bird photographer, but I couldn’t resist the show these two hummingbird babies put on. The one baby is larger, and kept leaning onto its sibling’s shoulders — do birds have shoulders? — trying to push up front and get Mama’s attention, and more food.

"Mama, I'm Starving!"says Baby Hummingbird

https://www.infotonicsmedia.com/about/cheapest-valium-online.php "Mama, I'm Starving!" © 2012 Bo Mackison

https://tudiabetesbajocontrol.com/relanzam/buy-cheap-generic-valium-online.php Even when the mother was feeding the less aggressive baby, the other one was always at the ready, beak open wide, as if to say petulantly, “Mama, I am starving! Feed ME!” A couple of times the larger baby pecked at the mama, and she pushed it aside. What a circus! She must be ready for them to fly away soon.

Baby Hummingbirds Awaiting Mama

Buy Cheap Tramadol Online Uk Babies Waiting Mama's Return © 2012 Bo Mackison

go Once the mama left the nest, darting up and down throughout the aviary collecting invisible insects, the babies snuggled together, and looked almost content. Content and alert, watching for their lunch-mobile mama to come back.

click here ————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC, living and photographing in southern Arizona.

Spanish Bayonet in Bloom

Spanish Bayonet Agave in Bloom

Spanish Bayonet in Bloom © 2012 Bo Mackison

The Overnight Tramadol Mastercard Spanish Bayonet has many common names, plus an out of date genus name and a corrected genus name. One look at this eye catching plant, and it is understandable why it has attracted much attention (and many names, too.)

The name that seems the most fitting is that of Spanish Bayonet. While the literature reports the sharp tipped leaves as “dangerously rigid” and states it was named after a bayonet because of its dagger like tendencies, I cannot help but think that the lovely red tips also influenced this name. As I have been (unintentionally) stabbed by one of these daggers, and as this unfortunate contact drew blood from my arm faster than a needle, I associate the Spanish Bayonet with blood letting tendencies.

Spanish Bayonet

And It Grows © 2012 Bo Mackison

This used-to-be yucca, now a hesperoyucca, still bears names from its misidentified yucca past — http://lisapriceblog.com/yqxiggv chapparal yucca ( yucca growing in a chapparal habitat) and https://osteopatiaamparoandres.com/fa93ktzc foothill yucca (obviously named) and it is even called the Valium Roche Online common yucca, though it is no such thing. (Though “common hesperoyucca” is rather a mouthful.) The Spanish Bayonet was only found to be a misidentified plant through DNA testing, so one can hardly fault any of the yucca names. It is similar to a yucca in looks, but only distantly related.

Blooming Sotolillo

Blooming Ten Feet High! © 2012 Bo Mackison

This plant and its relatives, the agaves and yuccas, are some of the most conspicuous plants in the arid Southwest, not only because its plant form is highly attractive and frequently used in xeriscaping, but also because its flower (or inflorescence – what the flowering stalk is called) is hard to miss.I find them attractive nuisances, because when I see them flowering along the highways, I want to either look — a definite no-no — or stop and take photographs.

The Spanish Bayonet blooms only once, after it spends its lifetime accumulating enough sugars and starches to provide the fuel for the rapid development of its shooting floral stalk. This type of plant is called a monocarpic — it spends its life energy to produce one huge floral stalk which then sets a huge quantity of seeds. The plant’s cause of death is most commonly ‘setting flower’.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC, living and photographing in southern Arizona. She cannot resist the occasional botany lecture interspersed with relevant photographs.

Mission San Xavier del Bac

White Dove of the Desert

White Dove of the Desert © 2012 Bo Mackison

I photographed the Mission San Xavier del Bac on the Tohono O’odham Reservation this morning. Seen from Interstate 19 heading south out of Tucson, the church is a bright gleaming dome in a desert setting. It is easy to see how the church came by its name, “The White Dove of the Desert.”

White Dove of the Desert - Entrance

Entrance to White Dove of the Desert © 2012 Bo Mackison

The mission itself was founded by Father Eusebio Kino, a Franciscan missionary, in 1692, but this building was built in the late 1700s and not completed for use until 1797. Father Kino also founded the mission at Tumacacori, located 20 miles south of San Xavier, and several other missions in southern Arizona and in Sonora, Mexico.

The church, which is on the National Register of Historic Buildings and is also a National Historic Landmark, is the oldest European-inspired structure in the state of Arizona.

Mission of St Xavier del Bac - Interior

Interior of White Dove of the Desert Mission © 2012 Bo Mackison

San Xavier del Bac’s interior is filled with over 70 original, restored carved statues and over 200 mural paintings, all dating from the late 1700s. The church has many folk art features, using the materials that were available to the artisans and their assistants.

They took advantage of the mountains and the nearby stone to build the church, used mesquite for the main doors, and utilized some of the desert elements to make some of the paints and other decorative features. They painted faux doors, made wooden decorative pieces and painted them to resemble marble, and fashioned many niches to hold carved and painted statues in “curtain” surrounds.

Mission of St Xavier del Bac - Sanctuary and Crossing

Mission of St Xavier del Bac - Sanctuary © 2012 Bo Mackison

Many of the statues are decorated with silver and gold accents, and other materials such as glass eyes for the statues, were brought to the mission by the Missionary Fathers from Europe via Mexico.  It is all quite intricate and full of ingenious detailing.

Mission of St Xavier del Bac - Sanctuary

Sanctuary, Altar, and Two Guarding Lions © 2012 Bo Mackison

I studied the interior of the church in amazement — the decorative features cover nearly almost every surface. There are identical gold lions in the sanctuary flanking the altar and intricate murals on the walls. A baptismal font is painted to look like marble. There are geometric designs on the lower church walls in bright primary colors. Murals of cherabim in red checked robes are painted on the church’s ceiling and choir loft.

Mission of St Xavier del Bac - East Transept

East Transept of St Xavier del Bac Mission © 2012 Bo Mackison

There are two transepts — west and east — that are filled with niches and statues of saints, all surrounded by sculptured wood that mimics columns, cornices, pedestals and more.

The church underwent an extensive restoration projects during most of the 1990s and some of the nations’ most talented art conservators including conservators from the Guggenheim in New York City and others brought from all over the world to give new life to this remarkable art.

Wildflowers in the Desert

White Tackstem

White Tackstem © 2012 Bo Mackison

To see a world in a grain of sand
and a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
and eternity in an hour.  ~ William Blake

My first spring living in the desert, the spring of 2011, was a spring of drought and no wildflowers. The cactus still bloomed, and I was thrilled at the sight of those flowers, but I never did see wildflowers in the depths of the desert, and I saw only a few specimens in the various irrigated botanical gardens in the Tucson area.

So it is with great pleasure, this spring, that I walk on ancient trails in the desert and see splashes of wildflower color almost everywhere I look. Perhaps what is more amazing, last year I thought the desert lovely in its drought induced colors of browns and faded greens. I did not wish for more, because I did not know that more existed. I am glad I saw the naked, dry desert, flower-less, for that is the desert I fell in love with. And this year’s desert bounty, flowery splashes of yellows and oranges, purples and blues, is a gift unexpected, and so cherished that much more.

Jone's Blazing Star

Jone's Blazing Star © 2012 Bo Mackison

Here are but a few of the many wildflowers I captured in my heart, and also with my camera. I apologize now if I have wrongly identified any of these beauties – I suspect I will do so quite often. The desert in filled with wildflowers that I have never seen, no matter how common they may be to real desert dwellers, and though I enjoy discovering the names of the various flowers, I will make beginner’s mistakes.

Nevertheless, I always feel a bit more connected to a flower when I can hail it by its name and so I will make the effort to learn the native names, sometimes humorous, sometimes descriptive, sometimes vainly named by its human ‘discoverer’.

Notch-Leaf Scorpion-Weed

Notch-Leaf Scorpion-Weed © 2012 Bo Mackison

One thing I noticed immediately about many of the desert flowers. Some are very small, perhaps a half inch or less in diameter. A carpet of these tiny flowers is easily seen, but an isolated one or two are treasures easily missed. I discovered that by looking closely at the various surfaces in the desert  — rocky cliffs, gravelly washes, gritty earth stretching into the shadows of the mountains — I see wildflowers that could be easily passed and never discovered.

Poppies and Pollen

Poppies and Pollen © 2012 Bo Mackison

I am filled with great joy when I can simply be still in this desert, perhaps standing in a bit of shade of a palo verde or a mesquite, watching and listening. Where there are patches of flowers, there are frequently a few bees humming and buzzing about, each bee visiting the blossoms and dancing that intricate dance of pollination. Imagine being a bee and visiting an arroyo filled with the tiniest of these flowers. An endless undertaking, quite like counting the grains of sand on the desert floor.

I am filled with a deep gratitude that I have the opportunity to walk amidst the glories of the desert – in awe of this seemingly endless desert filled with the tiniest of gifts.

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