Organ Pipe Cactus

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
Organ Pipe Cactus © 2012 Bo Mackison

https://riverhillcurrent.com/n3czx9ov Transparent and intangible as sunlight, yet always and everywhere present, [the desert] lures a man on and on, from the red-walled canyons to the smoke-blue ranges beyond, in a futile but fascinating quest for the great, unimaginable treasure which the desert seems to promise. Once caught by this golden lure you become a prospector for life. ~ Edward Abbey

Valium Prescriptions Online The organ pipe cactus shares this mountainside with saguaros, mesquite, and blooming brittlebush. The organ pipe has many arms which appear to come from a low-to-the-ground center and resembles a pipe organ, its namesake. Some of the largest specimens grow to twenty-five feet, but most of the cacti I saw at Organ Pipe National Monument were in the twelve to eighteen feet range.

Organ Pipe Cactus and Desert Marigold

see Organ Pipe Cactus © 2012 Bo Mackison

go to link Although the lucky organ pipes that make it through their first years become giants in the Sonoran Desert, they are a bit on the slow side when they are getting started. In the wild, an organ pipe is only four inches high when it celebrates its eighth birthday. A three foot tall cactus will be about twenty years old, and it will finally reach an adult height of twenty feet when it is forty five or fifty years old.

see Organ Pipe Cactus grow in Sonora, Mexico and a few are seen in the Tucson area, but the majority of Organ Pipe Cacti that grow in the United States are in or very near the monument. These cacti are afforded little protection in Mexico, so it is vital that we remain committed to maintaining this region for the protection of this unique cactus.

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Buy Diazepam Reviews Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Love the organ pipe cactus and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. What an amazing place!

Leap Days

Jumping Cholla

https://www.mssbizsolutions.com/pfaiwsjucge "Leaping" Cholla © 2009 Bo Mackison

http://lisapriceblog.com/28dt6aiga9 This cholla is more commonly known as a jumping cholla, but I am taking liberties today since it is Leap Day, and conferring the title of “Leaping Cholla” on these attractive cacti. These cacti are known for attaching small sections of themselves to anything that brushes near them — hence the name jumping, or leaping, cholla. (It’s a great way for the plants to distribute their seeds.)

I decided to see how many Leap Days I could either remember or make a good attempt at a reconstruction of probable events. Leap Day really should be a more celebratory day — we are each given an extra 24 hours, in our Western way of thinking.  Are you doing something to mark the occasion of February 29th?

The run-down of Bo’s Leap Days, including her plans for celebrating Leap Day 2012 with a special “in the Southwest” dinner for one.

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enter site 1956  Leap Day is on a Wednesday. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces to the nation that he is running for a second term. It was my first Leap Day, but I have no recall of that year. Pre-memory, I think.

Buying Tramadol Online Cod 1960  Leap Day is the 60th day of the year in 1960. Of course, all Leap Days are the 60th day of the year.  Family Circus makes its debut. First grade. I had the BEST teacher, ever, so surely we did something exciting to celebrate Leap Day. Why isn’t Leap Day a holiday, anyway?

https://www.frolic-through-life.com/2025/01/kcsc5obcd7 1964  Saturday. Fifth grade. Too young to babysit, so most likely I spent Leap Evening watching Lawrence Welk with my grandparents. A typical Saturday evening in fifth grade.

https://osteopatiaamparoandres.com/5b3v43ul7 1968  Freshman year in high school. We had an “art”sale during the lunch periods  – profits going to our sister school in Nicaragua. We sold out of giant tissue paper flowers, posters decorated with “Little Prince” quotes, beaded necklaces, and ceramic pots.

see 1972  Freshman year in college. Led Zeppelin had a concert that evening in Brisbane Australia. Tickets cost $5.20. Sold out. I’m sure I would have loved to attend if given the opportunity!

follow url 1976  I was a few months into my first professional job after graduating from college. Leap Day was also minus 103 days until our wedding day. A significant year in my life, for sure.

Buy Valium Nz 1980  Sherpa and I had been in our first house — in Milwaukee Wisconsin — for two months on this Leap Day.

Buy Cheapest Tramadol Online 1984  No doubt a busy day. All days in 1984 were busy days. Probably busy chasing kiddies. Well, chasing an almost three-year old. Our second child was only two weeks old so he wasn’t too active — yet. We still were in our house in Milwaukee, but planning a move to New Berlin, Wisconsin.

Buy Cheap Tramadol Cod 1988  Another Leap Day preoccupied with children. Six year old, four-year old, and a baby soon to be born. This was our first Leap Day living in Madison.

follow url 1992  Our two older children (5th grade, 2nd grade) had a Leap Day School Fair to celebrate Leap Day. Parents were in attendance with pockets full of quarters. Three year old also knew how to ask for quarters. I think we won several gold-fish at the gold-fish pond.

https://www.accessoriesresourceteam.org/art/buy-genuine-valium-online.php 1996  Perhaps I blanked out for a decade or so…

follow url 2000  Hmmm…. the millennium Leap Day?

https://www.rmporrua.com/e49c7ffun 2004  The days are getting clearer. Kissed by a prince, perhaps?

https://hereisnewyorkv911.org/dqz3zh0xu61 2008  By this Leap Day, I’d been taking photos with a digital camera for a few months. I was doing a 365 photo challenge. Here’s proof that I posted on my photo blog on Leap Day, 2008.

Tramadol Online Pay With Mastercard 2012  I know one thing I won’t be doing today — I will not celebrate Leap Day leaping in the desert. Not going to trust those leaping cholla! Think I’ll celebrate with a Margarita and some spicy enchiladas? Yes!

How are you marking this once-every-four-year day?

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Bo is appreciating these extra minutes of this extra day as she celebrates Leap Day in Tucson.

 

 

Vintage Golden Poppy

Vintage Poppy

Vintage Poppy © 2012 Bo Mackison

There are times in our lives when too many voices seem to be pulling us this way and that. We can seek silence and order within. Then we will hear the truth.   ~ Osho

I’ve been in a wild and whirling space the past few days. So much to do, not enough time. Too many shoulds listed on my to do list, and I am ignoring them. The script rushing through my mind sounds like it was written by a convention of gremlins, intent on keeping me on the practical path. Except I am not one who appreciates the practical as much as I appreciate the spur of the moment, the adventure, the explore, but on my terms. I love the adventure but I like to have my feet firmly on the ground, adventuring in safety perhaps. Are those two incongruous? Adventure and safety?

I don’t think so. I like to have a little planning in my explores. Maybe I head west not knowing exactly where it is I am going, but I have a list of three or four places that are possible destinations. I am not one to travel the open road without some idea of where I am. But I also like to leave my schedule open enough to accommodate the serendipitous meeting, the landscape I just have to get to know more intimately, a town that demands more than a cursory visit.

I have been having many conversations with myself. These talks invariably consist of what should I be doing. Now? A month from now? A year? What plans do I have for exhibiting my photography? Where am I going with my art? What path should I follow? As a wise person once told me, “You can’t just sit in an arroyo and watch the poppies bloom.”

Currently I have two of my photographs in an art exhibit at University Hospitals in Madison, Wisconsin. I have another photograph accepted for an  exhibit in March and April, an exhibit called Beyond the Lens at the Tubac Center for the Arts in Tubac, Arizona. I do freelance photography, shooting interiors and exteriors of living spaces. My art fair and festival schedule is slowly taking shape. I’ll be at Tucson’s Fourth Avenue Street Fair in March and I have Midwest art festivals on my calendar from May through September, and adding more each week as the notifications come in. And I photograph and work on my photographs – editing, post-processing, printing, matting, framing – 50+ hours a week.

The conference of my gremlins settled on a conclusion – they want me to expand my photographic repertoire. Actually, in plain-speak, my gremlins want me to become financially solvent. And then save for retirement. Save for a rainy day. Save for their retirement. All excellent suggestions.

And here I am, feeling quite the contrarian, wanting to return to the lovely arroyo to see the poppies again. Maybe I can go sit there and re-think my business plan WHILE watching the poppies grow.

A compromise?

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. If you need to find Bo today, she’s sitting on a rock in an arroyo in the Tucson Mountains, and talking to the poppies about life goals.

Four Views of the Desert Brittlebush

Desert Marigold, OrganPipe NM

Desert Brittlebush © 2012 Bo Mackison

I walked in the desert often these last days, preferably alone, and looked lovingly at my brittle-bush, my fine beds of desert holly, my border of paper daisies and desert marigolds. Here, tended by unseen hands, are plants equal to any in a botanical garden. They seemed to flourish for me alone, just as the birds seemed to sing for me alone. There was no one else to see them, just as there was no one else to hear the birds sing. 

~ Olga Wright Smith in Gold on the Desert

Desert Marigold II

Leaning towards the Sun © 2012 Bo Mackison

Brittlebush is one of the old standbys in the Sonoran Desert. It is drought resistant and blooms when there has been little rainy weather. But it is even more spectacular when Mother Nature sends rain. Brittlebush is common and easy to find wherever one looks in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. At the foot of an organ pipe or saguaro cactus, spreading upwards to add mounds of yellow color on mountain sides road sides and along the dry arroyas.

Ajo Mountain in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Ajo Mountain, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument © 2012 Bo Mackison

The brittlebush is now a popular plant even in the city, as its characteristics lend themselves well to the xeriscaped (natural) landscapes in the arid Southwest. But it looks might fine to me, adding splashes of yellow to the green desert.

It is used in rites and rituals throughout the region and was once was burned as incense in many churches across the border in Mexico. The substance exuded from the stems were used as a chewing gum, and at one time it was even exported to Europe, sent by the Spanish mission priests. The Tohono O’odham continue to use the brittlebush as a source of gum.

Saguaro and Organ Pipes

Saguaro and Organ Pipes Cacti © 2012 Bo Mackison

The brittlebush has an interesting defense system. It exudes a compound from its leaves and when these chemicals are washed onto the surrounding gravelly soil, it lessens other plants’ abilities to germinate. This gives the brittlebush less competition and more resources for survival.

Brittlebush has a long history of names since it was a common plant used by the Tohono O’odham, the Spanish priests, and the (mostly English) pioneers. Besides the common name of Brittlebush, it has been called Golden Hills, rama blanca (white branch), incienso (incense), hierba de las animas (herb of the souls), hierba del bazo (spleen-herb), and hierba ceniza (gray herb).

I rather like the name hierba de las animas. Has a mystical sound to it — these yellow flowers charged with the care of souls.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She photographed these flowers at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and there are still many more photographs of other desert flowers to share.

 

 

Ocotillo Birds?

Ocotillo Birds?

Ocotillo Birds? © 2012 Bo Mackison

Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy; pure creative energy.   ~ Julia Cameron

I watched this ocotillo for quite a while. Long enough that its long spindly branches quivered with the breezes. Every time the ocotillo shook, the red flowers at the very ends of the stalks reminded me of baby birds, their beaks open wide, begging for food from their Mama.

I laughed and laughed and laughed. Who knew the desert had such a honed sense of humor?

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She laughs with the desert, in the desert.