Sonoran Desert

Flowering Cardon Cactus – Baja California’s Saguaro Look-Alike

May 11, 2014 by Bo Mackison 2 Comments

Cardon Cactus in Bloom © 2014 Bo Mackison

Not a saguaro , but a relative!

The giant cardon cactus dominates many of the deserts of Baja California and the coastal region of the state of Sonora in Mexico. It is closely related to the saguaro of Arizona and Sonora, but cannot tolerate cold (unless carefully protected) so these two giant cacti occupy different geographical regions.

This specimen was in bloom at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix on a visit in March, and it was my lucky day. It was the first of the year’s blooms.

Filed Under: Nature Explorations Tagged With: blossom, cacti, cardon, Sonoran Desert

A Sonoran Desert Gift – Saguaro Cactus in Bloom

May 10, 2014 by Bo Mackison 3 Comments

A saguaro forest is awe-inspiring any time of the year.

But it is even more spectacular during May and June when many saguaros are topped with highly decorative, three-inch wide yellow-centered, white blossoms.

The flowers open at night.

They are highly fragrant, like overripe fruit, and attract the lesser long-nosed bat, a nocturnal creature and its most prolific pollinator. Flowers stay in full bloom throughout the next morning, then they quickly shrivel into a crispy brown shell.

Many saguaro, especially the older ones, have hundreds of flowers. Only a few flowers bloom in a single day, yet the saguaro flowering season lasts eight to ten weeks.

Bats are ideal pollinators.

Since the flowers are positioned high in the air, they are easily accessible to the swooping bats plus the blossoms are extremely durable – they look like they are dipped in wax! – and are able to withstand the bat’s weight.

The flowers produce some nectar after sunrise, and so also attract bees and doves during the day, but to a lesser degree.

A few flowers bloom at eye level, especially on cacti whose arms are drooping towards the ground.

It takes some persistent searching – and luck – to find a blossom that can be photographed up close and personal. Most of the flowers are high atop the cacti, twenty to forty feet in the air!

The blossoms that are pollinated develop into deep red, fleshy fruits in late June.

Not only do the fruits feed the bird and animal populations of the desert, they are also a traditional food of the Tohono O’odham. These people once harvested the fruits using long poles fashioned from cactus ribs. The tradition still persists, though on a limited basis.

Filed Under: Nature Explorations, Photography Tagged With: cacti, desert, desert flowers, flowers, life cycle of saguaro cactus, saguaro blossoms, saguaro cactus, saguaro pollination, Sonoran Desert, white desert flowers

The Feel of the Path – A Prayer of Desert Petition

May 2, 2014 by Bo Mackison 8 Comments

I walk and walk and walk.
Through scrub land and foothills, through the desert, into the arroyo, up into the high canyons
where palo verde accent the desert green with yellow blossoms

Slowly. In an attempt to memorize each step,
consider the existence of each lizard that skitters under rocks at my approach,
study the tall saguaro, the one that speaks to me in our silent language.

There are the Texas Canyon boulders that balance with delicate precision,
boulders upon boulders, the giants’ cairns.

There are the trees dead in the grasslands, choked dry

There is the agave, its flowers long ago spent, its seed heads crispy brown,
standing tall in the ruts of an abandoned road.

There is my reawakened respect for the western rattler,
most plentiful and most dangerous of Arizona snakes.

I watched it rise three feet and rattle like dried chimes,
then zip into the thick grasses of the arroyo.
Left me standing at the arroyo’s edge, breathless,
looking at the emptiness where it had flashed me warning.

There is wonder at my daily sightings of a mama and papa quail,
their brood of chicks darting like scattered billiards balls,
each pecking for seeds in the rocky soil.

On hot afternoons the adults settle upon the earth like ancient ocean puffer balls,
and keep watch over their babies tucked under a staghorn cholla, an unlikely nesting hideout.

There are only memories of the gray dove perched upon the adobe wall
and the Coopers hawk’s swoop from behind.
Memories of the clutch of talons,
the dove’s disappearance amidst an explosion of feathers.

I gathered feathers from the tiled porch for a week
while pondering the order, and disorder, of nature.

This is a rough land, yet it fits my temperament.

Its wildness is a comfort,
its unexpected lushness a gift,
its unrelenting demands a lesson in awareness,
its solitude a rarity,
its brilliant sun-drenched land a tonic,
its dark skies a reminder of the need for rest.

How old the land upon which I walk,
ancient volcanic rock cold upon the hot desert earth.
And fossils of trilobites and shark teeth document this land’s history, how amazing the story.

Billions of years of tiny changes.

And so I walk and walk, and walk more. Relentless.
And commit to memory what I see,
Reminders that though I leave, I will return.

Filed Under: Desert Wisdom, Writing Practices Tagged With: Arizona, desert, lost and found, nature, poetry, saying good bye, Sonoran Desert, Travel, walking blessing

Following One’s Creative Heart – And Announcing the Desert Wisdom Cards, Series II

April 30, 2014 by Bo Mackison 6 Comments

I am so excited to announce the completion of the Second Series of the Desert Wisdom Cards!

After months of photographing the Sonoran Desert, choosing themes and cards that “spoke to me”, and then creating a new deck of cards and a new portfolio — the Desert Wisdom Cards – Series II are done.

The second series of desert cards were not actually a part of my “creative plan.”

Originally, I planned to create a set of nature based cards that included four themes – desert, shore, prairie, and mountain – plus a set of source cards, based loosely on the template of a tarot deck. I completed the Desert Cards last October, and began the prairie cards. But the spark wasn’t there. I had photographs, I had the themes and concepts, but there was no magic in the work.

I was stunned, for a long while. I love the prairie almost as much as I love the desert. In fact, it was my first love. I persisted for months, but never was able to muster the same sort of enthusiasm and magic that I felt when I would work on desert-themed projects.

And so I stored my nature set ideas in a box for future consideration, and I went back to my desert and her inspiration.

Voila! The magic was immediately back!

What are Desert Wisdom Cards?

The Desert Wisdom Cards – Series II are a set of 14 hand-made cards used for reflection and inspiration. Each card has a photograph of the beautiful Sonoran Desert and a single word for contemplation, reflection, or as a prompt for journal writing.

The card set is only available in a hand crafted, limited edition of 26, numbered and signed.

How were the Desert Wisdom Cards first created?

I created the set of Desert Wisdom Cards to use during my morning practice, focusing on the photograph for inspiration and reflection. I also use the cards as prompts for journal writing, and as a springboard for art and nature projects.

While contemplating my desert photographs during my morning meditation and journal practice, I discovered that the process not only allowed me to use my art for healing, but also provided me with a system that promoted problem solving and goal setting.

The cards became a framework to consider choices, make plans, and instigate changes in life — while providing structure for an in-depth creative practice.

To read the story of how I first created Desert Wisdom Cards, see my blog post, “Beyond — The World.

Little did I know when I began creating contemplative photo cards, it would become a catalyst to create the Desert Wisdom Cards and help me discover the great “Beyond”. And that “Beyond” became a new way of whole-hearted living, based on nature and creativity, combined with my photography.

A new portfolio complements the cards.

This set of cards comes in a completely restyled, hand decorated folded portfolio. Each portfolio is individually decorated with ink, acrylics and metallic paint. Designed in the color palette of the desert, each folder is unique and a mini-work of art in itself.

NEW! A special guide is now included in the set.

This four page pamphlet offers suggestions for using the cards, including activities for body, mind and spirit. Also included in the booklet is information on the evolution of the cards and additional resources for nature and art related activities.

And a special thanks to James Wells who graciously shared his method of delving deeply into tarot cards using multiple activities for body, mind and spirit. This was a great source when I was adapting activities for Desert Wisdom Card guide book.

Set Specifications:

The cards are 7.5 inches by 4.5 inches. Each card includes one of my color photographs of the Sonoran Desert and a single word for reflection.

Each card is printed on a cylinder letterpress, the type set by hand and then printed using a vintage (1940s) Vandercook No.3 Letterpress.

This set of cards comes in a hand crafted, folded portfolio. Each portfolio is individually decorated with ink, acrylics and metallic paint. Designed in the color palette of the desert, each folder is unique and a mini-work of art in itself.

The Desert Wisdom Card set includes 14 cards, storage portfolio, and a four page pamphlet with suggestions for using the cards. The cards will also fit in the four flap portfolio that comes with the original set, the Desert Wisdom Cards – Series I.

How to use the set of Desert Wisdom Cards:

They are perfect to use as a mini-set for meditation, inspiration and contemplation. A few useful suggestions include:

Choose a daily card as a focus card during meditation.
Choose a card as a journal or art prompt.
Enrich your spiritual practice through contemplation of the desert and nature.
Inspire and nurture your creative muse.

Of course, these are only suggestions. If you are guided in a different way to use the cards, by all means follow your heart.

How to Purchase a Set of Desert Wisdom Cards?

The Desert Wisdom Cards – Set II are now available in my Etsy shop.

$45.00 for the portfolio, set of 14 cards, and the guide book.

They also make a perfect complement to the original set of Desert Wisdom Cards.

Both sets of cards were also planned to combine beautifully. Although the portfolios are different in look, the card template is the same. When combining the two sets, there are 38 cards in the deck. This offers combinations and possibilities for more complex uses and spreads.

And finally, a thank you!

I thank so many of you, my supporters and friends, and especially Sherpa and my family in the Midwest, for your love and support as these cards evolved and were created.

Living and creating in the Sonoran Desert feeds and strengthens my body, mind and spirit.

It is truly a gift for me to live and work here, yet I understand that it is a sacrifice for many of my love ones. For this opportunity and for your understanding, I am truly grateful.

Filed Under: Book Arts, Desert Wisdom Tagged With: Arizona, book arts, creative process, desert, Desert Wisdom Cards, Desert Wisdom Cards - Series II, meditation cards, Sonoran Desert

Agave – A Desert Lesson in Awareness

March 29, 2014 by Bo Mackison 5 Comments

Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language. ~ Aldo Leopold

Before the agave blooms, it is a rosette of green spiny leaves. And then, in the middle of the green spines, a thick stem grows. It thickens and stretches, and often reaches twenty or more feet into the air, sending forth a burst of scented yellow flowers high enough to attract the pollinating bats flying in the dark desert night.

In the excited anticipation of the bloom, an occurrence that happens only once in the life of the plant, the beauty of the stalk is usually overlooked. But a close examination of the protruding stalk offers an unexpected desert gift – a multitude of colors. Yellows and oranges, peachy pinks and soft greens, and a spike of purple.

Another desert lesson in awareness and paying attention, in noticing the small things amidst the grand. The gift of the unexpected, the overlooked.

Filed Under: Nature Explorations, Photography Tagged With: "century plant", agave, anticipating the bloom., awareness, desert, paying attention, Sonoran Desert