Torch Cactus ©2014 Bo Mackison
One’s options in this world are as vast as the horizon, which is technically a circle and thus infinitely broad. Yet we must choose each step we take with utmost caution, for the footprints we leave behind are as important as the path we will follow. They’re part of the same journey — our story.” ~ Lori R. Lopez
Torch Cactus © 2013 Bo Mackison
Welcome.
Seeded Earth has been officially been re-christened. Though my website has a new name, seeded wonders and desert wonders will continue to be featured as I post my photography. I’ll also be offering online and in-person photography workshops beginning in early 2014, and a Desert Wisdom Retreat is in the planning stages.
I hope you’ll subscribe to my website, and receive my complimentary 5 session mini-course, the Gifts of the Desert. You’ll also receive my monthly newsletter, Love Letters from the Seeded Earth, which will keep you up to date on all the happenings in the desert and beyond.
It is with great excitement that I embark on the next part of my journey. I do hope you’ll join me!
Torch Cactus in Pink and White © 2012 Bo Mackison
We all walk in mysteries. We do not know what is stirring in the atmosphere that surrounds us. ~ Goethe
I am starting to understand this. I am a slow changer.
I packed my bags with a small amount of trepidation and drive from Madison to Tucson last January. I looked forward to the change in weather, to the sunshine and warm days.
I arrived, expecting to slide right in to a new life, and instead struggled for weeks to acclimate to a new place, a new routine, the newness of solitary living.
And, eventually, I slide into the routines of Arizona, and I feel I am where I belong. (Except when I get lonely and long for companionship.)
Three months and a few extra days pass, and I again pack a few bags and with a small amount of trepidation I leave my space in Tucson and drive to Madison. I look forward to again being immersed in the greens of spring and my circle of family.
Again, I arrive. And again I struggle as I adapt to the old familiar place, the old routine with a few new twists, and the change from living a solitary, very quiet life with a lightly filled calendar to days that are not solitary, quiet, nor lightly demanding.
I am giving myself time and space to re-orient myself. And that is good.
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is also a slow changer – she requires time to adjust to new places and new routines. And that is an OK thing.
p.s. The sun is shining this morning.
Flaming Torch © 2012 Bo Mackison
“A garden is a delight to the eye and a solace for the soul.” ~ Sadi
Yes, it is another view of the famed Torch Cactus, the desert flower I fell in love with a few weeks ago, just days before I traveled from the arid, hot deserts of Arizona to the moist, cool Midwest. It is a good thing (for me, at least) that I was quite infatuated with these particular flowers and so took hundreds of photographs of them in different poses, colors, etc.
In fact, these flowers will be, though unintentional when photographed, one of my themes for a week or so.
Since returning to Wisconsin, I’ve managed to mess up my photo catalogs and so my many thousands of photos (including photos of subjects other than the Torch Cactus flowers) are hiding somewhere in my computer or on one of my external hard drives, but I’ll be darned if I can figure what the magic words are to make them appear again. (Sigh. Big sigh. Oh heck, a really, really big sigh!!)
And yes, I could take some new photographs and re-install all my software and reboot my computer a dozen time with the hope that I would then have some new photographs to work with.
But . . . since I’ve been back in Wisconsin (one week today) I have seen a great deal of rain clouds and rain, two things I work hard to be grateful for, because they are greatly responsible for all these glorious greens in the trees and the grasses and the gardens. But wet conditions have caused delays in my outdoor photography plans. So I am posting a new view of the Torch Cactus flower.
Patience. Soon, very soon, the sun will shine. I’m sure of it.
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is cleaning her house, and occasionally checking the weather channel. Just in case . . .
Many Red Torches © 2012 Bo Mackison
What a marvelous send-off I had this past week!
I have visited the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum just west of Tucson two or three times a week since mid-January. Each time I visit, I manage to find new wonders. Sometimes I sit on a bench and simply absorb the desert surroundings. Sometimes I visit with the docents who amaze me with the depths of their knowledge on almost any desert topic. Last week I stopped at the Prairie dog exhibit to watch the new babies pop out of their burrows — only the second day they were out and about exploring the world of the sun.
And on my last visit to the Desert Museum I was treated to an explosion of color as the Torch Cactus Garden had just erupted in a display of red, pink, yellow, orange and white. No wonder the sign in this garden bed proclaims these flowers a “Fireworks of Color!”
Yellow Torch © 2012 Bo Mackison
Each bloom only lasts one day and they bloomed early this year. I photographed these flowers over a period of several hours on April 25, a month earlier than is typical. (Last year’s peak bloom was around May 24-25.)
Magenta Torch Flowers © 2012 Bo Mackison
The Torch Cactus (Trichocereus) is not native to Arizona but adapts well to this climate and to landscaped gardens when planted in a filtered sun setting. I imagine these plants would be welcome in any desert garden – what gorgeous, showy flowers they are!
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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC, living and photographing in southern Arizona from January through April. She returns for the July monsoons.
