Can you just sense the sinuous curl in the paper as it drifts from the trees? It was breezy the day I took this picture, (and no, I was neither participant nor recipient!) and I shared for a moment in the feeling of exuberance the streamers portrayed. Then I thought about what I’d do if…
I encountered these three roof lines in a historical district near the Phoenix Art Museum. They look alike, but are quite different. Each is painted a slightly variant shade of blue. The windows they shelter are different. The supporting posts are lodged at different points on the roof. The third bears a chimney and a…
I love that exact moment when a wild creature acknowledges my existence. They look at me, and for a moment time is suspended and one species recognizes the other. Trees, of course, are also aware of our being. Mere plants as well. Okay, then, what about the rocks. Do the rocks know I exist? Can they…
I spotted this old stable door on a recent walk. I wish I could have known the horse that lived here. I could tell a lot from the evidence left behind, though. Note the owner’s cement reinforced foundation, the reinforcing bolts on the lower edges of the stable door, the double lock on the middle, and…
What a marvelous tiny house this was, hidden in the forest ferns! In my mind’s eye I miniaturized it like Alice in Wonderland, making it just the size for forest gnomes hiding among the rocks. I tried to spot them, patiently waiting for me to leave so they could go on about their daily business…
Have you ever had a goat give you the evil eye? I wasn’t sure whether this one was nearsighted or if there was spinach between my teeth. Goats aren’t my favorite people, although they are the companions of choice for expensive race horses. Arlington International Race Track near Chicago once reported nearly 60 goats in residence….
Some people collect agate marbles or Japanese netsuke. Martha Stewart collects everything! My goals are more modest. I collect textures. So when I found this abstract image of a pipe and electric wire on an old stucco wall, I was delighted. It wasn’t a Mondrian or a Rothko, but in my book, it was pretty…
There is a quiet spot, just up Oak Creek from the more famous Red Rock Crossing, which has the informal name of Buddha Beach. Sedona is a spiritual community, filled with vortexes and medicine wheels. And hoodoos of rocks arranged in balance points. This was one. The morning was still with no one else around…
I’d looked forward to seeing the immense rock on the Navajo Reservation near Kayenta, Arizona. I wasn’t disappointed. This volcanic monolith rises over 1500 feet, straight up. Agaathla Peak, meaning “much wool” in the Navajo language, is so named because of the tufts of deer and sheep wool caught in its sharp rock edges and…
This is a commercially planted group of golden barrel cactus, also known as mother-in-law cushions. I know this because no self-respecting barrel would choose to grow this close to another, just like a wise mother-in-law (without the thorns)! Barrels have a single blossom in the spring. You can see the remains here. What I like…