This is Montezuma’s Castle, which is not technically a castle and most definitely was not owned by Montezuma, who never traveled this far north from Mexico. It was, however, home to a resident Arizonan, one Blackjack the rattlesnake. He was a relatively docile black-tailed rattlesnake, and because Montezuma’s Castle is a National Monument, he was…
I once lived near a gully that served as a major byway for wildlife. Through it came bobcats who liked to sit on the big rocks and sun themselves, rattlesnakes who would park themselves underneath my bird feeders and wait for dinner, and these guys. If there is one thing that javelina like better than…
How long has it been since you’ve had a friend wind you up in a swing and then let go and you spin so fast that suddenly you are staying in one spot but the world is spinning in a widening circle around you and you are breathless with delight? The swings are still there. …
Some of you have asked me if the places I describe in the Pegasus Quincy mystery series exist. Yes, many of them do. For example, Peg’s grandfather HT lives in the actual house in Mingus–which is close to Jerome, Arizona 😉 –that used to be a boarding house for miners. It featured a prominent outside…
One afternoon I looked up to see two very different clouds. One was brilliant in the sunshine, each layer clearly marked with almost luminous attention. I reveled in its beauty. The second, almost directly overhead was dark, threatening, ominous. And then I stopped for a moment to reconsider. If I were under that bright cloud,…
My cat Foxy has a corkscrew for a spine. I tried to figure out why she was doing this maneuver and finally concluded she chose this position because it felt good. In addition to the yoga pose Downward Dog, perhaps we need one called Curly Cat. The child is in me still…and sometimes not so…
One of the fun things of being a photographer is that you get to go out in the elements when saner folks are at home, staying warm and dry on a stormy day. I did take an umbrella on this rainy afternoon, but gave up when I found it impossible to balance both bumbershoot and…
It is always fun when Mother Nature shows you something you didn’t expect to see. Here, the moss patterns reveal the water currents, as clearly as if they’d been drawn with crayon. And, as I looked closer, I recognized a pattern that I’d seen it before: it resembled the curve in the bark of an…
As an aficionado of texture, when I came upon this old shack, I was in seventh heaven. Consider that great rusty barrel, the rain-stained wood, the stovepipe hanging at an angle, that old window missing one pane, the tattered, rusting side-panels. It was perfect! And then I discovered why is was perfect. It’s not real. This sheep…
I was attracted to this spot by a smell that took me back to childhood, the wonderful aroma of grape Kool-Aid. This is a Texas Mountain Laurel, or Mescal Bean plant, native to the southwest. And then when I got there, I discovered this amazingly beautiful butterfly, a black Pipevine Swallowtail. One gives pleasure to…