Driving Through the Desert

The desert is so dry that when it rains, she celebrates. Today I am driving west on Hwy 10. There have been small rains over the last few days. This is the best kind of rain for flowers.

The Navajo describe the rains in one of two ways. Male rains, heavy but short lived rains that can dump lots of water and fill the gullies with fast moving, potentially dangerous water. Female rains are the lighter rains that drop smaller amounts of water over longer periods of time. Female rains soak in, nourishing the plants.

A green under tone is everywhere, carpeting up in to the mountains. The roadside is lined with yellow bushy flowers. The road departments are really trying to foster plants that feed the pollinators.
Some areas have a pink aura, as several varieties of cacti that have a pink/purple hue mixed with pink fairyduster and four o'clocks. Intermittent are the orangy flowers that are sticky to the touch. Occasionally there are patches of ground covering flowers: Magenta, yellow, white.

the cacti flowers are harder to enjoy from your car. One plant here, one way over there. but the flowers are more showy to attract their pollinators The ocatillo has a red flower that almost looks like a lipstick on the end of the stalk. Barrel cacti can form a crown.l There is one large white flower on a stalk about 3 feet high that I have yet to photo.

If you are driving thru, be aware of which colors appear in which areas. When you are stopped, look up close at these magnificent bits of beauty.

Comments

Ecotravel and Greenwashing and a Ramble on Ethics

As someone who strives to reach the unobtainable goal of living ethically (or if you prefer the word: moral, holy, pure.) I am always questioning the decisions I make. I rarely get it right, but I make the effort. In these blogs I try to share not just the travel experience, but how these travels have changed me. Travel is a big issue in my personal path, and for the planet as well. Travel has its cost. I am not speaking of the monetary cost, but the ethical cost of going to another place and the affect on that place. I was accused by one troll of “Killing the penguins.” The question becomes how do I tip the scales of Osiris in my direction. "Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with moral questions and values." Encyclopedea Britanica This essay is on my thoughts on that particular dilemma. I can’t tell you what to think, but perhaps in reading how I came to my decisions you can add to my thinking, and perhaps think about your footprint. The photos are from my va...

Antarctic, Tuesday 14 November 2023

A week and a half after landing, and I am still processing this trip. I may be processing for the rest of my life. I think any trip to the Antarctic would be life changing. For me as a geographer, traveler, and elder, this trip was on my probably not gonna happen bucket list. Getting there was hard work. Getting over my personal barriers was difficult. There was nothing easy about getting there, a personal triumph. But there was something magical about this trip, this voyage. Even the Expedition leaders noted there was something special about it, a luck. The weather, the sea conditions, the sightings. All were way beyond expectations. I will begin as the voyage begins with Drake Passage. This passages has two settings one involves sea sick meds, learning how to wedge oneself into bed, how not to smash fingers in doors. The other is Drake Lake. There is nothing in between. We did the crossing in a day and a half rather than the usual two. There were bulletin...

's-Hertogenbosch June 2024

I came to Den Bosch for the Bosch Parade. I don't think one can understand the parade without understanding the town, and vice versa. The experience deserves a post all of its own, so I will do this in two linked posts. This is not some of my best photography, but the experience was one that I wanted to share. As usual, I fight to make Blogger behave. Perhaps in the next few years we might make a meet up trip for Den Bosch and the parade. Contact me if you might be interested. First off, the name. 's-Hertogenbosch or Den Bosch. Just accept that how ever you say it you are gonna be wrong. The Dutch language, along with the Dutch mind set, is totally inexplicable and unexplainable, and totally charming. Like wise "Holland" or "Netherlands" is going to trip you up. Both words describe the same place, but have subtle differences that really don't matter much, except to those people that it does but don't worry yourself about it The town goes by ...

Bad Knees Travel

Search This Blog