Home for Old and Disabled Cactus

Some cactus live for hundreds of years, but that does not mean that they survive without injury. Despite their spines, cactus are vulnerable to a host of infections, drought, and physical destruction. The cause of the growth pattern on this cactus, usually called cresting, is unknown and it is relatively uncommon. It does appear on a variety of different cactus species. Here is an appropriate poem.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

From Desiderata by Max Ehrmann

In Self Defense

I know I have been posting a lot of photos of cactus but when these photos were taken, it was a really good day to photograph cactus. I didn't find any good poetry about cactus. I might start writing poetry about cactus but right now photography is about the only extra thing I can do. Here is a poem anyway, even if it doesn't relate to cactus.

Good reader! if you e'er have seen,
When Phoebus hastens to his pillow
The mermaids, with their tresses green,
Dancing upon the western billow:
If you have seen, at twilight dim,
When the lone spirit's vesper hymn
Floats wild along the winding shore:
If you have seen, through mist of eve,
The fairy train their ringlets weave,
Glancing along the spangled green;--
If you have seen all this and more,
God bless me! what a deal you've seen!

If You Have Seen by Thomas Moore

Sticking to the Light

As a photographer, I try to see those parts of the world that are always there but hardly noticed. Everywhere I look I see photographs. When you look at my photos, you will not see what I saw, but you will see what your world view lets you see. In essence, I paint with light. I create a world that cannot be duplicated but is always around us. Thousands of people walk by these small cactus every day. How many of them actually looked at them? Here is a poem that seems appropriate.

What does it mean? Tired, angry, and ill at ease,
No man, woman, or child alive could please
Me now. And yet I almost dare to laugh
Because I sit and frame an epitaph--
"Here lies all that no one loved of him
And that loved no one." Then in a trice that whim
Has wearied. But, though I am like a river
At fall of evening when it seems that never
Has the sun lighted it or warmed it, while
Cross breezes cut the surface to a file,
This heart, some fraction of me, hapily
Floats through a window even now to a tree
Down in the misting, dim-lit, quiet vale;
Not like a pewit that returns to wail
For something it has lost, but like a dove
That slants unanswering to its home and love.
There I find my rest, and through the dusk air
Flies what yet lives in me. Beauty is there

Beauty by Edward Thomas

Mountain clouds

Sometimes we have only a narrow view of life. We cannot see even one minute into the future. But it is important that we do not allow ourselves to become narrow-minded simply because we are afraid of that future. We need to always be aware that there is more to life than meets the eye immediately.
Here is a poem about distant mountains.

Upon the Mountain’s Distant Head
William Cullen Bryant, 1794 - 1878

 Upon the mountain’s distant head,
   With trackless snows for ever white,
Where all is still, and cold, and dead,
   Late shines the day’s departing light.

But far below those icy rocks,
   The vales, in summer bloom arrayed,
Woods full of birds, and fields of flocks,
   Are dim with mist and dark with shade.

’Tis thus, from warm and kindly hearts,
   And eyes where generous meanings burn,
Earliest the light of life departs,
   But lingers with the cold and stern.

Columbine

We are still waiting for the first daffodil of Spring. A shaft of light from under the cloud shot over the valley and illuminated the bright green of the new leaves on the hillside. Today may not be the official first day of Spring, but with flowers growing and the sun warming, we are well on our way to not minding the calendar.  Here is part of a poem about Spring.

Now that the winter's gone, the earth hath lost
Her snow-white robes, and now no more the frost
Candies the grass, or casts an icy cream
Upon the silver lake or crystal stream;
But the warm sun thaws the benumbed earth,
And makes it tender; gives a sacred birth
To the dead swallow; wakes in hollow tree
The drowsy cuckoo, and the humble-bee.
Now do a choir of chirping minstrels bring
In triumph to the world the youthful Spring.

The Spring by Thomas Carew

Amazing Designs

One of the reasons that I love cactus so much is their amazing designs. If you look closely at this small cactus you will see that each of spines are part of a perfect cross. Every one of the cactus in this cluster has exactly the same pattern. This regularity in design is truly amazing.

Don't touch!

You might guess from all my photos that I love cactus and you would be right. Cactus are examples of the adaption of form to the environment. As humans, we mostly live in very energy inefficient surroundings. There are about 2000 identified cactus species in the world and each one of them has evolved a unique way of balancing their major environmental challenges while many produce gorgeous flowers and some produce edible fruit. Maybe we should evolve the way we live to have a greater balance with our own environment.

Speared by the Spine

This photo will give you some idea of the effectiveness of some of the cactus spines. This particular cactus has very long spines. However, from my experience, the long spines are quite easily avoided. I have only had a few mishaps over the years. But the small spines called glochids are much more annoying and harder to remove when you get them on your skin. One reason I like cactus is that they are well-protected plants. I admire self-sufficiency.

A Profusion of Spines

Spines on a cactus are functional. Of course, they have the function of protection but the protection extends to shading the main part of the plant from the sun. Most cactus, but not all, live in arid climates. The ability to store water and maintain life in drought conditions is a major part of their survival. But some cactus have carried their production of spines to an extreme. Here is a comment on the function of spines for both protection and shade from James D. Mauseth, Section of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas, Austin.

Many cacti are protected from full sunlight by a dense covering of spines. Rather surprisingly, perhaps as many as half of all cactus species are adapted to dark rainforests (Epiphyllum, Rhipsalis) or semi-shady shrublands/grasslands (Echinopsis, Mammillaria, Notocactus) or cool, wet, cloudy highlands (Austrocylindropuntia, Oroya, Soehrensia) (Habitats are described in Cactus Odyssey). Such plants would be killed quickly by exposure to full sunlight in Phoenix, Arizona. Species in such cool or semi-shady habitats often have either just a few spines or only very short ones. However, cacti from intensely sunny, hot deserts often must have a complete covering of spines. In many cases, the spines are so strong and painful that they obviously offer both protection and shade, but in many species the spines are so soft that a hungry, thirsty animal would chew through them with no trouble. The benefit of such spines definitely appears to be blocking sunlight and thus preventing the plant from over heating, the chlorophyll from being bleached and the plant's DNA from being damaged. For example, in Mammillaria plumosa, spine epidermis cells project outward as long trichomes, giving the spine a feathery  appearance. In other species, the spines are flat, thin and papery, being too flexible to deter animals, but broad enough to shade the plant (as well as to camouflage the cacti among the grasses with which it grows).

Barrel Cactus Fruit

Many cactus plants have edible fruit. This is a barrel cactus or Ferocactus wislizeni. It is a common cactus in the Arizona Sonora Desert and was used as food by the Native American populations. Most people of European ancestry probably would not recognize this as a delicious edible fruit. We used to make Prickly Pear jelly and syrup every year. Now we live far from the lower desert and enjoy a variety of other fruits in season. Here is an excerpt of a poem about fruit.

Not all is lost–the fruit remains
That ripened through the summer's ray;
The nurslings of the nest are gone,
Yet hear we still their warbling lay.

The glory of the summer sky
May change to tints of autumn hue;
But faith that sheds its amber light
Will lend our heaven a tender blue.

O altar of eternal youth!
O faith that beckons from afar,
Give to our lives a blossomed fruit–
Give to our morns an evening star!

from Ripened Fruit by Thomas O'Hagen

A Late Winter Storm

We had one last winter storm that coated the trees and made the roads slippery for a while. Subsequently, the temperatures soared into the 40s and 50s so scenes like this disappeared to be replaced with the brown of winter. But the iris are growing and other flowers are poking up. Here is a selection of a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson that has always stuck with me from my youth.

Come see the north wind's masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door.
Speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmer's sighs; and, at the gate,
A tapering turret overtops the work.
And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.
Selection of a portion of The Snow Storm by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Parasol Mushrooms

These beautiful mushrooms are likely Parasol Mushrooms or Macrolepiota procera or Lepiota procera. I find that mushrooms are very difficult to identify and if you cannot distinguish between species the results can be fatal. I have never tried eating a wild mushroom for that reason. Here is an excerpt from a poem by Gershon Hepner. See Mushrooms - Poem by Gershon Hepner. 

They only fruit when they are sure
that they are bound to die,
and only threat of death will lure
most mushrooms to your pie.
They love to grow where there’s manure,
for fungi all rely
on what's excrescent and impure
to help them multiply.
gershon hepner

Return to Bloom Where You Are Planted

“Silently a flower blooms,
In silence it falls away;
Yet here now, at this moment, at this place,
The world of the flower, the whole of
the world is blooming.
This is the talk of the flower, the truth
of the blossom:
The glory of eternal life is fully shining here.”
-Zenkei Shibayama 

I was reading and writing poetry for most of my early life. But for many years I have been involved with the visual world of poetry through photography. Now it is the time of my life to bring the poetry of photography to the poetry of words.

A Bright Spot in you Day

We just had a big March snowstorm and it seems like Spring is still down the road. I thought this closeup of a colorful water lily might brighten your day if you are seeing clouds and more snow coming like we are. Here is part of Thomas Gray's poem, Ode to Spring.

Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours,
Fair Venus' train appear,
Disclose the long-expecting flowers,
And wake the purple year!
The Attic warbler pours her throat,
Responsive to the cuckoo's note,
The untaught harmony of spring:
While whisp'ring pleasure as they fly,
Cool zephyrs thro' the clear blue sky
Their gather'd fragrance fling.

Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch
A broader, browner shade;
Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech
O'er-canopies the glade,
Beside some water's rushy brink
With me the Muse shall sit, and think
(At ease reclin'd in rustic state)
How vain the ardour of the crowd,
How low, how little are the proud,
How indigent the great!

Koi Fish

Koi fish are often found in decorative ponds. Here is a short explanation of them from Wikipedia: Koi:

Koi (鯉, English: /ˈkɔɪ/, Japanese: [koꜜi]) or more specifically nishikigoi (錦鯉, [ɲiɕi̥kiꜜɡoi], literally "brocaded carp"), are colored varieties of Amur carp (Cyprinus rubrofuscus) that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens.
Koi is an informal group of the colored variants of C. carpio. Several varieties are recognized by the Japanese. Koi varieties are distinguished by coloration, patterning, and scalation. Some of the major colors are white, black, red, orange, yellow, blue, and cream. The most popular category of koi is the Gosanke, which is made up of the Kohaku, Taisho Sanshoku, and Showa Sanshoku varieties.

I have very little experience with fish or fishing but I do know that carp are only edible when they come from a pond, lake, stream, or river that is not polluted. When I was young, I heard about how to cook a carp. You cook it on a board until the meat is tender and well cooked and then you eat the board.

How Doth the Little Busy Bee

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

How skilfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labors hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labor or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be passed,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.

Isaac Watts 1664 - 1748 wrote this poem and about 750 hymns.

As the Grass

24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

1 Peter 1:24-25

Not Friendly

Sometimes defensive tactics can be taken to excess. I am guessing the average cactus plants has more spines than this plant but here the spines look excessive. We would not normally see a smaller, green-looking plant with such obvious spines. I have no problem leaving this plant entirely alone.

Wild Roses

When I was very young, we had a huge wild rose bush on our lot in Easter Arizona. I can still remember the smell of their beautiful flowers. From time to time, I still find some of them growing wild in the mountains of Arizona and Utah. Some of these have been cultivated and hybridized but the cultivated varieties usually sacrifice size and color for smell.

The Promise of Summer

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

I found America a long time ago.

Painted Rock Petroglyphs Site, Arizona

The Painted Rock Petroglyph Site is located in the heart of the Arizona Sonora Desert in Central Arizona. It is relatively close to the almost always dry Gila River and not too far from Gila Bend. It is one of a number of sites in Arizona with high concentrations of petroglyphs. There is an almost endless number of books and articles speculating on the meaning of the petroglyphs but although some of them may have been interpreted correctly, the vast majority of these ubiquitous rock carvings are unknown. Think about the speculation in the future of the graffiti that covers so many buildings and structures in the United States.

The Superstition Mountains

The Superstition Mountains on the east side of the Salt River Valley is a Federal Wilderness Area with a difference. The difference is that the edge of the "wilderness" begins across the street from Apache Junction subdivisions. Granted, there are parts of the wilderness that could be considered wilderness and it has claimed a lot of lives over the year to merit the designation, but on the west and south, access to the mountain range is limited to small parking lots. What is really the wilderness is really the vast extense of broken terrain to the east of the familiar and prominent mountain shown in the photo above.

Early March Snowstorm

Winter gets some of its last beautiful days with snowstorms in March. Usually, the weather is so warm that the snow doesn't stick, but this was about six inches in one huge storm. You can't really rely on the weather forecasts because small intense storms can form and take everyone by surprise. This is what we woke up to this morning.