Butterflies and Flowers of Spring

This is the time of year when the cactus flowers start to bloom. One of our favorite places is the Desert Botanical Gardens. As soon as we see cactus blooming around the city, we head off to the Gardens to see the real display of cactus from all around the American continents. Cactus are found only in North and South America, by the way.


These are Cholla, the worst stickers in the cactus world, but some of the most beautiful flowers


The DBG also has a butterfly exhibit. They have a huge cage with screening to keep in the butterflies with a lot of flowers.



It is a remarkable experience and one to look forward to each year.

Death from snake bite

There are 17 different species or subspecies of the rattlesnakes in Arizona. There were 202 rattlesnake bites reported to the poison control center at the University of Arizona which serves all of Arizona, except Maricopa County during 2006. However, 50 to 70% of all snake bites reported were provoked by the person who was bitten. From 2002 to 2007, Arizona had about one snakebite fatality a year. For comparison, lightning killed 17 people in Arizona from 1990 to 2003, so you are in slightly more danger dying from lightning than from snake bite.

But to get a handle on reality, in 2007 alone, Arizona had 1,066 traffic fatalities. You are, at least, a thousand times more likely to die in a traffic accident than you are to get bitten by a rattler. In 2004, there were 9,710 deaths from cancer.

One morning, we were camping on Lake Powell, not strictly in Arizona, but the same kind of area, I got up early and walked up to a small hill outside of camp. As I looked back at the camp, with all of the campers in a pile of sleeping bags and equipment, I suddenly noticed a rattlesnake coiled up just out of the camp circle. Then I noticed another, within a few seconds I had spotted about twenty rattlesnakes coiled in early morning coolness, in a complete circle around the camp.

Before and since I have seen hundreds of rattlesnakes. My first one was just under the top of the Mogollon Rim above Boy Scout Camp Geronimo when I was about 13 years old. The last one I saw was next to the Salt River at Coons Bluff. Like the old saying goes, if you don't bother them, they won't bother you. The best defense against snake bite is vigilance, look where you step and look where you reach.

The empty streets

When we were children in Phoenix, in the pre-home refrigeration days, dusk was the signal to run outside and play. We would run around with all of the neighborhood children and play the usual games. When I purchased a new home in Mesa, I wanted to duplicate that same neighborhood experience. Happily, we moved into a neighborhood with lots of children and my own children had the same experience of growing up in Mesa with a neighborhood.

One of my best memories happened late one night when there was a huge thunderstorm. The street in front of our house filled with water two or three feet deep. The houses up and down the street emptied of children, all of whom were dancing in the rain and water. It was a glorious night for children.

All of that is now past. In our new neighborhood, the streets are empty, even in the cooler evening hours. The children we see are constantly supervised by parents and not allowed out of their driveway. If they are riding a bike or scooter, they are heavily padded with helmets, elbow and knee protectors. In one instance, a few children rode their bikes around our neighbor's circular driveway, which was open to the street. The neighbor stormed out of his house and loudly complained to the children's parents and ordered them to keep off his paved driveway. Children are no longer allowed to be human, they are kept like nicknack's and wrapped in bubble wrap. The streets are now mostly empty.

One day I saw some children playing in the park next to our house. However, immediately, their father was out on the sidewalk yelling at them to get home. We have lived next to a park for over thirty years. The old one was always full of children, the new one is entirely empty, it seems to be a park for dogs only.

I know there may still be some places left in this world where children can play, unsupervised, for an hour or two outside. Where they can build mud villages and dig ditches in the dirt. Where they can run and play like children and enjoy being outside. When I see the poor little creatures sitting in front of the video or TV my heart cries out, go outside! See the sun, the moon and the stars. Look at the trees. Find bugs. Dig holes, make a mess, do things children have always done until now.

Wind

Standing out on the Colorado Plateau, looking across miles of almost flat rocks and sand, you can really begin to appreciate the force of the wind. Stories passed down from my ancestors who pioneered this almost lifeless landscape, tell about people going crazy from the wind. Literally losing their minds from the constant blowing. Statistics don't do the wind justice. The Plateau doesn't have monopoly on the wind, of course, there are lots of places in on the plains where the wind blows just as much, but the combination of high altitude and dry air make for some really spectacular wind storms.

One day we drove up on the Plateau and got out of our car, I thought I might have gone deaf or perhaps was suffering from some sort of hallucination, there wasn't any wind. No such luck, ten minutes later it started blowing so hard, we couldn't open the car doors without bracing ourselves against the blast.

Since there are no trees to speak of, at least by normal tree standards, (there are Juniper bushes that most people call trees but they aren't usually more than about twenty feet high at most) there is nothing to stop the wind once it gets moving. In the Spring and Fall when the huge cold fronts start coming down from the Northwest, the wind really take off and blows, sometimes over 100 mph, which most places would be hurricane force, but up there is just another Spring breeze.

Even today, after living in the low desert most of my life, on a quiet evening, I can still hear the wind blowing in my ears.

Death through dehydration

I haven't had a post about dying in the desert lately. But it is now getting over 90 degrees in Phoenix and it is that time of year again. The University of Maryland Medical Center has first aid site that gives a good explanation of both heat stroke and dehydration. But there is one problem, Maryland isn't much like Arizona and especially the low deserts (which includes the bottom of the Grand Canyon).

To quote MedicineNet. com: "The cause of heat stroke is simple: being too hot for too long. If sweating isn't enough to cool you down, your body temperature rises rapidly, up to 106 degrees in as little as ten or 15 minutes. That's hot enough to literally cook your brain. You pass out, and if you're not treated immediately, you will suffer brain damage or die."

One of the symptoms of both dehydration and heat stroke is the inability to think properly. Many people start taking off clothes when overly hot thereby exposing more of their skin to the sun. In Phoenix, you can die of heat stroke working in your front yard, you don't have to be out in the desert. In a real sense, all of the Salt River Valley is out in the desert. Some statistics indicate that up to 50% of the people with heat stroke die of the condition.

I have been very dehydrated, one day hiking in overly warm weather, actually in November, I lost six pounds of water in an afternoon. Fortunately, none of those in our hiking group got heat stroke. But it was a real possibility.

Spring Flowers in the Desert Botanical Gardens

Spring at Phoenix's Desert Botanical Gardens is spectacular. Please take time to view the slide show of fantastic flowers. These are the first of the season and will get better as the weeks go by.

The color and form of these flowers is extraordinary. There is nothing to compare to the color anywhere else in the plant kingdom. Cactus win the prize for the best flowers.

You can spot these flowers for long distances. The are so bright and contrast so completely with the gray and browns of the desert.

Citrus and Cactus in Arizona

Arizona is know for its Five C's, Citrus, Copper, Cotton, Climate and Cattle. However, I would I a sixth C, Cactus. Here are some pictures of the citrus trees, tangelo and grapefruit, in bloom. The grapefruit tree has some fruit left in among the leave and flowers.

In March and April the cactus start to bloom. They are fantastic. Here is a column cactus with some really strange flowers.

This what they look like when they are fully bloomed.