Summer Snapshots

Hello! These pictures are from July and August. The first two are from short nature walks in the desert and the rest are from the neighborhood and backyard.

chain fruit cholla flower with ant

Harris' antelope ground squirrel

sunrise

Cooper's hawk

A bobcat came into our yard, took a long seven-minute drink of water from the toad's dish and left.

bobcat

The toad has been living in our backyard for a few years but we only see it during monsoon seasons.

Sonoran desert toad

dragonfly

zucchini blossom

nasturtium, cucumber and tomato

roadrunner with lizard

sunset

baby verdin

baby cardinal

I saw a colorful tanager in my yard several times this summer.

western tanager with mourning doves

Have a good day!

March

Have a good day!

Spring

Betsy Grant created this video with nature photos from my blogs and her original piano music.  I find Betsy's music particularly soothing, like gentle rain in the desert, and I trust you will enjoy it as well...

Deer sighting

White-tailed doe with fawn

I recently saw this doe and fawn in the desert.  The little one looked playful, running around in circles with its fluffy white tail up in the air.  Every so often it would stop and rest by its mom's side.   The mom was eating green leaves from shrubs growing among the cactus. 

I tried to take a short video of the scampering fawn, but the vegetation was so thick and tall, the little one could barely be seen.  Luckily, it stood still long enough to pose for this photo.  Although not pictured, there were three other adult deer with them browsing leaves.

The Mockingbird

Greetings!  This morning I am pleased to share a monograph from the book, Living Nonduality: The Enlightenment Teachings of Self-Realization by Robert Wolfe, Karina Library Press, 2009:

Yea, Listen to the Mockingbird!

It is June 21 (The First Day of Summer) one hundred degrees in the shade, and completely open to the blue skies on this hilltop. Standing out in the pure sunlight is a pine tree about fifty feet tall. Perched at its very top, and overlooking the hills of this ripe green valley is a mockingbird. Singing.

It has been singing since about 7 A.M., when the sunlight first hurdled the mountaintops, and it will continue until the sun is gone; that is, about one half of the day. The mockingbird will fly away for brief periods of this time, during which its absence will be noticed in the quiet.

It sings for several minutes at a time, and then—still singing—it will leap into the air and flutter its wings in a semaphoric display of black and white, settling again on its prominent perch and continuing its plaint. Its song is not desperate, but it is insistent and unrelenting. It is designed to carry for a considerable distance over the hills.

As one listens, on this day in which few creatures are active, the song itself is astonishing. Though repeated, literally, for hours, it is not repetitious. Though one can hear, at moments, the mimicking of a cricket, a frog and the call of other birds, it is nonetheless inventive. What startles the human ear, as it listens, is that each note is sung with an intensity as if it had never been attempted before. Each refrain ends with the urgent sincerity and enthusiasm with which it began. Indeed, as the day wears, the mockingbird renders each passionate soliloquy as if every one of its previous efforts were completely forgotten. There is never a tired, worn or half-hearted effort; each effort is as if it were the first—nay, the only effort. The bird and its song are in no way divided; each breath and the expression of each note are inseparable. The potential for each moment is ever richer than the moment before. And all, and everything that one is, is in that rapturous moment. Nothing more is to be attended to than that.

Robert Wolfe's entire Living Nonduality book can be read for free as an ebook at his website here.

The author has kindly granted me an interview with him which is posted here on my other blog, Simply This.

Jane Goodall

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending a lecture by Dr. Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist, conservationist and UN Messenger of Peace.  This was my second time hearing this inspiring lady speak at Pima Community College.

Jane began researching chimpanzee behavior 50 years ago and today is on a global mission to empower others to make a difference for all living things.  She’s on the road 300 days per year spreading her message of hope for our planet.

Jane Goodall urges parents and educators to look into her Roots and Shoots program.  Roots and Shoots is about making positive changes for communities, animals, and for the environment.

 

(This last photo is from her website)

At the root of Dr. Jane Goodall's philosophy is the belief that every individual matters and makes a difference.

She encourages sustainable living and protection of animals and wild places.

Yellow Wonderland

Brittlebush is blooming!

Brittlebush  Encelia farinosa is a desert shrub related to the sunflower.








 













































 
        


Lately, it seems no one can resist heading for the hills to enjoy the color yellow.   And, who could blame them?

See more yellow all over the world at Mellow Yellow Monday.

Looking up at the sky

Mostly blue skies and mild temperatures here for the past couple of weeks, perfect weather for enjoying nature outdoors with a camera. The photo meme Skywatch Friday encourages participants to gaze skyward.  Things seem optimistic from that perspective, don’t they?

Join the fun and see skies from around the world at Skywatch Friday hosted by Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy, and Sylvia.