I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. –John Burroughs Since returning home to the Texas hill country a little more than a week ago, I have felt particularly welcomed by spring blooms and by the healing rain that first started on Easter Sunday and returned […]
The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks. –Tennessee Williams When it’s spring and there has been a little rain, the desert blooms, breaking up the landscape with grace notes. These photos were taken in the Sonoran desert close to the vernal equinox, which annually seems to kick start a season of renewal. Mexican […]
We get better at what we practice. I’m not a golfer, but I’m pretty sure you have to practice in order to improve your swing. You have to do so repeatedly in order to develop muscle memory. In the same way, I have to practice looking, seeing. I have to practice writing. I have to […]
Beauty, pleasure, and the good things of life are intensified, and perhaps only exist, by reason of contrast. –Walter J. Phillips The Baja California Sur landscape is one of interesting contrasts. Here’s an example: Can you find the island in the above photo? Although you can’t see the water beyond the cactus forest, the mountains […]
For days now the word “burgeoning” has been on my mind, like the refrain of a song I keep playing over and over in my head. I looked it up to see if it was the correct word for what I have been sensing around me here in Baja California Sur. The meaning of burgeon, […]
Desert plants here in Baja California Sur often intertwine and lean on one another like the cardon cactus and elephant tree (torote) pictured above. A local plant expert described this to some friends, my husband, and me as being simbiotico; that is, a symbiotic relationship in which different organisms cooperate. Sometimes, he explained, well-meaning folks […]
Photo above: Bald cypress tree beside the river at the Fisher Place, taken at a time of extreme drought. I still feel the years of my growing-up in my bones. Somehow, forty-five years later, I still fish with my big brother Eric on the river at the Fisher Place and try to snag the old […]
As I rode horseback with my local friend Manuel into the desert mountains this week, I noticed lots of Baja fairy dusters in bloom. Just the name of this plant is enough to enchant me, but the brilliant red stamens arranged like tiny whisk brooms equally draw my attention. I like to picture the little […]
A few years ago, when we arrived in Baja for our winter stay, I was slowly recovering from a pinched nerve in my neck. After several weeks of physical therapy and medication, I was still hurting, and, in addition, I had the remnants of a nasty sinus and respiratory infection, often snorting and blowing and […]
The human impulse to say, “I was here” hasn’t changed much in the past few thousand years, has it? Top photo, wall of children’s playground, Baja California Sur. Middle photo, cave paintings at La Trinidad site, Baja California Sur. Bottom photo, wider view of La Trinidad site and its famous deer with checkerboard body. Link […]
Studies in Color and Composition
Radical Retirement
Sean Dietrich's column on life in the American South.
A Glimpse into My Life & Passions
Joann Pensabene
Where observation and imagination meet nature in poetry.
pursuing a life of purpose
Writing our way to awareness
Living life outside the lines
A Story Circle Network blog for and by women
A Diary of Love, Literature, and Growing Up in Wartime America
Practicing Wonder 