The photo above certainly does not depict me–I won’t even try this rocky section which my friend Rosemary attacks with ease. Having grown up as I did with very little bicycling experience, I pretty much started from scratch a bit over a decade ago. As a kid I spent much more time riding a horse than […]
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 […]
You know that moment when a musician takes over the stage? His hands elegantly fold around an instrument, and he plays a melody the audience hears with their hearts. Or a woman begins in a rich alto voice, and she causes every listener to fall in awe of her. You know–that instant when a performer creates […]
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, […]
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. –Albert Camus I don’t always find Camus’ summer within me, but here in Baja California Sur, it’s easy to imagine that mid-February is not the depth of winter. The following photos (taken in the past few days) are meant to be a […]
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 […]
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