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Archive for the ‘Nature’ Category

Favorite Places: Mountain Passes

Posted in Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , on April 9, 2012| 13 Comments »

“Before computers, telephone lines and television connect us, we all share the same air, the same oceans, the same mountains and rivers. We are all equally responsible for protecting them.” Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Togwotee Pass, Montana

One of the best things about Highway 26 between Dubois and Moran Junction, Wyoming, is the awesome view of the Grand Tetons from the top of Togwotee Pass.

Bean’s Pat: Laughing Housewife http://tinyurl.com/7wc8h68  While death is not a laughing matter,  I’m with the Laughing Housewife on this one.  Love and laugh with me today, and when I’m gone continue to love and laugh.

 

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Favorite Places: Agua Caliente Park, Tucson, Arizona

Posted in Birds, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , on April 5, 2012| 7 Comments »

” A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.” – James Dent.

An absolutely perfect morning at Agua Caliente Park in Tucson. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Audubon Bird Walk

As I often do when traveling around the country, I check out what the local Audubon chapter has on its activity calendar.

Here in Tucson, where I’m currently squatted visiting my youngest daughter, that included a bird walk this morning at the city’s Agua Caliente Park. My daughter, although not a birder, accompanied me.

It was a beautiful place to walk, with manicured lawns, ponds and desert-landscaped gardens.

Everyone took a little break from birdwatching to watch the turtles. -- Photo by Pat Bean

My bird list for the day included great-tailed grackles, vermilion flycatchers, yellow-rumped and Lucy warblers, lesser goldfinch, a verdin, mallards, Gambel’s quail, turkey vulture, Cooper’s hawk, northern cardinal, northern beardless-tryannulet, curved-bill thrasher, cactus wren, common raven, cedar waxwing, chipping sparrow and red-winged blackbird.

The most oohed an aaahed-over bird was a green-tailed towhee, which was passing through on its migration farther north. I, however, was more impressed with the Abert’s towhee. Although a much plainer bird, it was the only one among the day’s find that was a life bird for me.

It’s a common bird that sticks around all year in the Tucson area but can’t be found much outside of Arizona. It brought my life list of bird species seen up to 701.

How could it have been anything but a perfect morning?

Bean’s Pat: 400 Days ‘Til 40 http://tinyurl.com/cohgl7p   It’s OK to cry. I agree, perhaps because I’ve recently done a lot of it. And there was nothing anyone could do to make things better, except to simply be there for me.

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A Do Nothing Day

Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , on April 4, 2012| 6 Comments »

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        And I must follow, if I can,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say — J.R.R, Tolkien

Listening to the Planet’s Pulse

A jet paints the desert sky with its contrail. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Yesterday, if you look at it the way I tend to do, was a wasted day. Nothing on my daily to-do list, including blogging, was accomplished.

I woke up in a mood to do nothing, and nothing I did. At my age, when more of my life is behind me than ahead of me, wasted days frighten me.

But today I awoke refreshed, ready to once again try to give my life meaning. I began it with a short hike here in the fresh desert air above Tucson. As I walked I realized yesterday was not wasted. I had needed just such a day and it was time I stopped feeling guilty about taking it.

Am I contemplating this northern cardinal, or is the bird contemplating me? -- Pat Bean

Then I started truly noticing my surroundings in a different way. The saguaro cactus weren’t simply cactus; they were homes for wildlife, shade for them, too, when the desert sun-scorched the earth.

I listened to the hum of the city around me. I felt the earth beneath me beat with the sound of traffic on distant highways, and watched as a jet flew overhead, marking the sky with its contrail. There was a part of me that longed for the absolute silence I’ve heard only once in my life.

That occurred in Utah’s Escalante wilderness when a photographer and I drove the Burr Trail for a newspaper story we were writing and photographing. I was amazed how still the earth had been back then, realizing how noisy a simple refrigerator’s hum could be.

But this day, I also enjoyed the feeling of being a part of the pulsing world from which I had tried to escape yesterday. What a difference a day makes.

Bean’s Pat: To Write is to Write http://tinyurl.com/72lmlwy This is a blog I could have written with only minor changes. It made me laugh. I chose it two days ago, and now I wonder if it influenced my yesterday. P.S. Thanks Jim http://notyethere.wordpress.com/  for sending me Tolkien’s quote.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Arranged

Posted in Favorite Hikes, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , , , , on April 1, 2012| 2 Comments »

“In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.” John Muir

Balanced Rock, Arches National Park, Utah 

Mother Nature's arrangement of rocks was used in the opening scenes of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." -- Photo by Pat Bean

Bean’s Pat: Ummm, really? http://tinyurl.com/6t3vgps Start your day with a song.

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 Thorny Thoughts

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , on March 27, 2012| 13 Comments »

“Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. To “Why am I here?’ to uselessness. It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus” – Enid Bagnold

These cactus made me think of John Denver's "Sunshine on My Shoulder Makes Me Happy." -- Photo by Pat Bean

Where Ideas Come From

I was asked this morning where I get my writing ideas.

It’s not the first time I’ve been asked this, and I still stumble over the answer.

This morning, my inspiration for my blog was a walk through a desert landscape filled with many varieties of cacti.

Within 100 yards of leaving my daughter’s driveway, I had seen half a dozen different varieties. Their differences set off my brain on a path of comparing the cacti to the people I know. Tall and short like Mutts and Jeffs; sunny like the blooms on a barrel cactus or especially thorny like the cholla; open to life, like the saguaro’s wide-stretch reach to the sky, or closed up like a low-growing hedgehog cactus.

Perhaps it was this old dead saguaro, looking much like an old man reaching for the sky, that was the real inspiration for today's blog. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I saw a large prickly pear cactus that glowed pink around its edges. It made me think of someone like myself, who prefers to look at the world through rose-colored glasses.

The truth is my writing ideas come from everywhere, at least the starting point. If I’m lucky, as I was today when I went searching for a quote to go with today’s blog and found Bagnold’s great one, I get a bit of inspiration that will tie my thoughts into something more meaningful.

Then there are days when I sit down to write about one thing and end up writing about something entirely different. It’s as if my fingers on a keyboard take charge.

I suspect that unless you’re a writer probably none of this makes any sense.

Oh well. That’s the writing life. Some days you communicate, and some days you don’t.

Bean’s Pat: Wistfully Wandering http://tinyurl.com/dxb8xhp Alice Springs. This blog was my choice for today because it is a place that is calling for this wandering/wondering old broad to visit.

 

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Roadside Stop on Arizona’s Highway 79

Posted in Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 26, 2012| 7 Comments »

Tom Mix Memorial -- Photo by Pat Bean

“I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona. It says: ‘Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.’ I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have.” – Harry S. Truman

Cowboy Memorial

While driving a lonely stretch of Highway 79 in Arizona awhile back, I came upon this Tom Mix Memorial. Mix, just for all you youngsters out there who may never have heard the name, made over 325 movies between 1910 and 1935. All but nine of them silent films.

While this cowboy was a bit before even my time, I did see a few of his last movies when they played as Saturday matinees at the Lisbon Theater in Dallas. Looking at the memorial I could almost smell the popcorn and feel the rough-cushion of the seats in that old theater.

Landscape near where Tom Mix crashed his vehicle and died of a broken neck in 1940. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I wonder if it’s still there, on Lancaster Avenue in South Oak Cliff. I couldn’t find it on the Internet, but I did come across a site for Lisbon Elementary, which I attended in the first grade.

Mix died in 1940, very near this memorial, which it was evident had seen better days.

Traveling is a two-part journey. First there’s the joy of seeing new sights and learning new things, and then comes the connections that take one back to other times and other places.

It takes both things to satisfy my wanderlust.

Bean’s Pat: Things I love http://tinyurl.com/87gobqe I have Portuguese in my genes, but I would love this blog even if I didn’t.

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Flying High to Tucson

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, tagged , , on March 25, 2012| 17 Comments »

 “May all your trails be crooked, winding, dangerous, leading to the most amazing views, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you.” — Edward Abbey

 

A Tucson sunset -- Photo by Pat Bean

Getting Better

I’m in Tucson, where winter has long passed. The temperature’s in the 70s and low 80s, which is too hot for me in humid Texas but great here where the air is dry. Besides, the desert cools off at night, something Texas never does.

I left my RV, Gypsy Lee, parked in Texas yesterday and flew from Austin, to Dallas, to Tucson so as to spend some time with my youngest daughter, Trish. We’re both in a recuperating mode, she from double pneumonia and fractured ribs, and me from losing my canine traveling companion Maggie, and then eight days later her replacement, Princess Meghan.

The view I have out my daughter's large back window from my blogging spot. -- Photo by Pat Bean

We’re helping each other through difficult times. I couldn’t be in a better place.

And as a bonus, there’s new scenery visible from where I sit at my computer. But more importantly, I’m back to counting my daily blessings.

Bean’s Pat: Barb’s Blog http://tinyurl.com/6o67fyf A blog that clearly demonstrates no one can push you around without your permission. I love it.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Through

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , on March 24, 2012| 6 Comments »

Driving through the tunnel -- Photo by Pat Bean

Custer State Park, South Dakota
 
“Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!” — Bob Marley
 
Bean’s Pat:  Kindness Kronicles  http://tinyurl.com/82zz9tm  The world needs more people like this blogger, who believes the world truly can be a kinder place in which to live. .
 
 

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Favorite Places: National Parks

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, tagged , , , , , , on March 23, 2012| 6 Comments »

“Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars… and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers – for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are.” – Osho

Looking out on Frenchmen's Bay from Acadia National Park. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Acadia

My 2006 visit to Acadia National Park in Maine brought back memories of my daughter’s Navy service. Not strange, since the destroyer tender she served on was named after the park.

I had been curious about this park ever since I had sailed aboard the USS Acadia. The occasion was a 1990 Tiger Cruise from Seattle to San Diego, a public relations opportunity to show parents and other loved ones how safely their sailors lived, in my case my youngest daughter.

How can one not feel at peace in such a setting. -- Photo by Pat Bean

These memories, triggered as I drove into the park, also refreshed my unanswered question of why war ships are named after national parks, as in USS Acadia, USS Yellowstone, USS Grand Canyon, USS Yosemite … It seemed like an oxymoron. Parks are places of peace and war are places of

hell.

My daughter, who was one of 400 women among the Acadia’s 1,200-person crew, was a welder whose job entailed repairing battle ships that females were not allowed to serve on. That gave me some bit of comfort until she wrote to me about being aboard one of the battleships when it went on full alert. She had been taken aboard the battleship via helicopter to do a bit of welding

Maine's sea coast -- Photo by Pat Bean

By the time I reached the park’s Hulls Cove Visitor Center, the lushness of the roadside trees, which were just barely beginning to change into their autumn colors, glimpses of turquoise Frenchmen’s Bay, and the cheerfulness of pastel purple asters I passed, had put me in a more cheerful frame of mind.

Mother Nature has always had a calming effect on me.

Bean’s Pat: Fun and Fabulousness http://tinyurl.com/87jc6bb Spend a day in Paris while sitting in an easy chair.

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Favorite Places: National Parks

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , on March 22, 2012| 4 Comments »

“I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” –Lillian Smith

Looking down from the Island at the Green River -- or is it the Colorado. The Green joins the Colorado near here. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Canyonlands: Island in the Sky

This park, located near Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point Utah State Park and Moab — all fantastic things on any bucket list — is a great escape from our chaotic lives. I try never to miss it when I’m in the area.

I’ve never been there when it felt crowded. It has a  tiny campground, in which I’ve both tent and RV-camped, spectacular aerial views of the Green and Colorado rivers and a fairy land of rock formations.

If you go, don’t miss taking the Mesa Arch Trail. It’s only a short half-mile hike but the view at the end is awesome. Have Fun.

Bean’s Pat: A Year on the Road http://tinyurl.com/79ba6la Al’s a full-time RV-er like me. This column is simply full of trivia, but check out some of his back columns.  While I write more about Mother Nature’s landscapes, he focuses more on the people who inhabit the landscape.

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