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Favorite Places: Agua Caliente Park, Tucson, Arizona

April 5, 2012 by Pat Bean

” 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.

Posted in Birds, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

A Do Nothing Day

April 4, 2012 by Pat Bean

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.

Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, Travel, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments »

The Healing Power of Words

April 2, 2012 by Pat Bean

 “You see the woman across the room, you think, She’s so poised; she’s so together. But she looks at you and you are the woman across the room for her.” – Diane von Furstenberg

“Identity is not found, the way Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses in the bulrushes. Identify is built.” Margaret Halsey

Life is full of both beauty and thorns. I'm thankful for the words of others that have helped me past the prickly patches. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Still Finding My Way

I found the two above quotes this morning on Story Circle Network’s weekly offering of wise words and writing prompts. They touched me.

I know that next year they may be words with no meaning to me. It’s often that way with the quotes I write down in my journals.

Perhaps tomorrow, or the next day or the next day, I will be more secure within myself. The loss of two pets within eight days took a toll on me. I know I still have a way to go to get back to feeling like the gutsy, daring old-broad that I’ve worked hard to create.

Perhaps tomorrow it will be Tolkien’s quote: “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him,” that is most meaningful to me. That was actually a quote that meant a lot to me during one exciting, but difficult year.

Other people’s words have helped me through life. They’ve let me know that I’m not as alone as I feel, that others have walked my same path.

Their words make me glad to call myself a writer. I can only hope that my words have occasionally touched others as I have been touched.

Bean’s Pat: The Blood Red Pencil http://tinyurl.com/6selj7b Simply a good blog for writers to follow

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments »

Weekly Photo Challenge: Arranged

April 1, 2012 by Pat Bean

“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.

Posted in Favorite Hikes, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, Weekly Photo Challenge | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Books: The Rain Wild Chronicles

March 31, 2012 by Pat Bean

“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.” – Albert Einstein

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.” – Dr. Seuss

Don’t Do That To Me Robin

Look what you did to me Robin. My hair might not last until the fourth Rain Wilds book is published. -- Art by Pat Bean

I’m a big fan of fantasy books, but particular about which ones I read. Actually I’m that way about all the books I read, which includes just about all genres except horror, or books where the dark side dominates the pages.

Along with wanting a good plot that keeps me turning the page, a book’s characters must have both strengths and failings and grow in depth as the story progresses.

Without a character with whom I can connect, a book gets tossed aside at my self-imposed 50-page benchmark — or at the end of the first free chapter that Amazon provides Kindle users.

Poor writing, naturally, will turn me off much sooner.

I have many mystery authors that I follow but far fewer fantasy authors. That’s because an abundance of them seem not to measure up to my 50-page limit. This means when I find an author I enjoy, I usually read everything they write, and eagerly await their new offerings.

I took this photo today at the Sonora Desert Museum in an area that talked about prehistoric Arizona. It's only connection to this blog is that it reminded me of the kind of creatures on finds in fantasy books. -- Photo by Pat Bean

George Martin, whose series, “Game of Thrones,” I started reading when it first came out, taught me a lesson, however. His lengthy sabbatical between books convinced me to wait until a series was completed before beginning it.

With this in mind, it was with great delight that a few years ago I came across the work of Robin Hobb. I read her first book, “Assassin’s Apprentice,” in the Farseer Trilogy and was deeply hooked. In rapid succession, I absorbed the other two books in the trilogy and then continued n with her Liveship, Tawny Man and Soldier Son trilogies.

Soldier Son was weird, but even that I couldn’t put down. Of the other three trilogies, I would be hard-pressed to name a favorite as I loved each and every one of them.

At the time I discovered her, Hobb was still writing her Rain Wilds Chronicles. I patiently waited until the trilogy was finished before I began reading them. Last night, I finished the third in the series, only to be left hanging.

Unbeknownst to me, this series has a fourth book, which isn’t out yet.

AAAAccccchhhhh!!!!

Posted in Books, Travel, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments »

My Kaleidoscopic Life

March 30, 2012 by Pat Bean

“If in the last few years you haven’t discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead.” – Gelett Burgess

Royal terns and laughing gulls are common sights on the Texas Gulf Coast. -- Photo by Pat Bean

New Landscape, New Thoughts

My morning walks around here in the desert above Tucson the past few days have been exotic ones, full of new plants, new birds, new views and conversely new thoughts.

And the ocotillo cactus is in bloom in Arizona. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I love the variety my life is currently offering, although there was nothing wrong with waking up every morning  to a view of Utah’s Wasatch Mountains, which I did for 25 years, either. And one of these days, I know, I will once again have time to intimately get to know one particular landscape.

 It’s not that one lifestyle is better than the other, just that they’re different. Actually that can be said about all lifestyles, as long as they do no harm to others or to this beautiful planet we live on.   

Meanwhile, my current wandering/wondering life as a full-time RV-er is continually full of new sights and things to do.

When visiting my Texas Gulf Coast son, I have a beach to walk and a plethora of shorebirds to watch. Here in Arizona, where my youngest daughter recently moved, I have a desert landscape, particularly beautiful in the spring, and a whole different set of birds.

On this morning’s walk, I saw a pyrrhuloxia and a phainopepia, rare sights except in southeast Arizonia, plus doves, lots of Gambell’s quail, a raven, a black phoebe, a large flycatcher (not sure which one) and a curved-bill thrasher. While none were birds not on my life list, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen most of these species.

A visit to my oldest daughter in Dallas offers opportunities to take in a play and to watch northern cardinals hanging out in her backyard trees.

In Chicago, where I recently visited my youngest son, I got to take in an art museum and had a marvelous nighttime view of the city lights and Lake Michigan from the top of the Hancock Tower.

A visit to a granddaughter in San Antonio opens up an opportunity for me to take in this city’s fantastic river walk; In Austin, where another granddaughter lives, I get to play with a great-grandson and visit writer friends.

An hour north of Austin, where my oldest son lives, my daughter-in-law always makes the best cabbage, hamburger and rice meal for me that I’ve ever tasted. It’s one of my favorite dishes and I’ve never been able to duplicate her recipe. Sighting deer on my walks here is also a daily happening.

I’ve begun thinking about settling down, but in the eight years I’ve been on the road, no place has shouted loud enough to hold me. I’m beginning to look and listen a bit harder, however.

Meanwhile I’m just going to keep enjoying the ever-changing scenery that is my current life.

Bean’s Pat: Stopping the Wind http://tinyurl.com/772hswd Good advice for all of us, regardless of what age you are.

Posted in Journeys | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments »

This Day

March 30, 2012 by Pat Bean

“Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.” — Thomas Carlyle

This day cacti are blooming in Arizonia

Tonto Basin cactus -- Photo by Pat Bean

And Bluebonnets color Texas’ roadsides

Goose Island State Park, Texas -- Photo by Pat Bean

“If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom.” — Audra Foveo

Posted in Favorite Places, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Morning Surprise

March 28, 2012 by Pat Bean

 “There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect.” – G.K. Chesterton

This hot air balloon soaring over my daughter's horse corral was a delightful surprise for my morning. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Up, Up and Away

A common sight for my daughter's family was a rare delight for me. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Shortly after the sun came up this morning, I beheld a wondrous, rare sight. Well, at least for me. It’s one that my daughter’s family sees most mornings from their desert landscaped home that looks down on Tucson.

Soaring above their horse corral was a hot air balloon, low enough for me to hear the whoosh of the flames as they roared their hot air upward into the balloon to keep it aloft. I could also hear the low murmurs of its passengers as they looked down on the sights beneath them. I waved.

Of course I wished I were up there with them, floating along at the pace of the wind.

I’ve been in hot air balloons twice, once over the desert near Las Vegas, and once over Africa’s Serengeti. The joy of floating above the earth and observing it from the advantage of height flooded my memories.

What a fantastic way to start my day.

Bean’s Pat: LavendarDragonfly http://tinyurl.com/6tachfh This blogger would have loved my morning. May we all have such eyes to see the tiny miracles of life around us.

Posted in African Safari, Journeys, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 20 Comments »

 Thorny Thoughts

March 27, 2012 by Pat Bean

“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.

 

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments »

Roadside Stop on Arizona’s Highway 79

March 26, 2012 by Pat Bean

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.

Posted in Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

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