Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘deserts’

The Desert Turned Golden While I Was Away

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Dogs, Journeys, Nature, tagged , , , , on April 24, 2014| 2 Comments »

The view of the Catalina Mountains from my bedroom balcony. -- Photo by Pat Bean

The view of the Catalina Mountains from my bedroom balcony. — Photo by Pat Bean

   “Those fields of daisies we landed on, and dusty fields and desert stretches. Memories of many skies and earths beneath us – many days, many nights of stars.” – Anne Morrow Lindberg

How Amazing

            If you think of the desert as a dry, sterile patch of inhospitable landscape, think again. In the 16 months I’ve lived in it, I’ve found more beauty than I thought possible in a desert.

Admittedly, it’s the Sonoran Desert, which has also been called the lush desert because it has a monsoon season. But still I didn’t expect to come to love it as much as I have.

Patches of yellow on the landscape. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Patches of yellow on the landscape. — Photo by Pat Bean

I came to Tucson to spend Christmas 2012 with my daughter, and stayed, mainly because I found a dog-friendly apartment in the shadow of the Catalina Mountains that was exactly what I had been looking for when I ended my full-time living and traveling in  small RV.  Its location sang to me, and just as important it was a nice apartment I could afford.

My canine companion Pepper and I left it recently for almost three weeks – at heart I still love being on the road. And when I returned, as if by magic, summer had sneaked, or is that snuck, in. Tucson’s desert landscape does that while more northern states are just beginning to enjoy spring, or if truly northern still struggling with the remains of winter.

What I noticed first, when Pepper and I drove west on Highway 10 and turned north on Alvernon Road was that the landscape, patches of which still remain in the city, was decked out with yellow trimmings. I found it both beautiful and enchanting.

What a fantastic homecoming. Don’t you agree?

The Wondering-Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering-Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: Live to Write – Write to Live http://tinyurl.com/ny8487f  The Hero’s Journey: This blog taught me something about writing, and made me laugh, too. But don’t read it if you don’t want the plot and ending of the movie “Gravity” spoiled for you

Read Full Post »

Favorite Places: Sabino Canyon

Posted in Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , on August 28, 2013| 12 Comments »

Looking down from the road at one of the water-filled pools in Sabino Canyon. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Looking down from the road at one of the water-filled pools in Sabino Canyon. — Photo by Pat Bean

            “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – Gilbert K. Chesterton.

Six Miles from Home

Seeing this country from coast to coast and border to border has always been more important to me than stepping on foreign shores. That’s not because I don’t want to visit other countries, but because I’ve always believed America, because of being my native country, should be explored first.

The desert's many varieties of cactus and their flowers fascinate me. -- Photo by Pat Bean

The desert’s many varieties of cactus and their flowers fascinate me. — Photo by Pat Bean

Of course there is also the fact of a limited budget, and the fact I can see more of this country within its bounds then I can any other place.

With the exception of Rhode Island, I have now been in every state, including Hawaii and Alaska – and am now saving up to go to Australia. My itch to see and visit new places, meanwhile, is being satisfied right here in Tucson.

I’ve never lived in the desert before, so just observing its beautiful landscape is a pleasurable experience. I didn’t know a desert had so much color – but then the upper Sonoran Desert here in Tucson is the lush desert. It gets more rain – actually right now we’re in its monsoon season – than other deserts.

It was just after one of our recent rumbling thunderstorms, complete with a lightning show, that I visited Sabino Canyon, which is just six miles up the road from where I live. Its pools were filled with water, and delightful to the eye.

 

I think this rock spire had a name, but I can't remember it. Maybe I will learn what it's called on my next visit to the canyon. -- Photo by Pat Bean

I think this rock spire had a name, but I can’t remember it. Maybe I will learn what it’s called on my next visit to the canyon. — Photo by Pat Bean

 

I was amazed in my travels that I have met so many people who failed to visit landmarks in their own backyards, ones that people traveled thousands of miles to see. I promised myself to never be one of them.

Travel doesn’t always have to mean an overseas airplane ride. It can simply mean going down the road a bit to see a new sight, like Sabino Canyon. It was a fun outing, which included a shuttle ride, since you can’t drive your vehicle through the canyon, and a short hike.

I plan to do it again, soon.

The Wondering Wanderer's blog pick of the day.

The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.

Bean’s Pat: North Sydney Birds http://tinyurl.com/ncdbchg If one can’t physically travel, one can still visit other places, and even bird watch, from an armchair. I do a lot of this.

Read Full Post »

A Desert Landscape and NaNoWriMo Update

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , on November 10, 2011| 2 Comments »

 My Favorite Places: Tonto Basin

I love Arizona's Tonto Basin any time of the year, but it's especially colorful in spring. -- Photo by Pat Bean

“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” Elmore Leonard

NaNoWriMo Update: 19,476 words

I was up and at my computer at 5 a.m. this morning. It’s much easier for me to write before the sun comes up than after it goes down. I’ve also started using a timer set for 30 minutes. When it goes off I get up and move around for at least a couple of minutes, or a bit longer if my neck feels stiff.

I actually love it when the bell jangles while I’m in the middle of a sentence. Such an untimely interruption makes it easier to get back immediately into the writing.

In this way, I’m surviving what past NaNoWriMo survivors say is the second week slump, a time when you’ve gotten to know your characters a bit and maybe don’t like them. I know my first-person character is coming off too bland, while those with supporting roles seem to have personality up their ying-yangs.

One piece of advice I got today from one of the NaNo blogs was that if you didn’t like what was happening “get kooky.” Gotta think about how to do that. I mean not every one of us can write like Janet Evanovich – and we shouldn’t.

I pick my daughter and her husband up at the airport in a little while. I’m worried about how the writing will go when I have people around me again. It’s been great having a big old house to myself, although I miss writing in my RV where I can I look out at the world. When I’m visiting my daughter in Dallas, I have no place to hookup. It’s been the only place I haven’t slept in my own bed in seven years.

But sleeping in my own bed will happen again when I change home sites next week. I’ll headed to my son’s place in Harker Heights, and he has a great set up for my RV.

The downside there, however, is that I’m going to have to steel myself away from early morning games of Settlers of Catan with a daughter-in-law. She and I are both addicted to this board game, and when I visit we play it a lot. I’ve already warned her I have to do NaNo first.

Read Full Post »