The little mesquite tree in my backyard is leafing out. I’ve been told this tree knows when frost is no longer an issue. it is safe to plant out those tender plants now. 
Of course I am not ready. The plants I started from seed two months ago are no where near large enough to transplant.
This mesquite tree is one of the triumphs of my uneven gardening career. I bought it eight years ago in a seven inch pot. I can no longer reach the top.
Near the base of this tree I discovered a volunteer pansy. Very small – it had sprouted with almost no water. I was not expecting it there at all. Most of the seeds from plants blow across the yard in the opposite direction. 
Now I need to make it feel welcome – even though it is in the middle of a patch of sand.
Another Stage of Spring
April 7, 2014
Uncategorized flowers, native plants, photos, spring 1 Comment
Spring Color
March 6, 2014
Uncategorized native plants, photos, spring 1 Comment
A week or so ago I realized it was time to bring my camera on my walks. There’s not much color in the desert, and probably won’t be until after the summer rains, but things are blooming in the neighborhood. Of course, I didn’t remember to take the camera immediately – the purpose of walking is exercise, after all. But a few days ago I caught up with what is happening.
Rosemary has been in bloom for some time.
One of my neighbors has two young peach trees.
Another neighbor lets desert marigold grow between the sidewalk and the street.
On this walk I saw my first poppy. It’s time to watch for their feathery shoots in my yard. I don’t expect many because it has been so dry, but the seeds will be there for next year.
Location, location
October 21, 2013
Uncategorized native plants, photos, walking, William Paley 1 Comment
The weather here is back to good walking temperatures, and I’m out in the desert and in the sun more. (In the heat I walk either briefly, around a few blocks, or before breakfast.) Plants are blooming and grasses are going to seed.
A fondness for nature and place is something I share with William Paley, whose book is the basis for my collection of poems, Made and Remade, due out next year.
The Bridge Outside Paley’s Door
As the picture of the bridge at Wearmouth reminds me, Paley’s place is very different from mine, but when he talks about the joy of walking out in nature, I know whereof he speaks. I tried to express this in “Shared Ground,” previously published in Ascents. (See more on the books page for that volume.)
Shared Ground
Walking among new-born
flies, aphids, all nature
to feed his wonder, the parson
loses regrets (the bishop’s ring
never bestowed) finds comfort
in common creaturehood.
He’s at home wherever
he walks, while I, creature
of foggy hills, green valleys,
walk on alien land where
nothing of profit’s produced,
nothing is wasted.
A jackrabbit feeds on
freeze-battered prickly pear,
bolts at my approach,
happy in his speed, doing
what he’s made for.
If the universe has a maker
is it made less lonely?
My legs being made for walking,
their motion settles my spirit.
Salinas Pueblo Missions, Part II
September 13, 2013
Uncategorized native plants, New Mexico, photos, Salinas Missions 1 Comment
Abo is not far from Quarai (see previous post) though present roads take one around three sides of a trapezoid. It appears to have been about a ten mile walk south from Quarai to Abo along the eastern slope of the Manzano Mountains in the days when the Spanish missions were built. The sites are similar, but have worn and are maintained differently.
The Abo church and its buildings are surrounded by yellow grass – it would be good food for cattle if they were allowed in. Instead of scraps of stone on the hillside, there are huge stone slabs where water ran.
I came close to one ruin of a Pueblo building. It is just tumbled stone, suggesting that one strong point for the Spanish conquerors was the ability to make better mortar.
Two plants particularly caught my attention. The first was an nicely shaped four-wing saltbush. Its four-winged seeds will turn golden in the fall. I have one of these in my back yard; it gets too much water apparently, due to other plants around it, and is very shaggy.
Another well-shaped plant I came across at Abo is one I have found in the arroyo near our house in a good season. It shows up in summer after rain and is covered with white flowers all at once. They don’t last long. I have not learned its name.
A Mountain Hike
August 19, 2013
Uncategorized native plants, New Mexico, photos, trees 2 Comments
This past week I found the time to drive to Cloudcroft for a hike in the Lincoln National Forest. I’ve been meaning to do this for years – since I moved to Las Cruces, in fact, and this was the first time I did it. The air temperature in Cloudcroft, at over 8,000 feet, runs about 20 degrees cooler than the temperature here at 4,000 feet, where it has been up in the high 90s for many days. The weather was beautiful; it only rained while I was in the car. The beginner hike of two miles round trip was just my speed.
Osha Trail
I hoped to see more wildflowers. Those I did see are not known to me by name, but pleasing all the same, especially the one that pokes out of other plants’ leaves to give itself a green background.
The forest is primarily pines and maples. At one spot, the baby maple trees were so thick they looked like ground cover.
I promised myself I would come back again soon. It’s an hour and a half drive away, which in New Mexico, is not considered far at all. I have no excuse.
After Rain
August 10, 2013
Uncategorized metaphor, native plants, New Mexico, photos, poem 1 Comment
The ground in my back yard is mostly sand between the bushes. But then it rains and it becomes clear how many seeds are buried in that sand. Rain is a good metaphor for all kinds of nurturing. When the rain doesn’t come for a while, more yellow shows from the ground. When it comes again, the ground is green.
Dry skin in winter,
wind burnt in spring, the ground
turns to green fuzz
after rain, grows out ragged
as an adolescent’s beard.
Half Way to Fall
August 2, 2013
Uncategorized cross quarter day, native plants, New Mexico, photos 2 Comments
It’s another cross-quarter day, the midpoint between the summer solstice and the fall equinox. About this time I begin to notice the days are getting shorter, and there’s some logic to this, because of the sine wave nature of the changing sun patterns. This means the changes are faster in the middle than at the peak and nadir of longest and shortest day.
This is the day commonly called Lammas. it is the early harvest. If you think it is too early to be harvesting grain, think corn. We have been enjoying corn on the cob for a few weeks now.
Any harvest time is a thanksgiving time. When we receive the bounty of the earth, we should give thanks, one way or another. Here in the southwest we give thanks for the rain, which has come sooner and in greater abundance than for several years past. Not enough to cancel the drought of course, but a pleasure all the same. The plants too are showing their gratitude (to speak anthropomorphically) by putting out their flowers. Here are two making a show in my yard this week.
Desert Globemallow
The desert globemallow is a third generation plant from one I transplanted from the arroyo beyond our housing development. The purple mat came with the house; it is hard to photograph because of its small size. It takes many of the little purple flowers to make an impact.
Purple Mat
Maine Flowers
June 25, 2013
Uncategorized history, Maine, native plants, photos 2 Comments
Buttercups
I visited a site which has human as well as natural history. There was a store, a dock, a farmhouse, even an Indian shell mound.
Daisies
Now there is a beach and a meadow. The native growth has covered all the foundations.
Wild Rose
That brown area beside the top rose is a stalk with rose hips from last year’s roses. I once imagined myself as the kind of person who would collect rose hips to make my own tea. This meadow and its history brought to mind settlers and those who live off what nature provides.
The beach by the meadow
Lupines
June 14, 2013
Uncategorized lupines, Maine, native plants, photos 4 Comments
Lupines are one of the short-term pleasures of the Coast of Maine. The Chamber of Commerce here held a Lupine Festival for several years. Apparently it was not very profitable, either because it rained, as it does a lot in June, or because the lupines came too soon. This year they are right on schedule, and no festival to greet them.
There are still lots of people, both locals and PFAs (that’s People From Away, like me) who stop to enjoy them. These come from a field near our house, far from the road. Here they are for you to enjoy.
May Day Reflection
May 1, 2013
Uncategorized cross quarter day, native plants, photos 2 Comments
Another cross-quarter day. Are we really only half way through Spring? Here is Southern New Mexico it doesn’t feel like it. The extreme drought doesn’t help.
When we moved into our house it had orange stone in the front yard, apparently a recent decision to give up on grass. Evidence suggests that when the houses on our street were built, in the 1980s, front yard grass was the norm. One by one the yards have been converted to stone and xeriscaping.
We didn’t want to invest in replacing the sprinklers with a new watering system for native plants, so we invested in sculpture instead.
We now have a resident roadrunner, a small yucca, and an ocotillo.
We are saving water, even over nature’s version of the same plants. But there are a few weeks each year when the real ocotillos make our metal one want to hide its head in shame.
My Neighbor’s Ocotillo
freethoughtandmetaphor 