Thursday, April 12, 2012,
9:20-10:12 a.m.
(Carefree, Arizona)
To Easterners and
Midwesterners, accustomed to a verdant, intimate, embracing landscape, the
desert can seem alien and forbidding—completely “other.” Cacti and succulents
of necessity hoard their moisture, and nature offers little in the way of
shelter, other than welcome cottonwoods along courses of water. Hot sun, dry
wind, rattlesnakes, scorpions--.
But a desert garden, inside
cool walls for shade and enlivened by a quiet fountain, can be welcoming
indeed. Finches come to drink at the softly burbling fountain, and other birds
sing in brilliantly flowering trees outside the wall. Clay tiles collect and
give off warmth on a cool morning. Even the forbidding, thorny cactus plants
offer bright flowers, and a soothing oasis atmosphere fills the civilized,
bounded space. Here there is no hurry at all.
5 comments:
Think of it, to be a bird in the desert.
The towns have trees, mostly acacia and palo verde. Palms used to be planted, and so there are still palms in Phoenix and Scottsdale, but they require too much water and are no longer recommended. Birds also have lovely little blooming shrubs and vines in the towns. There was a beautiful tree in blossom outside my friend Helen's gate, a tree I remember from Florida. Its name? That I don't recall.
Lovely post. Makes me see things anew.
Exactly...no hurry at all...that's why I love it out there...
Does it make you want to sit outdoors, Helen? Dawn, there's no hurry there for you and me, because when we are there we are on vacation!
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