Who would have thought the desert could be this lovely?

When most people think "desert", they think of barren moonscapes with nary a living thing in sight. Those of us hikers in the southwest know far differently.

(Pictured is the lower Catalina Mountains taken from Soldier Canyon, about 10 miles northeast of Tucson, AZ, on Wednesday April 21, 2010.)

To my favorite butterfly

The spectacular and highly rare Ursine Giant-Skipper (Megathymus ursus) is found in scattered desert mountain ranges in Arizona, New Mexico, and west Texas. Its environment is physically taxing in the extreme, and without a lot of scouting, foreplanning, experience, and persistence, it is very unlikely that you will find any--but when you do, it's an experience you will never forget.

I have dedicated this to this most majestic of insects.

The sun cracks from the east near the border
Six a.m. and it's ninety degrees
Not a whit of sleep has been in order
Nothing else matters--God, give me one, please!

So unique and so absolute
No other butterfly even approaches
Her form, shape, strength, clarity, brilliance
Zipping away forever as the collector encroaches
Discouraging all but the most resolute.

Searching for pupae of the One
Is the only way that it can be done.
Tirelessly seeking her on the desert floor
My heart in her hand, the key to my door.

Assailed on all sides by the hot June air
It's 110--and I don't care.
I'm lovesick and I don't want the cure
For a butterfly so marvelous, so innocent, so pure.

(The photo is of a freshly-hatched female Ursine Giant-Skipper taken by biologist Steve Prchal in southeastern Arizona.)

Tuesday Hiking

This past Tuesday (4/20/10), I hiked at a few places east of Tucson. From top to bottom, the photos are of two different views of Texas Canyon in the Dragoon Mountains (just south of I-10), and the last photo is of a beautiful sunset in Happy Valley (on the east side of the Rincon Mountains). I was fortunate to catch a deer silhouetted just before it zipped off over the hill. I saw a totally awesome rattlesnake in Texas Canyon, but right as I got my camera out it uncoiled itself and slipped back under its rock.

(I also got a flat tire in Happy Valley, but praise God--the tire shop patched it up for free the very next day!)

Guess where I'm going in a week and a half!

Hey! On the night of Monday, May 3 after work, I am going to be driving all night across eastern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and west Texas to be hiking in the Big Bend! It is going to be a lonely and isolated 600-plus mile drive, so please lift up my safety in prayer.

I am going to be visiting both the Terlingua Ranch and Carolyn Ohl's nature sanctuary, both in the Christmas Mountains of Brewster County, Texas. This is some seriously extreme desert.

The photos are of different places in the spectacular Big Bend of southwest Texas (not taken by myself).

From death to new life, things move on

Obviously the death of my dear little girl hurts enormously, and always will, but at the same time, if we don't move on in life, we will never defeat grief. While continuing to remember her, I want to show you some of what I have been up to lately: check out these eight fully-grown Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) larvae I am currently raising from Soldier Canyon in the Catalina Mountains just northeast of Tucson.

This is what they will grow up to look like:

When I was a little boy, I still fondly remember the giant masses of larvae of this butterfly that would form on our elm trees in the front yard, but these particular caterpillars were found on willow.

RIP, my dear Missy

Hey all, sorry it has been so very long since I have updated this thing. I will do my best to change that. I have some sad news to share now--my dear sweet little old Missy--more than 20 years old (we got her when I was a little boy)--has gone home to be with her Creator. She was doing really well, but yesterday morning woke up having terrible seizures, and it was terminal.

I want to thank God for two whole decades with my little Siamese lamb, for the many miracles he did in her life, and for choosing to take her suddenly, without a long and horrible decline.

I love you, Missy.

(January 3, 1990-April 17, 2010; shown here with my grandmother the day after her 20th birthday this year)

Praise God, I have a job!

So...

Sorry I haven't been on here in ages--I've been looking for work for the past month. That's not easy to do in this economy. However, praise God--as of this morning at 11:30 a.m., I am no now longer unemployed! I'll be doing something I have some actual interest and skills in (working at a desert landscaping nursery), it will be full-time, and I have the awesomest days off on the planet (Tuesdays and Wednesdays)!

Butterfly Aliyah