Monday walk…Marching into spring

Spring in the desert isn’t exactly like spring in most other places. There are no swaths of wildflowers, no green grass everywhere. Spring comes early too, already on its way at the end of February/beginning of March, when it can be not much above freezing at night and by late afternoon be almost 80F. There are flowers, but quite often they’re on plants with thorns that will stab you if you aren’t careful. Still, they are flowers. The sunrise has moved from after 7 am during the winter to before 6 am and we’re off to the Preserve to seek out some signs of spring for Jo’s Monday walk (whenever the next one is.) We’ll see a variety of colors and even a hint of two of softness but always be careful because desert can so easily become dessert. 🙂

These flowers are actually quite tiny, but they’re abundant.

And these aren’t large either.

Happy Monday and welcome to March!

for Jo’s Monday Walk

My Lord, what a morning!

Another morning at the Preserve and today’s yellow.

for color21/Life in Colour

Lighten up

I’m a morning person so being up early isn’t a problem and I do love to see the sunrise. Here’s just one that I’ve seen at the Preserve.

for SquareUp 1.25.21

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #122: The sun will come out tomorrow

Morning is my favorite time of day to be out and about, so many of my walks include a sunrise. I love the feeling of anticipation, of the new days, of possibilities.

Sunrise looks spectacular in the nature; sunrise looks spectacular in the photos; sunrise looks spectacular in our dreams; sunrise looks spectacular in the paintings, because it really is spectacular!
― Mehmet Murat ildan

Leaving our cabin in Wyoming in 2017, I had to pause on my way down the mountin to catch a spectacular sunrise the morning of the eclipse. At the time of the actual eclipse, I was in the Badlands.

Sometimes sunrise doesn’t look the way we usually visualize it.

At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear.”
― Norman Maclean, “A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

Sometimes morning is full of promise, leading you into the day.

At sunrise, the blue sky paints herself with gold colors and joyfully dances to the music of a morning breeze.
― Debasish Mridha

If you want to be reminded of the love of the Lord, just watch the sunrise.
― Jeannette Walls, “Half Broke Horses”

Where we live now in the desert, sunrise is generally sudden. The sun isn’t there…and then it is. There isn’t much to block its rising.

Bright

for One Word Sunday: bright

Morning at the Preserve…three views

Usually there aren’t any clouds in the sky in Arizona but when there are, they not only provide a bit of shade but the opportunity for a spectacular sunrise (or sunset if you’re at the other end of the day.) A few days ago at the Preserve, this one stunned me, the perfect way to start a day, so I share it with you.

Drama

for One Word Sunday: drama

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #93…morning

Morning is my favorite time of day, so I have lots of morning photos. As you can tell, these aren’t from Arizona, but early morning photos from “my” park back in Illinois. Enjoy and be well!

Jo’s Monday Walk…morning light and taking a bath

The sun’s up earlier these days and I got going a bit later so the sun was hitting the tops of the trees along the river when I arrived at the snow-covered park. It wasn’t a lot of snow, but enough to look pretty and cover the bumpy ice still on parts of the path. It was nice not to crunch at every step!

Turn around. There’s the sun just over the horizon.

Wake up Wednesday

Hurrah! I’ve made it to Philadelphia and back home, dropping of an entire van-load of things for our younger daughter, her last things from our house. One van-load less to move. Now back to the basement: sorting, packing, divesting of “stuff”, etc. Meanwhile, it’s Wednesday. Wake up and enjoy the day!