photography and musings from a Midwesterner
From the monthly archives:
Fuzzy New Growth on PLant
A first glance, it appears that these ficus leaves have encountered a cold weather frost. Not so. This ficus plant grows in the Bolz Conservatory, the glass greenhouse that keeps the tropics alive in a tiny part of wintry Madison. And the white is the fuzziness of its new growth.
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Through the Window
Office window, downtown Tucson. Lots of plants in a sunny window, and a turquoise watering can.
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Arizona Capitol Museum
Built in 1900 as Arizona’s State Capitol Building, it was replaced by rather typical office buildings for the legislature in 1960. Now it has been restored and is used as a museum, mostly for the state’s school children. Exhibits are quite basic and focus on the history and culture of Arizona from its early days to the present, Arizona’s symbols, natural history, the story of Arizona’s statehood, and a display about the USS Arizona.
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in the Sonoran Desert
The Organ Pipe Cactus is one of the giant cacti, second in size only to the more iconic Saguaro. Instead of having a single trunk with branches, the organ pipe has 6 to 20 stems all growing from a central trunk. It will typically grow about 15 feet tall, though specimens have measured more than 20 feet in height.
Its habitat is limited to Sonora and Baja California, Mexico, and southwestern Arizona. In the United States, the largest number are found in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument located near the Mexico/Arizona border.
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Taliesin West - Garden Room
I would like to be relaxing in this room – right this very moment! Maybe with a book in hand, or a notebook filled with words that flowed easily from mind to paper, and so now my writing project is neatly done.
Maybe I’m drinking an iced tea, or even better, indulging in a fudge brownie and a glass of cold milk. And while I’m daydreaming, I’ll go all out – the sunlight is streaming through the windows, and warming my face. Warming my soul.
A Nice Place to Relax
Say, this is a daydream, right? Maybe Mr. Wright will walk through the door, in an amiable and expansive mood, and share a few of his theories on architecture, or better yet, tell stories of the happenings of his boyhood, about the land he lived on and loved, and where he built the other Taliesin, the home and studio where he spent his summers, Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin.
Blue Seating in the Garden Room
This is in the Garden Room at Taliesin West, Mr. Wright’s winter home and studio on Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s a sprawling complex, now the winter home for the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. The school moves east to summer in Wisconsin from May through October, just as Wright and his family did when they were alive.
Amusingly enough, on a recent tour through Taliesin West, our guide was an architect and an instructor at the architecture school. He had made the acquaintance of Wright several times. He mentioned that one of Wright’s express wishes was “Don’t ever attach my name to anything having to do with a school.” Though Wright appeared to get his way much of the time, seems no one paid attention to that request (or demand) once he was no longer around to speak up.
Taliesin West is a wonderful space to visit, the tour guide was knowledgeable and witty, and had a rather genius way of passing on Wright’s heritage and philosophy.
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Saguaro National Park
It’s not too often I get the opportunity to photograph the desert, especially the desert after a heavy rainfall that leaves large puddles of standing water with perfect reflections of prickly pear and saguaro cacti.
We visited one of the more isolated areas of the eastern part of Saguaro National Park. We hiked the Mica View Trail, which offered great views of the Tanque Verde Peak and Mica Mountain, but I was most fascinated by the puddles and spent a fair amount of time sprawled on the damp desert floor taking photographs.
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Blue Pottery
I am excited to announce that I’ve just launched a new monthly feature called Memoir Space. It is published at The Calm Space, an online magazine which, according to founder and editor Karen Wallace, “is an online magazine published weekly with a monthly theme – written by a team of amazing, real-life women who are living their passion with a purpose and a focus…we write in our own unique voices, and tell it like it is.”
Memoir Space will present a monthly multimedia project that will inspire you to create/write/photograph your memoir in fun, easy, and interesting bits. I so hope you’ll be inspired to not only try this month’s project, but join me each month. We will be writing unique exercises to flesh out your memories, shoot a few photography projects (any experience with any camera – cell phone camera, point and shoot, digital SLR is fine) and explore other multimedia ideas in the quest to “collect your memoir”.
Please check out the first installment, The Memories of Your Life, An Introduction to Writing Your Memoirs. And hey, why not say hi while you are visiting.
(As for the above photograph, these blue containers were spread out on the ground in front of a shop in Tubac, Arizona. I loved the deep blue color, and the tumbled arrangement, and so I had to take a few photos.)
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Ascending from Tucson
Leaving Tucson, the scenery is breathtaking. The city is surrounded by mountains – mostly browns with just a hint of green from spring rains.
Flying over Snow Crested Mountains
Further east, flying over the Rockies on the eastern side of Arizona. Lovely snow crested mountains. What a flight – always something to see.
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Tower and Palm Trees
The first time we wandered around downtown Tucson we were caught in the middle of a cloudburst. It was one of the two cloudy days we saw in Arizona. Two out of ten – not too bad!
We went back the morning we were flying back to Wisconsin. Sunday in downtown Tucson is, well, very quiet. But this time the sun was shining, and so I took advantage of that last bit of Arizona light for a few last photos.
This was a fun shot. I loved the reflections and distortions in the plate glass, but I also loved the added attraction (for me, anyway) of those lovely palm trees.
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Sunny Days
Missing Tucson’s sunny days, but I have photos enough to keep me busy until the flowers bloom in Madison.
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