Cactus

Lessons from the barrel cactus

Lessons from the barrel cactus

While the long, beautiful spines of a mature barrel cactus are truly a sight to behold, they are woven so tightly together, across the cactus' ribs that any environmental detritus that falls on or around the cactus, becomes entangled.

Into the Desert: a Photo-Journal

Into the Desert: a Photo-Journal

A few weeks ago, a couple of friends and I had the opportunity to drive out to Quartzite, AZ, for the day.  Because we were coming from southern California, this meant driving through Joshua Tree and the Sonoran Desert.  These are some photographs from the journey.

The Turning Seasons: Plants, Death, and Rebirth

The Turning Seasons: Plants, Death, and Rebirth

Today is Easter, the time when in the Christian tradition, someone who was once presumed deceased is reborn into a new, but strikingly similar form.  Yesterday was World Transgender Awareness Day, celebrating a community so often misunderstood, harassed, or ignored--a community whose very nature calls out in an expression of change, ideally able to embrace the individual's truest self.  On the Spring Equinox, March 20, was Ostara, the transition between the hibernation and death of winter into the rebirth and new life of spring.  I find it apt that all three of these events occur during a liminal period, not entirely one or the other--the dusk of one season and dawn of the next.

How to Care for Your Cactus (re: Water)

How to Care for Your Cactus (re: Water)

While each species has its own unique traits and properties, all share an inherent hardiness in dry, arid conditions. However, because they evolved to exist in regions largely devoid of water for the majority of the year, they are highly suceptable to over-watering and potential rotting--either from fungus or from being waterlogged.