At the intersection of Yesterday and Tomorrow

This is a view along Camino de Mañana (Road of Tomorrow). At the stop sign, the road intersects Yesterday...the unsustainable Yesterday of 20th century industrialism.

A couple of blocks from that point, machines are scraping the life off the desert and spreading a layer of asphalt, concrete, and glass.

They eat the desert
and excrete shopping centers.
Soon: No more desert.

Camouflage

Many denizens of the Sonoran Desert rely on camouflage as a defense against predators - lizards, jackrabbits, snakes, insects, suburbanites, and many more.

Desert camouflage.
Now I am invisible.
You cannot see me.

Hawk in the backyard

This hawk perched atop the tallest saguaro in the natural area behind our house to survey the hunting ground.

Photos (the good ones) by Jose Rodriguez

How you know you've left the city limits

Here's how you can tell when you've left the city limits.

Well, this is a clue, too.

Biosphere 2, May 2016

Left to right: Biome structure, visitor center (original crew quarters), south lung

Ocean biome

Rainforest biome

Aquaponics experiment

Fog desert biome

Equipment in the two-acre basement ("technosphere") that operates the facility

Inside the south lung. The "lungs" allowed for air within Biosphere 2 to expand and contract during the closed-system experiment in the 1990s.

Original electrical energy generation facility

A view of the south lung with Pusch Ridge (Catalinas) visible in the distance

Original crew quarters on display for visitors

Marine science work area

Lunar greenhouse experiment

Landscape Evolution Observatory (LEO) - long-term experiment to study the water cycle of the desert southwest. Constructed in the area the original crew used to grow their food.

Tucson Mountain Park

Quick stop in Tucson Mountain Park on a late afternoon in May, 2016.

Bobcat on a saguaro

Bobcat, bobcat,
    atop a saguaro,
will you stay there
    until tomorrow?

Bobcat, bobcat,
    what have you found?
If you're hiding on high
    then what's on the ground?

Bobcat, bobcat,
    on a spiny perch,
what is chasing you
    that would be worse?

Bobcat, bobcat,
    come back down!
You're an apex predator,
    not a silly clown.

Photos by Frances Cahill Greenlaw.
Incompetent poetry by me.
Bobcat, by God!

Signs of life

Dragonfly: water
or the constant flow of life.
Resembles Chinese shui.

The desert in bloom

Arrival of spring.
The rampant burst of flowers.
A feast for the nose.