Treasures in the Desert part one
Dora and friends were camping in the Arizona desert for a few days. All were aware the desert was beautiful as well as harsh. All were well learned in how to treat the desert with respect.
Rambling out in the desert with her camera, looking for something unique to capture, Dora looked up at the powder blue sky seeing red tailed hawks circling overhead in search for desert rodents she takes in the stark beauty of the desert. A beautiful place, especially in Spring with new birth of the brilliant wildflowers of the desert. All shades of golden yellows, various blues and outspoken outrageous reds. A Spring desert will mesmerize you into wandering too far unless you have landmarks or compass to guide you back to camp before darkness and the larger animals such as jaguar, coyote and javelina that one would not wish to meet face to face in darkness or even full moon lite. Dora heard a slight noise carefully looking around, without moving, seeing that it was not a rattlesnake she became a bit relaxed when she saw a curious jackrabbit behind sparse branches of a desert tree curiously looking at her. Moving her camera slowly up toward her eyes with a steady hand she snapped four photos. The rabbit sat as though it was posing for her. The light behind the rabbit revealed the veins in it's large ears. Dora felt as though there were another pair of eyes watching so she turned slightly and saw another jackrabbit, this one even larger quickly dashing off. Her 'posing” rabbit followed her mate leaving Dora laughing alone in the desert.
Dora continued back towards camp traipsing carefully in the desert
while looking for picture treasures to capture with her camera. She did see a Devils Claw plant in bloom with it's tubular pink and white blossoms hidden under the large dark green leaves.
Looking up she saw birds making noises in a tree and as she walked closer to the tree she tripped over a rock that seemed to grab or hold onto her boot. Seeing that her camera was not damaged she looked down at her boot. She was not hurt and no tree or hole in the ground had hold of her boot. It looked like a handle of an old brown leather satchel bag had grabbed her attention.
©Julia A Knaake