When you forget about the usual (visual) orientation of human visitors to the desert, and look at it from the viewpoint of shoes and tires and dog paws, you might appreciate the importance of different types of texture. Eskimos are supposed to have many different words for snow. And we have the same need in the desert for all the different forms of texture: round (alluvial) gravel, sharp volcanic rocks, coarse and packed sand in arroyos, powdery dust, good or bad traction, and cholla segments.
I saw a new form of texture yesterday that I never thought of before, in the desert. It was a deja vu experience. Way back when, I ran across the advertisements for some kind of landscaping service, called "Barefoot Lawn." What wonderful, nostalgic images that brought to mind! It makes a person think of running across the lawn when you were a child, on summer vacation.
That is what this image brought to mind:
My little dog enjoyed a nice, doggie salad in all this greenery. What a winter it has been, in Arizona! Would it actually be possible to walk barefoot in this desert?
Here is a strange cloud at sunrise. I want to call it a 'fumarole:'
Comments