I watched my neighbor this morning stuffing her trash can with dead sunflowers that were potential meal for the birdies, people are so detached from nature, unaware, myself, I’m hoping to encounter a cougar today —- I’ve oft heard it said that in wilderness there is salvation, I know what they’re getting at, although it doesn’t pertain to me anymore than it does a cougar or a rattlesnake —– photo August 23, 2021 —- Ah well, there are plenty sunflowers over here abundant with seeds we don’t pull up till first snow, if then

Portrait of Man with Broke Toe just minutes before he slipped and crashed ass over teakettle on Hawk Watch Trail last day of August —- I wasn’t even inattentive, and still it happen’d: wound up flat on my back between two boulders, first thought was, uh? Did I break anything? My right leg sending signals and further down the broke toe screaming, leg is sideways, blood on right hand, but it’s the left arm that’s impaled with cactus thorns in the hundreds, big thorns and those little furry thorns, luckily one packs tweezers & reading glasses in these mountains, but the rush of adrenaline has my hand shaking, I have to wait a bit for it to calm down, I delicately remove shirt, the sandy gravel colluvium betrayed my footing, there’s a ballet to walking stony paths, and surprise/unexpected/unwanted, hands still quivering I pull the needles one by one, even my backpack full of them, finally a half hour later I’m walking again and the Gods are with me, nothing broken

Reading the rocks: This one says Call yr broker, the stock market crashed. Really? Actually, this is granite and those stripes are what geologists call dikes —- When igneous rock is being metamorphosed deep underground it cracks and fills in with quartz, feldspar, mica, silica, Tonka toys, whatever is laying around —- I came across Greenstone filling one dike a few days ago —- Greenstone is metamorphosed basalt, kinda rare, didn’t know I knew that did you? I’m just a hopper full of worthless information, stick around —- photo 23aug2021 Piedra Lisa Canyon

photo in upper Piedra Lisa Canyon 23aug2021

photo 23aug2021 Desert Willow —- Piedra Lisa Canyon

Proof positive that you are in the Northern Hemisphere: Everything spirals to the right —- Sacred Datura will open up at sunset —- This slow walking (broke toe) has brought me into the numinous elemental supernatural world, psychical drop-bombs, crinkling Cottonwood leaves in the afternoon breeze, I have a tea break —- 23aug2021

Our desert tortoise loves mulberry leaves and watermelon this time of year —- Curious, as there are no mulberry leaves in his native home of Death Valley, he only frequently will eat his Prickly Pears, which is what wild tortoise dine on

Billie Walters’ FIVE STONES FOR ELENA GALLEGOS in Bear Canyon en route to Pino Trail —- view directly east at the western face of Sandia Mountains —- 23aug2021

Early afternoon going up Pino Trail coming into the zone of tall pinon trees (namesake of this trail) ———— 23aug2021

Greenstone with a quartz dike —- 29aug2021

Side draw off Embudo ——— photo is looking south —- Sunday morning August 29

The Treasure of Sandia Madre —- Looking up Embudo Canyon August 2021

Portrait of Wayfaring Stranger with Lens Cap —- upper Pino Trail, late afternoon —- Went a whole lot farther than I should have that day with my toe still on the mend, I didnt get down till almost dark —- August 26 —- That’s Gambel Oak, Pinyon Pine, & Ponderosa

Hornytoad, probably only 3 weeks old —- 7500 feet elevation with the tall Ponderosa —- I always see Hornytoads on this stretch of trail this time of year, there must be a colony — One has to be careful not to step on the babies, they’re so docile, they don’t scramble off like Sceloporus, or that other freaked-out lizard, the Whiptail (I’ve seen Sceloporus all day but no Whiptail) —- They say Hornytoads will spend their entire lives in the vicinity of one ant hill, so, I looked around and of course, as always, there they are, big fat black steak dinners for hornytoads all over that decaying ancient falldown Ponderosa —- Maybe that’s why there seems to be a symbiotic relationship between Hornytoads and Ponderosa? They have a penchant for this variety of ant? Have seen no butterflies today, haven’t seen many this year, I hope nothing happen’d to them in their winter quarters down in Mexico? —- photo on Pino Trail August 26 late afternoon

Upper Piedra Lisa Arroyo in the Southern Sandias —- mid-afternoon in late August —- Tiger Swallowtail solitary sailing gracefully down canyon declivity and then fluttering back up, as if looking for something, like a visitation from the spirit world, I watch for some time, float back & forth, impossible to photograph I don’t bother

My compadre Brother Tim is going to show me how to eat these Prickly Pear —- I have lived my whole life in the Southwest and have never dined on one of these, one sees jars of Prickly Pear Jam at Farmer’s Markets, but, I don’t recall having that either, innocent that I am —— photo late August in foothills of Sandia Mountains (Tim did the cover drawing of the Sandias for my latest chapbook GALILEO TREE)

Little momentary episodes of light-headedness are common, nothing serious, it’s the elevation gain up these steep trails, altitude, Janet had a medical term for it that I dis-remember, something to do with aging —- I fainted once, got up too quick, and dropped —- It’s all part of it, if you want to hike these craggy mountains —- Time for lunch, in the summer I look for shade, in the winter I look for sun —- The other day on Hawk Watch Trail I find shade under a pinyon, but the gnats had staked their claim first (gnats problematic this summer), so, I wonder if they’d pester me if I moved into the sun? I’d rather not sit in the direct sun, but I need to shovel some coal into the burner —- I’m not much for breakfast, one of my bad habits, I had an apple earlier, hard to find shade on Hawk Watch, by the time I sit down to have a bite I eat like a blue ribbon hog, even as I’d like to take a few pounds off, but no hope in that after sardines, mixed nuts, prunes (2), dates (3), a few slabs of jerky, can of V8, and to top off, a CLIF bar (Crunchy Peanut Butter Banana w/Dark Chocolate) —- After all that I loaf around reading from my revered Shigeyoshi Obata (1922) translation of LiPo

My drawing of the west face of Sandia Mountains

Desert Marigold (Bailey Multiradiata) multi-radiation multi-waves of light —- Late August Embudito Canyon

This is how one occupies oneself during these Covid Lockdown Days —— I’ve actually been thinking about the arrangement for this Still Life for weeks and collecting elements for a couple months ———–SO this is just a preliminary shot, BUT it looks much better than I thought it would! —————– I still haven’t figured it out, yet ———— The versions with my splinted toe harken back to a Still Life I did in 1970 where I had a carburetor and some gears and had my brother Craig put his foot in the photo ————- So this is a Study for Still Life (work-in-progress) This preliminary shot really makes you think: What exactly makes a Still Life tick?

Apache Plume, ever-present in the midday cosmos of August