Spring in the Arizona living desert is amazing to see! Between the colorful array of Cactus flowers and the wildlife doing the sacred "dance", there is much to marvel at. Over the past month Doves have made their nests all over the property, mostly in obvious place like underneath patio roofs and high up in trees.
However, two days ago I walked outside and stood next the cactus by my back-door. I heard a noise, which was a Dove flying out of the cactus. I thought to myself what could possibly be so important that a Dove would hang out in a plant with a thousand sharp spikes. When I looked closer at the cactus I saw something astonishing, a sight only seen in the living desert.
This Dove family had chosen to make their nest right inside a folded paddle cactus. I guess they felt like this was the safest place. A little while later mother Dove showed back up.
Well, it will certainly be interesting to watch the mother give flying lessons from a cactus. I will continue to watch for updates, should be interesting!
I am sitting at my desk right now. It is Saturday 6:51AM and the view from my Tucson home office is pretty spectacular. The doves are nesting in the porch eves, the hummingbirds are fluttering around the blooming ocotillo and the prickly pear are preparing to bloom. As a write, a little bunny just walked up on to the porch enjoying the early morning weather. This week the Tucson desert around our home has been particularly beautiful and I thought I would tell you about three ways to enjoy the living desert.
I don't want any of you to worry that my hints are going to cause you to do anything too strenuous. In fact you don't even have to physically be in the desert to enjoy the living desert. And remember, this is Judy writing today. I gave up hiking, backpacking, camping, and bicycling a long time ago. So here we go...
1. Rent or buy a copy of Walt Disney's The Living Desert. This film was released in November 1953! Yes, I know that is over 55 years ago, but it won the academy award in 1954 for best documentary and if you have never seen it, then you are in for a surprise. Below you will see a You Tube video clip from the movie that deals with the cute ground squirrels. My parents took my sisters and me to see this movie in 1954 and I have never forgotten the beauty of the blooming cactus.
2. If you live in a desert environment, particularly around Tucson, AZ, then just take a walk in your neighborhood. It is spring time in the desert and for the next few months the cactus will take turns producing beautiful flowers and fruit. Just yesterday I was retrieving my neighbor's mail and I had to stand back and wonder at the simple beauty of the living desert. And if you really think that a desert tortoise is just to be seen in the movies, here is a photo that Dan Helfand took last summer in Gates Pass a few miles from our home in Tucson..
3. For those of you who can not rent or buy the Living Desert and do not live in the desert, I invite you to watch my slide show of a RED TORCH CACTUS. This cactus is located outside my bedroom and Daniel decided to chronicle the blooming process. These photos were taken over the course of 24 hours. And you should know the flowers really are only in full bloom for one day! (I created this slide show using Googles' Picasa Web Albums.)
So I will sign off for the day, more living desert for me to see, sans snakes!
P.S. If for some reason my slide show is really not of a Red Torch Cactus, I hope one of my readers will correct me.
For years I was a fan of the television show "Everybody Loves Raymond". Even today if I just want to take a break I might tune in to watch a rerun of this show. One of my favorite episodes was #171 which first aired in 2003. If you are a fan, you might remember "Robert's Wedding" as a day when Marie Barone (Robert's mother)interrupts the wedding ceremony as the minister asks if anyone knows of a reason why Robert and Amy should not be married. Later at the reception Raymond is asked to give a toast which was probably one of the most touching scenes of the entire series. Referring to his mother's interruption of the wedding ceremony, Raymond opens his toast by saying: "I think I know one thing that can make this day all better...editing. When all is said and done we will only remember the good stuff. I think you're gonna remember about today what you want to remember."
Editing as defined by Websters means:1 a: to prepare (as literary material) for publication or public presentation b: to assemble (as a moving picture or tape recording) by cutting and rearranging c: to alter, adapt, or refine especially to bring about conformity to a standard or to suit a particular purpose .
Editing as it applies to your website can be critical. Your text, photos, videos, and documents should all be carefully reviewed. This process takes time and almost always requires the efforts of more than one person, as we all know after you look at text long enough your eye doesn't catch all of the misspellings, grammatical mistakes, etc. The same applies to photo and video editing. Photos and videos are powerful. Original unedited photos or videos can make us laugh out loud or cry. Perhaps that is why Google videos and YouTube are so successful. We can see people at their best and worst, for the most part unedited.
Recently Webconsuls was asked to make some videos of the mariachi performers at La Fuente Restaurant in Tucson, AZ. The stage area is almost completely surrounded by dining tables and walking paths for the waitstaff and guests. Try as I might, everytime I would try to shoot a video people, other than the musicians, would come into the field of view. But I videoed about eight songs and sent them to Darin McClure to "edit." Much to my surprise Darin decided to put up all of the videos on Google videos and one in particular is very comical. The song being performed is Guadalajara. As you watch this "unedited" version you will see patrons and staff cross in front of the stage, then suddenly the parking lot security guard comes into view and stops in front of the performers to "check out" the tip basket. It gets better. Within a few seconds, Dennis, my husband, gets up from his table and proceeds to walk to the tip basket to make a donation! By now I just keep shooting only to see the security guard come back through camera's angle of view "dancing" to the music.
To appreciate the art of editing, I invite you to preview both videos. Here is a link to the unedited version and here is a link to the edited version of this performance. Editing...only remembering the good stuff. This weekend we will update La Fuente Restaurant's website to include the "edited" version of Guadalajara. I hope you will visit their site. La Fuente has been in business since 1959 and has a colorful history.
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