...after the rains: Eschscholzia mexicana...

...This winter's desert rains came at the right time--we have poppies! Although there are at least some wildflowers every spring, carpets of Mexican gold poppies aren't an annual guarantee in Tucson...

So, a nice treat this year:

...desert lupine almost always seems to grow along with the poppies--a natural pairing of orange and puprle...

...the taller stems with the purple 'balls' are chia (a variety of salvia)...

...I took these photos at Catalina State Park,

NW of Tucson; I drove there after work last Thursday evening...

...closer to home--along a creekside trail in Sabino canyon, hikers' cairns and a shrub of 'desert rockpea:'

...yellow fiddleneck:

...layered daisy...(aka 'spreading fleabane'):

...don't know what this non-flowering plant this is,

 but these tiny hole-edged leaves caught my eye:

...but the poppies do steal the spring show, eh?

So. Spring in the Sonoran desert. Enjoying it while it lasts...the 90-degree days aren't far off. My in-laws are flying into town later this week from WA--good timing...

evening run, breathing in the medicinal air...

...almost a month has passed since the last posting...Spring is here--we've already had a few runs of sunny 80-degree days, but today was not one of them--we woke up to showers and it was grey all day; we've had more than twice the average winter rainfall here in Tucson, and the seasonal streams and washes are still flowing. Lupine, heliotrope, globemallow and desert chicory are blooming...while not plentiful, I've even spotted a few stands of Mexican gold poppies on the lesser-used trails near Sabino Canyon...

So, today, after work, it was raining, so I thought I'd wait til tomorrow to go for a run--but about an hour before sunset, the rain stopped and the sun came out, so I put on my shoes and went out the door...HUMIDITY! Such a rare occasion to run in a humid desert...and with everything still dripping with rain, the smell of wet creosote (click here) was intense--not unpleasant, but almost medicinal...

Wet creosote--the trademark smell of the desert southwest after a rainstorm...
Appropriate scent--medicinal, therapeutic--for a run--I was thinking of some recent ads I've seen for ASICS running shoes--click here to see one--yeah yeah, I know it's an ad campaign, but these ads have caught my eye because they ring true. Clever: words, water, running...almost poetic, even...

Some people have specific 'soundtracks' for their runs--their playlists on their I-pods...So, what would the olfactory equivalent be?--a 'smelltrack?'...'fragrantrack?' Proustian.

Alas...S. continues with her unemployment. My job is not 'out of the woods' either. AZ schools had to cut 14% from their budgets last year...and this year, another 10%! Almost a quarter of the working budget in just a two-year period! Amazing. I should know in a week or so if my position will still exist for the upcoming school year. These past two springs have felt more like being on 'Survivor' than teaching in a collegial school atmosphere...

...and so the need for 'medicinal air' to accompany evening runs...
oxygen + movement + desert mountain scenery = sanity