Bees That Sleep in Flowers

I was outside admiring the red Cholla cactus flowers, the rose of the desert as I call them.

There was a bee inside the flower, it came out and perched on the flower edge, seeming to look at me. It stayed there long enough for me to take many pictures.

After this bee flew away, I looked in the other flowers. The sun was setting and the Cholla flowers were starting to close. I saw something odd inside one of the closing flowers. After looking closely, I discovered the flower was full of bees! I counted five visible bees and most likely there are up to five more underneath those. The bees were collecting in the flower for the night.
Many bees here in the Sonoran Desert are solitary, very few of them live in hives. Often these solitary bees will congregate at night to hold in the heat. I've seen a few collecting on the undersides of leaves, but nothing like this. Here is a picture. I didn't want to disturb the bees too much so I only took this one photo.

I went outside in the morning and the bees were gone...


I'm still figuring out how to identify bees...I know very little beyond being able to know a bee when I see it. What kind of bees sleep in Cholla flowers, have fuzzy hair around their face and are a very pale yellow, more of a cream color? I don't know, but I will learn.

Emerging Ripples

An artwork/poetry combination I created...

Teacher of Madness

(Inspired by seeing a blister beetle, Lytta magister, walk across my path)

Teachers of madness
teachers of rage
we need you to lead us
out of this age.

The rivers are dammed
the trees are all cut
the food is a poison
and the world is changing.

On the mountain
in a cave
the God of Destruction laughs
he knows the age of destruction is near.

The best of us sits
in front of a screen
we talk about peace
but everybody knows.

We need a teacher
the Teacher of Madness
the Master of Anger
the Magister of Rage

And we will all go
laughing
smiling
dancing
destroying



© 2010 Desert Dreamer

Soul Dancer

Two Queen butterflies

Death arrived unannounced
I offered him my soul

I wandered
Throughout the land
In a field of wildflowers
I heard a whisper
“Your soul will be scattered like pollen”
A rusty red butterfly appeared singing praises
To the bringer of souls
The source of all flowers

I followed the blazing Queen
To a blossom emanating hues of a glorious sunset
Inside the fiery depths I recognized myself
I ran from flower to flower
In each open bloom
I found fragments of my surrendered soul

Intoxicated by beauty
I Abandoned these lost bits of soul
Mine no longer
I embraced everything

That which I call my self
Seemed to expand and grow
Reaching beyond the customary boundaries of the flesh
The border separating me from nature dissolved
I consist of everything the world consists of

My departed soul had revealed itself
Bits of my soul danced in the form of butterflies
On the wings of a Gulf Fritillary a dream was born
My whole being responded with joy
My mood was expressed as a bright blue sky

I looked to the heavens
Gazed into myself
Saw my soul everywhere
A spellbound dreamer awakens



© 2010 Desert Dreamer

Becoming Human - A Poem

I am not the woman
You see standing here.

I am the woman with wild hair
Dancing with souls
Of forgotten flowers.

I am completely human
Alive, real and wild
No longer tamed
Isolated
Domesticated
Or restrained.

I am free
Belonging only to the
Garden of the earth.

To look in my eyes
Is to face your self.

I am the sunshine
Touching your bare skin.

     © 2010 Desert Dreamer


                          Tucson Mountains sunset view

December in a Tucson Garden

Saguaro stands over the place I call my desert garden 

(I live on stolen land, it really isn't mine at all)

A Dragonfly landed on my arm to eat the fly it caught.

Baby Parry's Agave growing in the rocks.  This land is full of beautiful rocks.  Every time I dig I look forward to seeing the rocks uncovered and carefully replaced on the soil when I am finished.

Baby Fire Barrel with extra long thorns.

Pineleaf Milkweed in the late morning light and by it's side is a small Princess Agave with a flower stalk.

Pipevine with fresh new growth after the Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars ate all the old leaves in October (eating shown below)

Hibiscus denudatus - Desert Hibiscus

The Hibiscus of the Desert Late summer hillsides full of pink flowers opening with the morning sun.  Plants hidden from view at other times (to the eye of the average human) offer flowers in the heat of the desert monsoon.

















This year, the summer of 2008, is a good year for Desert Hibiscus in the Tucson Mountains. These photos were taken on September 12, 2008. There were hundreds of flowers in every direction.


denutatus = naked/bare or to make naked
Following the example of the Desert Hibiscus, we should become naked and expose our inner self to the sunshine, sharing our beauty for all the world to see. On the other hand, make naked our daily world, or in other words reveal truths, step aside from our masks. See the world and our selves for what they are and not what we have been taught to see.


My favorite related links :

http://www.fireflyforest.com/flowers/pinks/pink16.html

http://cabezaprieta.org/plant_page.php?id=1094s1963

http://www.calflora.net/bloomingplants/rockhibiscus.html