Wildflowers Nestled Here and There

I got a new lease on life today. It took a lot of radiation to get it but hopefully that will have no lasting consequences. I recently had a chest x-ray that looked abnormal. All my old chest x-rays had been purged by Los Alamos Medical Center so there was nothing to compare it to and that necessitated getting a CT Scan of my chest to rule out something dire. I picked up a copy of the radiology report today and anything dire was duly ruled out! I have made a note on my calendar to pick up any radiology studies in 5 years before they are thrown out again.

Clouds looked low, thick, and dark over Pajarito Mountain this afternoon so rather than go up to Camp May Road to do my jogging practice, I drove to the White Rock Rim Trail. When the trail turns away from the Rio Grande to go toward Sherwood, I took the alternate route that is less stony. It’s true that it’s easier and there is less chance that I’ll be doing plank pushups when I fall down while doing the Basalt Ballet but the truth is that I prefer being further from the houses that back right up onto the trail. I like better the stonier trail that goes alongside Pajarito Canyon because it feels more private, more peaceful, more wild.

When I first got started today on the WR Rim Trail, I was struck anew by the vastness and unreality of White Rock Canyon, just like I was the first time I saw the Grand Canyon. Maybe because it was overcast, the lighting was flat and the lack of shadows played havoc with depth perception, but it seemed somehow more impressive than on the sunny days that are the norm here. I could see that the Rio Grande was a deep tan muddy color but the whole canyon seemed very silent and there was no detectable movement even of the river.

I saw lots of wildflowers today along the rim--lavender Desert Verbena; yellow Perky Sue; red Indian Paintbrush; yellow flowered Evening Primrose and white flowered Evening Primrose; orangish-red Globemallow; white fleabane; Firewheel, yellow petals that are orange near the center; hot pink Pincushion Cactus; ruffly yellow flowers of Prickly Pear Cactus; Narrowleaf Yucca with its beautiful white flower stalks almost open; a dwarfed blue Penstemon that was growing practically on top of the trail. Think of how long the list would be if I knew the identity of all that I saw!

One thing that struck me was how, visually, the flowers seemed so much more complete and their beauty highlighted when they were nestled up to something else. Indian Paintbrush looked so much redder next to the light gray green of Sagebrush, lavender of the Desert Verbena appeared startlingly bright against the muted earth tones at canyon’s edge, hot pink flower of Pincushion Cactus was more wildly delicate next to dusty black basalt rocks. Observing all this made me, in my endorphin saturated state, come to the entirely unsupported conclusion that everything in life is looking for something to complete or complement it and that applies to people too.

Just a side note on that impending storm over Pajarito Mountain--it fizzled entirely. On the way back home from White Rock, I could see that the clouds were now higher and lighter. By then, it was getting close to 4pm and I decided to take the day off from building cairns on the Camp May Road Route and come home to blog my outing. I have written so many blogs in my head these last few weeks but none of them ever made it online. So many blogs, so little time but today I decided to take the time. Even if I can only count my readers on one finger, I feel like I am sharing a part of my life and that makes me smile.