When I consider the desert, my first thoughts don’t run to beauty. Trips to Arizona to visit our oldest son’s family continue to surprise me.It doesn’t matter if we land in Phoenix or Tucson (a decision based on the mundane question of cost), as we hear the “get ready for landing” announcement from the cockpit, I take a peek out the window. The stark charcoal mountains silhouetted against clear blue sky are nothing short of amazing.
Traveling on our way or walking through their neighborhood, flowers stubbornly insist on blooming in the arid climate. Here and there, they dot the landscape in dazzling white or brilliant color.
Side by side with the flowers, tough cacti sport their own blooms amidst their thorns.
Growing among the backyard palms, enhanced with a bit of irrigation, we find limes and a day’s abundant pepper harvest.
Oh, and let’s not forget those roses!
Beauty continues inside, though truth to tell, daughter-in-law Stephannie would make her famous buckeyes no matter where she lived.
In spite of my understanding that the desert has a beauty all its own, I’ve not been tempted to relocate. This time of year, I look out my back windows into a wall of every hue of green in my Mississippi woods – pine, sweet gum, hickory nut, oaks . . .
Arizona – it really is nice place to visit.