Sedona, You Have to Stop.

The view from Sky Ranch Lodge. Ridiculous. 

Meanwhile, in the garden, an agave leaves a perfect print of the older leaf on the new unfolding leaf.

That gets me. And it's the whole reason I have an agave. Well, that and that my friend Lori sent me one, knowing I'd love it.

Seeing them in the wild is just the bomb. Even though I would never, ever want to fall into one. That could actually kill you. They are sharp as knives. Even my little baby here at home has nailed me a bunch of times. I still love her.

The light plays on them making endless kaleidescope shapes and patterns.

Take a picture of me with this massive agave, please. (On the grounds of Sky Ranch Lodge).

So Barbara Samuelson did. Now that's a decorative plant. I could use one of those in my yard in Ohio, but I'd probably have to take out a rider on our homeowner's insurance.

My friend Maria told me I had to climb Cathedral Rock. So I saved it for when Russell and Barbara could come along, knowing it would be awesome.

It was so cool to get closer and closer, and have this looming rock take shape right before us.

With an ocotillo and Opuntia tonsure. The sky couldn't have been any bluer this morning.

Looking down, some nameless pompom plantie. I wanted to take it home, but I knew it would hate Ohio.

Looking up, Russell against an impossibly blue sky. We speculated whether the sky just looked that blue by contrast with the red rock, or whether it was really that clear, that blue. 

We were going up into one of those saddles between the hoodoos, we were.

 I can't take all this beauty. 

Sedona, you have to stop.

Zick Goes To Sedona!

Every once in awhile...no, every day I am reminded that I may be the luckiest person alive. 

I have two healthy kids who are sweet and considerate and smart. I live in a beautiful place that I love fiercely. Everything on me works, and nothing hurts. I can see, walk and run. 

Everything I love most is free. 

And I get to work up talks about the things I love, and go to cool places and meet awesome people and give those talks. 

When I've discharged my duties the best that I can, I allow myself to hike around looking at landscapes and wildlife.

That's not a blue jay.

That's a western scrub jay!

That's not an Eastern cottontail.

That's a desert cottontail! Lookit those giant ears! The better to radiate heat with, my dear.

Zick goes to Sedona, Arizona!! Aieee!! And this was my first Sedona sunset. I will never be the same.

 About a year ago, Ross and Beth Kingsley Hawkins of the International Hummingbird Society asked me to give a couple of talks at the Fourth Annual Sedona Hummingbird Festival, July 31-August 2, 2015. It took me about ten minutes to scrabble around my calendar and say HELL YEAH!!

I had always wanted to see the famed red rocks of Sedona.  And a hummingbird festival, there?? 

I had NO idea what I was in for. It was so much more wonderful than I could have imagined.

The blistering heat of Phoenix's low desert slowly fell away as I drove two hours north.

"Monsoon season" had arrived, and with it a bit of rain and a lot of spectacular clouds. Pardon these through the windscreen shots. Couldn't help myself. 

The mountains rose up before me, and with it my adrenaline. I was SO ready to see this area.

Highway 17's OMG moment, when you climb, then behold the Verde Valley for the first time. I actually got a little vertigo and slowed way down. Heights. Beautiful heights. 

When I got to my destination, the Summit Resort in Sedona, the monsoon skies just blew me away.

I rooted around on Yelp because I was hungry, got the drift of area restaurants (some great, some not so great, and all expensive) and hied me to the Safeway, where for $50 (less than the price of a typical dinner out) I bought a week's worth of the kind of stuff I like to eat. With a fridge and a microwave in my fabbo room, I was in business! I didn't want to waste any of my precious time waiting for a waitron to bring me a menu or forget to bring my check. I wanted to stuff my gob and get back out in the red rock desert. So that's what I did.

Then I hurried back out into the beauty that surrounded me. 

I'd been up for about 20 hours, having left home at 2:40 AM, but seeing a humble house finch against the backdrop where it evolved and so richly belongs knocked me flat.

You see this sky? This sky's in love with you...