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Blog postThe phone call came at exactly 1:00 p.m. No accident. One, in numerology stands for new beginnings. Every zero after exaggerates its potency. The title has been transferred, said the voice on the other end. Congratulations. Tears streamed down my face. It was happening. After almost twenty years, I was a landowner again.
All the signs and omens portended this. Astrological messages were clear, with four to six planets in my 4th house of home, at any given time. I had been looking fo -
Blog postThe campfire crackles, sending flames into the dawn sky. Cream-laden espresso steams, a journal is by my side. This is the beginning of my day: the distant howl of a coyote as birds awaken. No traffic. No internet chatter. No daily news. I pick up my journal and begin to write.
Quiet and stillness are the essence of creating a space for the unknown to drop in, a central tenet of spiritual practice. Think of a womb, where germination takes place. This is where you want to be. One can -
Blog postI resisted for a year. A friend kept insisting I would love an ebike but the price, in the thousands, was impossibly beyond my budget. Then the bike company made the changes he deemed necessary. I paid attention. He was an ebike wonk, afterall. He'd researched them for months and had a couple thousand ebike miles under his belt. The company he recommended sold direct. No middleman and much lower prices. As the saying goes, timing is everything. I was assisting my dying soul sister into the next
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Blog postDulce's DNA results are in. Who came the closest to her breed mix?
Her vet, right here in Arivaca. She nailed Dulce's three primary breeds.
Closer than the Humane Society, closer than friends, and waaaay closer than me. (I had the easy, Lab part right.)
Her parents were:
One parent was Labrador Retriever; the other was American Staffordshire Terrier w/minor Australian Shepherd. Lab and Staffie are the predominant breeds by high percentages. < -
Blog postEnergy shifts often arrive with an air of coyote...sneaky, outrageous and efficient, the tricksters also blindside their prey.
I met a fun-luvin' man in October, right before my birthday, at Faywood Hot Springs. I admit to asking the universe to fulfill a wish. Voila! We played well together: biked, soaked, explored and extended our reservations to fill a week. I'll call him Pinball for what I was soon to discover: his ability to propel himself from one place to another wi -
Blog postIt was destined.It was almost a year since I had assisted my Lab, Teak, into the next world. Her cancer had spread beyond comfort and dignity, while at the same time my soul sister Carole was dying of bile duct cancer ... my closest friend in life and my dog companion of twelve years exited my life within weeks of one another. Both were interwoven with my essence ... travels, writing, my movement across wild landscapes. I'd lost two tethers and my sense of who I was in a world, They were my co-p
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Blog postIt’s a joke that garners a wild west guffaw: you’re sitting with friends taking a break and along glides a buzzard aka Turkey Vulture. Her featherless head points down as her slow, tippy flight circles ‘round, casting a shadow across dirt and rock. Better get moving … show signs of life! laughs the group.
Mercifully, we’re not the target of their fly-bys. Their chicken-like feet aren’t designed to carry food. Their preference is soft rotted skin that’s easy to tear with sharp talons and e -
Blog postIt’s hunting season in Arivaca, a yearly ritual of anticipation, tags, fees and designated locales that bring hundreds of men and a few women into our village. The autumn wave of camouflage is a welcome economic boon to our few stores and campgrounds. Pick-up trucks multiply; rare lines form at the only two gas pumps.
Night comes. Men in camo head for La Gitana, the local cantina, entrance granted only to the gunless in a town that contends with borderland militias. They take a place at t -
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Blog postWhite wild wings came a-callin' ...
Entrance to MONA
I felt assured, in the wake of the forest giants, that the revelations had run their course. I was wrong. We returned to Hobart for a rip-roaring 24 hours that included MONA art gallery -- a dip into the outrageous borders of the creative mind ---
Velocity of Death=Fate over Will
Women Thru Time
Travel and MONA converged into exhaustion. Too tired to eat out, we checked into our sweet hilltop co -
Blog postEclipses shake things up. The underpinnings begin to tremor a few days before and continue days and weeks after. Some might warn that to travel Tasmania in the midst of such energy was risky, but turbulence was my forte'. Unsettledness in nature brought unsuspecting wildlife closer, deepened the shadows for photography, moved energy into the unknown. Eclipses also reached deep into psyches, like a metaphorical rototiller; brought depths into sight. The stage was set for our journey to Styx
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Blog postWe had no pre-determined destination when we left Strahan. We weren't planning to drive far but wanted to get a head start on the next day's visit into old growth forests. Mario Andretti at the wheel (I joke, but I am so thankful it was him and not me), we were immediately into mountains and more slow-going hairpin curves. I gingerly staggered to the back of the van and stowed the traveling gladiolas more securely; made sure the one surviving wine glass was prone. Up we climbed toward
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Blog postMacquarie Harbor - heading toward Hells Gates
We dropped from the highlands into Strahan mid-afternoon. High energy enveloped the town which was positioned between saltwater and rainforest. I don't know what I expected of Strahan. As one of the few towns located on the wild western coast, I anticipated something beautiful and raw. It leaned more toward cutesy, but the impressive historic architecture showed through.
It was January 30th, the eve of the full super moon eclipse. -
Blog postOne day rolled into another and they passed way too fast. We bid the Tiger Pub goodbye and headed for the west coast town of Strahan. More specifically, we sought access into a World Heritage Rainforest. In addition, we were coming up on the January super full moon eclipse. We weren't sure where we would be for the event and didn't put energy into planning the perfect location since we would be in the land of clouds and moisture. See the eclipse or not, we would feel its propensity to intensify
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Blog postTasmanian Tiger, the marsupial that looks like a dog.
Marsupials don’t have a placenta, so they are born in a pouch, premature.
I rose before sunrise in search of the thus-far-elusive Tasmanian Devil. I was beginning to think I'd come halfway around the world and might not not see one. Once plentiful and considered a nuisance, the fatal Devil Facial Tumor Disease had infected 75% of the wild population and a cure eluded the scientists. Traffic killed many more: Devils were run -
Blog postBay of Fires and the Tasman SeaTasmania Blog Five
Bay of Fires here we come! -- but not before some unplanned stops. It was the road trip shuffle.
Miles of vineyards overlook the sea in this part of TasWe were almost past the entrance when we swerved into Devils Corner winery. It's all in the name, right? And there was plenty of parking. We hit the tasting room first. Tasmania is making it's mark with fine wines and I was about to find out first hand. I was so impressed -
Blog postTasmania Blog Four
Wombats and roos -- I was over the top down under. Still no Tasmanian Devils but no worries. There were many critters I had yet to see and others I was about to see that I didn't know existed.
Awesome license plate. I was forever thankful that Greg could drive on the left, I had to repeatedly remind him, however, that he wasn't driving his Subaru. Just because the camper van could peel out and go around curves with speed and panache didn't mean we shoul -
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Blog postPade-what? Pademelon!
We didn't have an itinerary. With Lonely Planet Tasmania in my hands, and a well-honed intuition for where to pull off the road, we headed north, up the east coast. But not before I grabbed a creamy, flaky scallop pie for brunch. Tas is famous for their scallops, and cheese, and wine ... an oooo my, I could already sense the additional five pounds-to-be. With Greg behind the wheel, it took about a nano-second for me to put Maria (pronounced Mariah) Island National Par -
Blog postThe plane trip from Sydney to Hobart was about 90 minutes. We landed and caught a bus to
Apollo RV rentals where we picked up our camper van, an 18-foot Mercedes with a bathroom and shower. Greg had made the arrangements before hand and we commenced to move into our home on wheels. Gee, this felt vaguely familiar.
Greg hailed from Newcastle, a few hours north of Sydney. It had been many years since he had traveled to Tasmania so we were essentially discovering the island -
Blog postTassie Devil calling my name ...
Beyond description ...
Lorikeet and the fig
Some travel suggestions do not warrant hesitation. My Australian friend's mention of Tasmania was one of them. Tas' wild island allure had been on my must-see list for half my lifetime. My latest book, Wild Road Home was out and book tour had a natural break in January. So it was, I boarded a plane January 20th. My biggest concern was the vacation-length stay. My MO was mo -
Blog postIt wasn't easy to accept. As thousands of people partied, willing to wade into Wyoming traffic jams that went well into the hours, my full-on solar eclipse took an unexpected turn. Not that there wasn't excitement, wonder and heart-stopping awe. Daughter Hope flew up from New Mexico. We spread our blanket and placed our chairs on a ridge that faced the powerful monolith, Mato Tipila, known in the common lexicon as Devils Tower. (Mato Tipila is Lakota for Bear Lodge, the name given the rock forma
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Blog postI see the amulets first. Hand-crafted neck pieces made of leather, bone or hammered metal. Usually there are beads. Gemstones that glint in the sun. They drape the breastbone and they are large. I notice them from a distance on the trail around Mato Tipila, Bear Lodge, worn by old men who come to pay their respects to the sacred monolith. To pray.
With no exceptions, their medicine stops me in my tracks.
I comment and admire. Before long I have learned that one creator is Iroq -
Blog postTeak and I setting out It had been seventeen years since that first visit to Grandmother Tree, the old growth Ponderosa I'd discovered above Taos. It was She I sought when I wished for respite; words of wisdom to clarify a cloudy world. She had once ordered me to grow my hair long and take to the road. Thirty thousand miles, two books and one divorce later Teak and I were trudging up the back roads on my way to the Grand Dame of the forest. It had been four years since my last visit. I had
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Blog postDown come the holiday cards taped to the kitchen cabinets. Down come the colored lights I gingerly wrapped around the mesquite tree in the yard at winter solstice. Bright red green and blue to ward off the winter doldrums. Granted, the doldrums don't take a hold in Arizona like they do further north, but one should not underestimate the biological and spiritual downturns inherent in January's long nights. Especially if one resists sleeping more.
Welcome -
Blog postSharkstooth Peak
PrologueSix days until my Alaska departure. Thus far I had scribbled my name across divorce papers, cashed CDs and traded my lavender Toyota truck for a trailer-towing V-8 Ford. Beauty for brawn. Packing boxes choked off my mountain view as I checked Verizon coverage in remote places. I roused, stepped onto the balcony and gazed at distant Sharkstooth Peak. Enough already! I hopped around a cardboard box, grabbed my pack and headed one last time into the Colorado hig -
Blog postMy arrival at Yaquina Outstanding Natural Area was not planned. It was a last minute acceptance as a seasonal Interpretive Park Ranger, following an interview that confirmed I could go up and down 114-lighthouse spiral steps several times a day and walk on seaweed-slick tide pool rocks. Yes, I assured the interviewers, I could explain Yaquina (ya-quin-uh) to the public -- I'd written about the wild and told her stories for years. Silly me: I wasn't aware that the field of interpretation had a bo
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