Carnival of the Arid #2
slickrock horizon - Canyonlands, Leslie Sobel, ©2007. See post for more.
Hi, and welcome again to the Carnival of the Arid, this one being the second in the series, posted slightly later in the day than I had planned.
CotA features a wide range of blog posts about the world’s arid regions, from painting to poetry to polemic, and though I feared the usual second-issue slump might affect us, this turns out not to have been the case. We’ve got a great selection of things for you to read, enjoy, gawk at, and learn from this month.
Before we start, though, a bit of a promo: If you like this blog carnival, spread the word! Link to it on your blog, suggest bloggers enter appropriate posts you may find, and — most importantly — submit your own work! You can follow the CotA on Twitter at @AridCarnival if you need reminders to send stuff in, or email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) to get yourself added to the mailing list.
Having said all that, let’s dive right in to the good stuff.
[UPDATED!] Silver Fox at Looking for Detachment fell through the cracks in the submission pile here. That’s a shame because the Fox offers some utterly stunning photos of the beautiful state of Nevada in last week’s post Desert Shadows. SF says:
I thought I’d try to illustrate why I fell in love with Nevada and its so-called desert. Instead of explaining how it is I came to love this desert, I’m just going to show a few pictures. All but one of these photos were taken while driving Highway 50 through central Nevada; one was taken about 40 miles south of Highway 50.
Doug Taron, of Gossamer Tapestry, offers some photos of what a lot of us in the American Southwest have been anticipating this spring after a wet winter: a remarkable desert bloom. Gaze on his images and pack your bags.
Rana at Frogs and Ravens braids together her love for two late members of her extended family, their shared love for the deserts of the American Southwest, and the commonalities among them all. In addition, Rana passes along the following note:
“I donate 5% of the purchase price on any image in my Indian Country gallery to the Desert Protective Council. So if you would like a fine art photograph for yourself or for a friend, and would like to help our deserts out at the same time, please stop by and take a look. Comments are welcome.”
At 10,000 Birds, Charlie Moores did some Arabian Peninsula birding (and inadvertent lizarding) in Kuwait in September 2008. He brought back some fantastic, field-guide-worthy photos.
At the Anza-Borrego blog, Bob Baran pays a backcountry visit to the locally famous Goat Canyon trestle, possibly the highest wooden railroad trestle in the US, and certainly a striking engineering feature in some lovely country.
Into The Green’s Daniel Chamberlin took a trip with some friends to the Kelso Dunes in the Mojave National Preserve, and offers us three sets of long exposure photographs from the expedition.
Michael Weiland, at his fabulous not to mention sabulous blog Through the Sandglass, discusses tafoni, which despite the name is not something that you’d usually find on a dessert plate next to a slice of panettone, unless you’re eating at an eccentric geologist’s home.
Roads of Stone, which name covers both the blogger and the blog, takes us on a little excursion through the Andalucian desert. You say you didn’t know there was desert in Spain? Neither did I.
The Andalucian desert is under threat from encroaching agroiculture, but at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog, Jeremy Cherfas details a farming method which might enable agriculture and arid ecosystems to coexist.
At her Sabino Canyon Blog Diane has the Spermophilus beat covered, with an appealing post on the round-tailed ground squirrel, Spermophilus tereticaudus, in her blog’s Tucson canyon habitat. This is where natural and history and cyoot collide.
Our pal Bev Wigney, at Journey to the Center, missed the first Carnival of the Arid, but makes up for it by sending along four posts. Her descriptions: Scent of the Desert: During my journey to Arizona, the first scent of the desert brings back memories of my recently deceased husband. Strangers in a strange land - parts 1 and 2: my collie and I head off to do some exploring in the Searles Valley near Ridgecrest, CA. On the road to Arizona: Ravens, and other sightings in the Mojave, and finding a useful message among the graffiti scrawled on a tree trunk at a desert rest stop.
At Geology Happens, the eponymous blogger writes about how the desert allows subtle views along with the grand. (And to answer the question GH poses in the post, my hunch is that “moki” is a variant of “Moqui,” an obsoluete name for the Hopi. Hopi steps?)
Speaking of taking the long view, my own post Alluvium describes the very long history of what’s possibly the most frequently-encountered desert annoyance. This in iambic pentameter, which sounds like it should be geological jargon as well as poetic jargon.
Yet another blogger with an eponymous blog, Desert Survivor, describes a development familiar to Southern Nevadans but largely unknown everywhere else, the Coyote Springs planned community. Given not only the ridiculous setting of the place but the utter collapse of Las Vegas economy, Coyote Springs may make the record books as the largest town to become a ghost town without going through the phase of actually having anyone live there.
And to continue the Carnival of the Arid tradition of closing on a stunner of a post, Leslie Sobel sends along some images of some absolutely glorious desert paintings — one of which led off this post — from her blog painting with fire. Wow.
That’s it for CotA#2, and dont forget to submit stuff for the third Carnival of the Arid, which will take place on Wednesday 4/1/2009, April Fools’ Day. April Foolishness encouraged.
Comments
Off to explore these.
I thought I should write something for the second carnival, but whatever little experience I had with the desert, I had already filled up in one post last month. And I just drew a blank this time.
Chris - Thanks for assembling carnival #2. Once again, lots of good reading, photos and art.
Love it!
Again - a wonderful collection. Glad that I could make it this time!
Wow Chris - was startled and delighted when I arrived. Thanks!
Chris, could you please, for the next round, include my post on Joshua Tree National Park? Here’s the link:
http://desertswest.blogspot.com/2009/02/joshua-tree-national-park_19.html
Sorry I missed round 2!
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