Desert rain

For those of you who have never experienced the sheer joy of rain in the Sonoran desert...

In my concentration I gradually become aware of silence. The plucking of the rain is gone and it is so still that I hold my breath, afraid that the sound of aspiration will violate the quiet. In the whispery stillness I listen for the resins to gather on the surface of the creosote leaf and leap off into the air. A breeze stirs the branches and the aroma swirls out of every leaf. I inhale that marvelous scent that graces the air, not cloying, not sweet, but resinous and clean. It's what the world ought to smell like when it rains. - Ann Haymond Zwinger - The Mysterious Lands 1989

More on Larrea tridentata, or creosote bush, coming soon...

Posted by Evo Terra at February 01, 2003 12:51 AM | TrackBack (0)