SPRING

HERE WAS SPRING LAST YEAR, the year before last and the year before that. And once again as spring enters upon the scene, we can pause and note the season's change, loiter with spring by the wayside, woo her in all her moods, merry or melancholy, across the broad, rich land.

We can play truant from care and raise our eyes to the far horizons and the tantalizing vistas of earth and sky wrapped in spring's flossiest lace. Clouds of war, sacrifice and tribulation have passed. We can seek anew the beauty of the smiling land, discover the charm of the distant places, follow spring wherever she beckons, for there is magic and sorcery in her invitation to each and all of us.

No florist could fashion a bouquet as gay as that of the paloverde in spring dress, yellow sunshine dancing before the soft wind. And the ocotillo, slender and long-limbed, pays tribute to the season with nosegays of delicate purple, homage of a cavalier to his lady.

Spring treads lightly and gently throughout the land, pausing in the foothills to bring the season's caress to the plant life dwelling there. There is work, too, in those hills. The smoke of the branding fires, drifting lazily skyward, marks the scene of the spring roundup. Winter has gone now, and it is time to get busy. The calves are young and frisky, and there is a shipping schedule to be met. It's spring, and you have to ride hard and long on the range. But your domain is far away and over the hills, and spring is with you everywhere.

The season is a song, not pages in a calendar. It is the whispering of the young leaves in the sycamore and the cottonwood, the merry lilt of the mountain freshets breaking their bounds in the snowbanks. It is the quiet of evening at Monument Valley, the bark of a dog at a lonely Navajo hogan up in the Indian country. It is the deep rumble of the Colorado plunging through the chasm that is Grand Canyon, bulging with the spring flood released by waning winter from the high Rockies so far away. The river becomes vibrant and virile, exultant in the strength and life the season has given it. Yes, there is music in spring... a personal song for each person's taste.

To each of us, spring - in this, the smiling land - is an exciting adventure. It may be a billowy cloud loafing around a mountain peak. It may be a lizard a-sunning on a rock, the blue of a canyon lake against red cliffs, a saguaro blossom, a cowhand sitting on a corral fence or the turn of a desert road when the season beckons. It might be just loafing in the sun or a walk up a sandy wash. It might be the spell of the night sprinkled with moondust or the peculiar twinkle of the stars lucky enough to people these Western skies. Spring is little things, many friendly little things.

Mexican goldpoppies and lupines surround a teddy bear cholla and a fallen ocotillo near Bartlett Lake, northeast of the Phoenix area. These two wildflower species bring color to much of the Sonoran Desert in March and April.

The setting sun complements multicolored wildflowers on the sand dunes of the Havasu Wilderness, which covers nearly 18,000 acres in Arizona and California. This remote wilderness area, part of Havasu National Wildlife Refuge, straddles a 30-mile stretch of the Colorado River.

BRUCE D. TAUBERT

Blooming brittlebush plants, leafy ocotillos and thriving teddy bear chollas define a view of the Kofa Mountains at Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in Western Arizona. The mountain range and refuge are named for an acronym of the King of Arizona Mine, a defunct gold mine in the mountains.

CANON EOS-1D X MARK II, 1/5 SEC, F/16, ISO 1600, 24 MM LENS

Considered for Back Cover, February 2023 The arm of a large saguaro cradles a cluster of blooms along Happy Camp Road, near Superior. Typically, saguaro blossoms open between April and June and are pollinated by bats, doves and insects.

Considered for The Journal: Nature, June 2023

Tall saguaros reach skyward from a sea of blooming paloverde trees at Ironwood Forest National Monument, northwest of Tucson. This 129,000-acre preserve, administered by the Bureau of Land Management, protects cultural and historical sites, along with several mountain ranges.

Owl's clover carpets a field near the Eagletail Mountains, a small range west of Phoenix. Seldom visited and known for geological wonders, the Eagletails are protected by a nearly 100,000-acre wilderness area.

Fallen blossoms punctuate a view of a healthy agave. The Southwest's numerous agave species have been cultivated for food, clothing and other uses since prehistoric times.

Delicate wildflower blooms crowd the frame in a patch of Sonoran Desert south of Florence. Contrary to desert stereotypes, the Sonoran Desert is home to numerous spring wildflower species.

PAUL GILL

Mexican goldpoppies form the backdrop for vibrant blooms of owl's clover near the Four Peaks, northeast of the Phoenix area. Owl's clover can be spotted in Arizona and other Southwestern states in the spring.

DIANNE DIETRICH LEIS

Considered for Wildflowers Are in Style This Season, March 2023 The skeleton of a fallen saguaro bisects a view of Mexican goldpoppies and lupines at Peridot Mesa, a site on San Carlos Apache Tribe land in Eastern Arizona. Wildflowers typically bloom here from late February to early April.

◄RANDY PRENTICE

Considered for Wildflowers Are in Style This Season, March 2023 A desert globemallow blooms at Pozo Nuevo, a site at Southern Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The location of a historic hand-dug well, Pozo Nuevo was part of the ranching territory of the Gray family, which ran cattle for more than half a century on the land that became the monument.

CANON EOS 5D MARK II, 1/6 SEC, F/22, ISO 320, 105 MM LENS