Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

So many bastards, so little time.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On the Road and In Your Backyard

On the Road and In Your Backyard

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.

From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

Submit Your Photos

Good Morning All,

This weekday feature is for Juicers who are are on the road, traveling, or just want to share a little bit of their world via stories and pictures. So many of us rise each morning, eager for something beautiful, inspiring, amazing, subtle, of note, and our community delivers – a view into their world, whether they’re far away or close to home – pictures with a story, with context, with meaning, sometimes just beauty. By concentrating travel updates and tips here, it’s easier for all of us to keep up or find them later.

So please, speak up and share some of your adventures and travel news here, and submit your pictures using our speedy, secure form. You can submit up to 7 pictures at a time, with an overall description and one for each picture.

You can, of course, send an email with pictures if the form gives you trouble, or if you are trying to submit something special, like a zipped archive or a movie. If your pictures are already hosted online, then please email the links with your descriptions.

For each picture, it’s best to provide your commenter screenname, description, where it was taken, and date. It’s tough to keep everyone’s email address and screenname straight, so don’t assume that I remember it “from last time”. More and more, the first photo before the fold will be from a commenter, so making it easy to locate the screenname when I’ve found a compelling photo is crucial.

Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!

Last day of the month, and now Spring should really be in bloom!

Today, pictures from valued commenter J R in WV.

This is a set of photos of Arizona cactus. Some were taken at Saguaro National Park just east of Tucson, AZ, and the rest were taken on our tiny ranchette SE of Tucson near the ghost town of Gleeson AZ

Stagnorn Cholla cactus aka Cylindropuntia versicolor

Taken on 2009-02-15

Saguaro National Park, Tucson AZ

Purple staghorn cholla cactus, very prickley, dangerously sharp. At this time of year, though, they bear sweet fruit, if you dare reach into that sharpest of places!

f/13.0 for 1/800th sec. at 27mm
Nikon D70s

Young round barrel cactus

Taken on 2009-02-15

Saguaro National Park, Tucson AZ

Barrel cactus – legend tells us there is potable water inside – but not how to get to it!

f/13.0 for 1/800th sec at 27mm
Nikon D70s

Variety of cactus on a cliff

Taken on 2009-02-15

Saguaro National Park

Ocotillo cactus on the upper left, with many Saguaro cacti on and down the cliff.

f/13.0 for 1/640 sec at 57mm

Manzanita blooming at Cochise Stronghold National Monument

Taken on 2009-02-17

Cochise Stronghold National Monument, Dragoon National Forest, Cochise County, AZ

A common and beautiful bushy plant in the Sonoran Desert. Cochise Stronghold is where the Apache held off the US Army for years. As he died, Cochise told his tribe to surrender because they could not sustain their way of life in their Stronghold. He was buried in a secret place in the Dragoon Mountains and the Apache horses were allowed to graze to disguise his grave. It is a beautiful opening in an otherwise inhospitable mountain range. Our place in the the SE foothills of the Dragoons.

f/13.0 1/800th sec. 27mm Nikon D70s

Tiny cactus about to bloom

Taken on 2009-03-12

Foothills of the Dragoon Mountains, just NW of Gleeson AZ

This cactus is smaller than a baseball, and is about to show it’s colorful blooms for about 36 hours.

f/8.0 for 1/4000 sec at 90mm (macro)
Nikon D70s

Blooming Cactus

Taken on 2009-03-12

Foothills of the Dragoon Mountains, just NW of Gleeson AZ

This tiny cactus is growing at about 5500 feet in the foothills of the Dragoon Mountains in far SE AZ.

f/8.0 for 1/5000 sec at 90mm
Nikon D70s

Tiny Barrel Cactus

Taken on 2009-03-13

Foothills of the Dragoon Mountains, just NW of Gleeson AZ ghost town

Very mature tiny barrel cactus, less than a foot tall. Probably 20 years old in this harsh climate, under drought conditions at 5500 feet in the foothills of the Dragoons.

f/4.2 for 1/2500 sec at 51mm Nikon D70s

 

Thank you so much J R in WV, do send us more when you can.

 

Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.

 

One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email

Reader Interactions

32Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    Lot’s of people from Champaign-Urbana moved to Tucson in the early 70’s and I spent a good bit of time out there.This shot is out near the Desert Museum and “Old Tucson”.

    https://tinyurl.com/yd5vgtmf

    My dad moved to North Phoenix in the late 70’s. As the city marched north he would “rescue” cacti that were going to be bulldozed and we had a nice collection back in Illinois.

  2. 2.

    Waratah

    Driving through Arizona the cactus always looks great. I have been lucky to see this landscape after receiving rain and all that cactus in bloom, is spectacular. Thank you JR.

  6. 6.

    Kay

    And it is the GOP’s total abandonment of what it stood for that best explains the vicious and personal name-calling campaign between Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor for the Republican nomination for governor.

    If we’re keeping score, though, DeWine is objectively more vicious to Taylor than Taylor is to DeWine. OTOH, she started it.

    Among Ohio’s Republicans, the issue that matters most today is whether a Republican candidate for high office is unwavering in his or her support for the president

    True, but what’s more interesting is both of them are running against Kasich’s record. Particularly bizarre with Taylor because she was Kasich’s lt governor. Kasich could not win an Ohio governer’s race now as a Republican. He’d have to switch Parties and run as an independent.
    Now you have to be the kind of person who brings a shotgun to the statehouse, which Mary Taylor did. She was waving it around- her behavior at that rally was like something you’d read in a police report. This is the would-be governor:

    On March 10, less than a month after 17 people were slaughtered at a southeast Florida high school, Mary Taylor brought a 12-gauge shotgun to a gun rights rally outside the Statehouse.

  8. 8.

    Lapassionara

    These are great. We lived in Tucson in the early 70’s, when the population was around 300,000. Love the Desert Museum.

  9. 9.

    D58826

    ot and maybe a little late for this. For the life of me I donot understand the media meltdown over the Wolf/eyeline comment. Any one with and IQ of a rock knows SHS lies like a rug at the WH press briefing. Wolf did not call her fat or a bad mother or cheating on her husband. Just that she lied in her briefings and then added the eyeliner punch line. This is the same MSM that faithfully repeated every misstatement by Bush 43 on Iraq. It is the same MSM that totally ignored iQ45’s temperamental unfitness for office, his ties to organized crime and his ties to Russia but HER E-MAILS.

  11. 11.

    gvg

    @D58826: she also said mean things about the reporters there right at the end. blamed them for not doing their jobs. the things we have been saying for years. however I guess it would be too obvious if they pushed back with “I did too report how bad Trump was” and they can’t push back on repeating same nothing burger story about Hillary’s emails 50 times.
    this roast thing does have a history of roasting the white house but I can’t recall it previously hitting the reporters. I don’t think they were expecting this. They should have been anytime these last several years.

  16. 16.

    Wapiti

    @gvg: Colbert also roasted the press; he called them stenographers. It clearly didn’t take, so Ms. Wolf gamely tried again, with less subtlety.

  17. 17.

    West of the Rockies

    A non-pet post… Thank you, I do love animals. We have four dogs and two rats. But some respite from four legs is nice.

    The pics make me think of Edward Abbey and Desert Solitaire. There is such a stark beauty to cacti.

  18. 18.

    West of the Rockies

    David Frum has a very good and short piece up at The Atlantic. It shreds the WH and villager distress over the correspondents dinner.

  19. 19.

    raven

    @West of the Rockies:

    This weekday feature is for Juicers who are are on the road, traveling, or just want to share a little bit of their world via stories and pictures. So many of us rise each morning, eager for something beautiful, inspiring, amazing, subtle, of note, and our community delivers – a view into their world, whether they’re far away or close to home – pictures with a story, with context, with meaning, sometimes just beauty. By concentrating travel updates and tips here, it’s easier for all of us to keep up or find them later.

  21. 21.

    West of the Rockies

    @raven:

    As a West Coaster, I usually find Alain’s threads have gone stale or been buried by the time I encounter them. I was up earlier than usual today.

  22. 22.

    West of the Rockies

    @skerry:

    Thanks. Maybe I’ve got my fussy britches on today and am just easily irritated, but I appreciate you pointing out the protocol reminder was unwarranted.

  26. 26.

    jnfr

    I lived in Tucson for all of the 80s and I love Saguaro National Park so much. We used to go out there for wiccan ceremonies on the occasional full moon and that was magical.

    The Chiricahuas still are my favorite mountains in the world.

  27. 27.

    J R in WV

    @satby:

    Thanks! Actually the AZ desert is fascinating, especially if you have plenty of fluids, snacks, and an air-conditioned vehicle in good operating order. Else, it is a place of beautiful misery and death.

    I didn’t see an open thread, but I think by definition B-J threads are intended to be open, unless otherwise defined. That last little pink baby cactus was probably only 6 or 8 inches tall after more like 30 or 40 years of growth.

    There are several prosperous ocotillo cactii on our little place, by now they may be blooming with bright red flowers at the tip end of each stalk.

  28. 28.

    Elizabelle

    @West of the Rockies: Here’s link to the David Frum article re WHCD/Michelle Wolf.

    The Atlantic: Michelle Wolf Does Unto the White House as It Has Done Unto Others
    Controversy at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner underscores that Trump’s staff demands decencies and courtesies that it denies to others.

    Haven’t read it yet. Haven’t seen the program yet, either, but this seems to be following the same trajectory as the Colbert appearance. All good, in the long run. Once we get past the industrial strength butthurt on display.

  31. 31.

    Aleta

    @Elizabelle: And it has the odor of status entitlement. We (the admin. and friends) can demean and insult you, but you’d better not accuse or Insult us. Or else we’ll ruin you.

  32. 32.

    meander

    Southern Arizona is an amazing place for bird watching, especially hummingbirds. I visited Tuscon and nearby cities (Sierra Vista and Patagonia) about a decade ago and it was the best bird watching trip of my life. I think I saw more than 5 species of hummingbird, both at feeders and in the wild. Also some hawks that are only seen in that area, colorful red birds whose name I forget (redstart?). At that time, the Tuscon chapter of the Audubon Society published a book with a title like “Finding Birds in SE Arizona”.

    The hiking was also spectacular: the Desert Museum, a big park in Tuscon, Coronado National Forest, etc.

Comments are closed.