Letters From the Desert

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The lesser nighthawks are back. They fly in the evening, as the air temperature cools just enough to lure flying insects from the shade. My first summer…
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I’m kind of blown out of the water this month after learning that my old friend Phil Klasky has died. I met Phil in the early 1990s when he walked into…
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Personal note: What a couple of weeks it’s been! I had to triage my waking life schedule and the issue of this newsletter I owed you last weekend didn’t…
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There is a moment when the evening sky in the east stratifies into bands of different color. It is as if each section of the atmosphere has a different…
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So April is here, right on schedule as always, and with her comes the balmy Spring weather to which the Mojave Desert will apparently need to become…
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Went for a hike yesterday, the first moderately long one since my injury, and as I was mindful of maximizing exercise while minimizing reinjury I picked…
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Here’s how you replenish the Earth: you carry a long-handled shovel out into the incinerated desert. You might be asked to carry it a mile out and back…
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Today was about edges. Fifteen minutes after leaving home I texted back: “It is raining in Joshua Tree.” There had been flawless blue sky at home. Her…
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Amazing how the old reflexes come back. What has it been, 30 years? 35? Quite a number of years since the last time I semiconsciously calculated my…
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Before we start, a note: I know that it’s sometimes jarring to get email from a list to which you’ve subscribed using the free option and find that…
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Folks, I am angry
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Grandmother tree. Messenger from the time of mastodons. You bear witness to a desert that has grown past you. You observe from the ledge to which you…
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© 2022 Chris Clarke
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