Sunday, December 28, 2008

December 28 - Wringing Out Adventure


We wake to the chill and beauty of a clear central Arizona morning, light radiating off the snows of the Mingus Mountains, to rendezvous



in their art-filled house (including R's tropes on Picasso and Klimt in the back studio)



with Liz and


Roland March,



Harriet's younger brother, whom she has not seen in more than 16 years.



After a spirited lunch (watched over by L's Mata Hari),



featuring old photographs



of the siblings (note the budding author at the typewriter) and



family (father was a rubber tramp and boondocker [Quartzsite style] before the terms were common -- these are not vacation photos; this was a way of life, as H has written and I have musicized, indeed operaized, in the quadrilic Ring of Harriet... N.B. also the only saguaro cactus in this Arizona account),



we take our leave



and head



for the colorful cliffs of



Sedona (with Capitol Butte



looming over condos; and



Coffee Pot Rock, the Sphinx, and Wilson Mountain lined up like gawking tourists),



first going



uptown, and then way up Oak Creek Canyon, for books.



We return to the last light, by Twin Buttes, of



The Chapel of the Holy Cross --looking like part of a quadrilateral bit of granite below the top of one of the rock formations known as The Two Nuns --



on a hillock adjacent to The Madona (the smaller isolated spire just left of center) and the aforesaid



convent crew,



perched



resolutely.


We ascend the spiral ramp,



to the pastoral promontory perch,


with views of the setting sun, appropriately enough, beaming through Cathedral Rock (Catholic vortex, anyone?)


towards Lee Mountain, Courthouse Butte, and Bell Rock.


The sanctuary altar is as serene as possible,



given the throngs silhouetted in shining cliffs just before the 5pm closing.



Chasing the light south (away from Twin Buttes and a miniscule Holy Crossl)



towards the town of Oak Creek (which is not only not on the stream but not even in the same drainage basin), Courthouse glows



and Bell glowers, despite the latter's vortexational reputation,



yet beckons to be explored from a trailhead,


well-stocked with supplies.