Gifts of the Desert Spring - Sheep and Lambs; Spring Annuals and Cactus Flowers - Kumeyaay Desert Territory - Nature's Art

Dear Readers:
I am so grateful to have many international readers - thank you for checking in on our local Native Americans.  I wanted to take a quick break from rock art, but more is one the way, to show you Kumeyaay territory at the apex of natural art in the early Spring.  So much has changed in the hundreds and thousands of years that the Kumeyaay have lived here.  One aspect of the annual life cycle that has not changed, is that each Spring as a consequence of late summer and winter rains, brought new life.  This past weekend, Donna and I, both SDRAA members, were met with a large herd of sheep that came straight down Indian Head Mountain on the west side, that is easily a 45 degree steep angle into the creek bed of Borrego Palm Canyon.  Both adult sheep and baby lambs were in a very playful mood and ran back and forth in front of us, along with jumping and lots of pausing to eat the new green vegetation.  Even, and this is rare, the mountain cliffs were accented in green against the magenta rock.  We stayed about an hour or more with the Big Horn Sheep, a prize game for the Kumeyaay.  Some of the steeper cliff areas have Kumeyaay built sheep hunting blinds that the late Bob Begole showed me how to find.  An adult male may weigh 100 pounds or more provided you can catch one.  When the sheep were more plentiful, one catch would provide a protein source for an entire village.

Out of the mountains and onto the alluvial plains that accept the rainwater run off from the rocks above, we were met with vast fields of Desert Primrose, Desert Sunflowers and Poppies.  Again the magenta, orange and yellow annuals contrasted with the white, crystalline sand, the Coyote and Santa Rosa Mountains.  Further sound in the alluvium of the Palo Verde Mountains where ancestors of the Kumeyaay left the foundation of their homes, now affectionately known as sleeping circles thanks to Bob Begole, are found several distinct cacti.  At this time, the Barrel cactus and the Beaver Tail cactus were both in bloom with bright green-yellow blooms and scarlet blooms respectively.  Ocotillo, almost always in flower, had also responded to the few inches of desert rain this year with their fiery red orange flower tips.

Springtime in Kumeyaay lands - for all of you who come visit the blog and cannot see the beautiful land that was respectfully tended to by these Native people for thousands of years, this is what it looks like.  In the past, as we noted, there was more rain, and so the Spring nature show must have been even more evocative of a Garden of Eden and the new born Lamb.

We are also so grateful to the hundreds of people who worked on their hands and knees in the heat and cold to remove by hand the invading Mustard plant that had overrun the flower fields in Henderson Canyon.  I am sure that these diligent workers must have pulled thousands and tens of thousands of these invading plants in order to allow the natural flowers to return to their past glorious display.  They have kept at this tedious work for several years and this year is the first time that the rain has blessed their work with a beautiful display.  For all of you that cannot be here, here is the land of these ancient gardeners in Springtime.

See you on the trail.  All photos copyright 2015 Don Liponi. Please do not reproduce without my written permission.  Click on to enlarge.