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25th Oct 2005
Birdies and Buffel grass
Tuesday, 25th October, 2005
I was due to meet up with Ray Turner in Tucson, one of the original re-photographers. Ray’s book, ‘The Changing Mile’ only the second to ever be published on re-photography, was published 40 years ago.
Ray called me at 7.30 this morning to arrange the format of the day and I agreed to follow the directions to his house for 10am.
South on Oracle as far as Grant, East on Grant as far as Swan and south on Swan as far as Fort Lowell were remarkably simple instructions and although the intervening distances were up to 5 or 6 miles a piece … it worked well and after half an hour of driving I was taking the final intricacies of turning at a mailbox, through a horse paddock and right a hundred yards or so into his yard.
Rays house is an old, low adobe house which has been extended over the years. He schooled briefly in Tucson back in the 1930s, his family moving across to accommodate his health problems, before returning to his native Salt Lake City.
He came back to teach at the University after graduating and then doing his PhD in 1954 … and has been there ever since .. he still retains involvement with the Desert Lab and is a remarkable 76 years old and last weekend returned from a fortnight across in Baja California doing some plant fieldwork for his next book.
Opposite the back door of his house is a little covered area with a table and beyond that his study and darkroom and we sat in there for the rest of the morning while I explained my purpose and he told me a little about his work over the years. Which has centred around desert ecology in general and the Saguaro cacti (sa-waar-oh) in particular.
We lunched with his wife, Jeanne, outside in a perfect temperature and then Ray nipped off to attend a medical appointment; it transpires he picked up Lyme disease on some fieldwork escapade or other and is now on the case of trying to get his medication right.
Lunch was a tasty affair; some kind of Mexican stew (thankfully not sweat inducing) and a mug of buttermilk and crackers. Buttermilk is a sort of drinking yoghurt; it tastes a bit like liquid sour cream and was remarkably refreshing.
This afternoon we were to head across town to meet up with Julio Betancourt, a native Cuban who, although nearer to my generation, has worked at the lab some considerable years. We met at his house and spent the afternoon discussing Buffel Grass – an introduced African grass, which Julio thinks at some stage, will herald the end of the Sonoran desert habitat as we know it.
The grass grows profusely in this climate (as it does in the African savannahs) and has been on a State-subsidised introduction programme for some years to expand the range over which cattle can be grazed … and now its really taken off. The dormant plant provides a considerable ‘fuel load’ in the desert and thrives on fires. I hadn’t realised, but fire is naturally absent from the desert system; you could in the words of Julio take a gallon of ‘gas’ out into the desert, tip it on the ground and the fire would be out by the time you got back to the car; it simply has nothing to transmit it … until now and the Saguaros … and indeed the city of Tucson itself … are at risk.
It was an interesting afternoon and I drove back to Vistoso from there, which was just along the road.
The boys had got themselves tucked into golf and the narrow fairways had obviously taken its toll. A net loss of 22 golf balls between the three of them and Nick in particular was all over the place with a round of 165.
Ben managed about a hundred … but apparently there was simply no margin for error and they spent a bit of time getting jabbed by cacti and searching for golf balls. No sign of Randy Rogers in there either apparently.
I was fairly wrecked when I got back and fell asleep for a while, Anne nipped out and did a Safeway’s shop and we had a relaxed ‘family dinner’ round the baseball ...
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Diary Photos
| 25th Oct 2005 |
| Oh Happy days |
| Searching for lost golf balls in the 'rough' |
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| 25th Oct 2005 |
| Tee off with a view |
| The golf course at Tucson |
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