Just a day ago, the most beautiful bird was brought home to me by my little friend Madison.
it’s terrible when it happens… any bird or creature. But it is the way of nature, a cats course…

What totally caught my eye was it’s refinement, the stunning delicate patterns!

    

It so impressed me that I took some photos of this flight-gone beauty. The more I looked, the more amazing…
There were secret markings and subtle worlds locked in it’s fabulous plumage.

"Into the Memory" by ©Lisa Rivas - charcoal on paper

I wrote about it in my journal and decided to do a sketch in it’s memory.
This tribute reminds me of cactuses & rocks!

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“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all.”
~Emily Dickinson

Most flowering plants are identified by their flower and fruit morphology,
cacti are identified primarily by the form and structure of their spine clusters.

Spine clusters are tufts of spines arising from a growth center called the areole,
Areoles are unique organs only found in the cacti family. They are modified branches,
from which flowers, more branches, and leaves (when present) may grow.

Today, a sprinkle of snow flurries flowers this dormant cacti cluster,
bringing us into a season of wonder and reflection.

A token for the group

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In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy. ~William Blake

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It started as a simple little picture…

Doesn’t a lot of things start that way?

And then I saw this song of beaks…

Cute chicks everywhere, …all dressed up!

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Cactus Chicks (pencil and mixed media) by ©Lisa Rivas

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“A saguaro can fall for a snowman but where would they set up house?”
― Jodi Picoult, Plain Truth