This episode is a reminiscence…something I seem to be doing a lot of lately…and also a plea for getting our children and grandchildren out of doors, be it a back yard or out to the desert.
The photos are mine. The Boy’s Book of Frogs, Toads and Salamanders came out in 1957. I got it as a present when I was 9 or 10. The duded up Sonoran Desert Toad was the logo of the country band The Dusty Chaps.
I think I talked more about Toumey oak (Quercus toumeyi) than yellow bells. It is an awfully sweet little native oak. I’m pretty sure...
Though other insects (garden varmints!) are mentioned, the star of this show is a type of stink bug called the harlequin bug or Murgantia...
Canyon hackberry must be an old common name, because all the new literature calls it western hackberry. Western, I suppose, as opposed to the...