Sara "Fifi" Castany, My Best Friend

I haven't talked about her on this blog because I consider our relationship a sacred bond if there ever was one. We share eachother's secrets and keep them in stone. We have lived through many incarnations together for the last 22 years or so and cherish them all. She is the editor and I am the writer is one incarnation. She is the younger and I am the elder is another one although sometimes we reverse this role depending on whoever has the greater problems at any given moment.

We have lived through many Miami moments, the death of Harry, my writing partner, the birth of her precious baby, several magazine changes,the good and bad relationships,and the demise of other friendships we once valued.
Tomorrow we meet to catch up on all those little things and next week we celebrate the birthday of her beautiful daughter Elizabeth who turns three.
I haven't said it before as I have been rambling on about all my rockhounding ventures, but I will say it now because sometimes in life it becomes the right time.

Thank you, Fifi, for always being here in my life for me. You are the special rose that grows in the forest that I see in my travels and the flowering wild cactus of the western deserts. You are songs, laughter, tears and prayers shared and all the good in this world and I will cherish your friendship forever.

Black Rock Desert in Rare Bloom

This morning I was having special thoughts and dreams about a very sacred, ancient wilderness, Nevada's Black Rock Desert. Last year was a bountiful one for a desert that is normally so dry in summer that its main feature is the limitless rolling playa where four wheelers zig and zag their way to the signature craggy Black Rock or Double Hot Springs or to a make-believe silver town called Hardin.
Desert mavens noted colorful blooms last year that had not been seen for 50 years or more in the desert. Incredibly, some of those plants could not even be identified. The opportunity for photos abounded and these are a few of a rare encounter with the Black Rock Desert on a mid-June morning.