“They” say winter photography
is often “sticks and snow”.
Thus began a recent photo-story from a reader of this blog and Ottawa neighbour. In the back-and-forth that followed his post, he made the comment that, being in Arizona, I was in the land of “no sticks and snow”. Now, at our Arizona elevation I’ll give him the “no snow” part, but on the “no sticks” part, well, I must demur.
Sidebar – I’m not sure I’d ever set out to use “demur” in a sentence before. I know its meaning–to raise doubts, exceptions, or to show reluctance–but I was stumped trying to use it. I got as far as “I must demur [some word here] the ‘no-sticks’ part” and realized I had no idea what word to use. I must demur at? Against? With? From? To? About? Around? I had no idea.
Of course, I could have used a verb where the choice was less tricky:
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- I must argue with this claim.
- I must speak against this notion.
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I could even have simplified radically and used a verb that didn’t want any preposition:
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- I must dispute this statement.
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But what fun would that be? So I checked with Google. Despite my 100% correct spelling of demur, the AI Overview squirted sideways on me; to wit:
Based on anatomical and medical usage, the noun femur does not take one exclusive preposition, but is most commonly used with of, in, or to depending on the context.
OK then. Maybe I’ll just handle this one myself, eh? And so I did, leaving any femurs and lemurs in the crowd to their own devices and another day, and restructuring the sentence to remove the object with/for/at/against demur.
Yes, I demurred, and I did more. The next time I was out for a desert walk, I looked for sticks. I found a few.
I found collections of sticks that with the barest encouragement burst forth into defiant bloom.
I found bundles of sticks nestled within larger bundles.
I found ground-hugging sticks, still doggedly sticking together.
And almost everywhere I found sticks marking the various stages of the decay of the Sonoran Desert’s signature cactus.
And so, this winter, like other Canadian photographers I have sticks aplenty, but I have no snow.
Nice sticks !!
I should apologize for being wrong about “no sticks”, but I’m not as you had fun with it and benefitted us all with your humour and sticks
Jim R – Heavens! No, no apology needed for sure. It’s fun to have a photographic mission.
I’m fascinated by the internal skeleton of the saguaro cactus. (Were you referring to it in the other post for today, when you mentioned “modelling infrastructure”?) It’s almost like organ pipes.
Jim T – 🙂 No, no saguaro/Heisenberg modelling connection as far as I know. There can’t be many people who would see a pipe organ, but I like it. Their structure is fascinating: so different from a tree. Here’s a decent overview from the National Park Service that doesn’t get all botano-technical.
Amazing photos. The link to the overview also was astonishing. Our oldest son and his wife named their first-born son “Cactus.” I am not sure he has forgiven them for the unusual name, but the associations with this magnificent flora all are honorific. I supplied his middle name “Willow,” for its socially less startling diminutive “Will.” But to my knowledge he is bearing the thorns nobly for being known as “Tus,” and for having to explain where it originated. I am glad to have discovered the pronunciation for Saguaro. If I ever knew it, I had forgotten. Grandson #1 might have had a tougher time explaining that as a name.
Laurna – It seems to be standard in Canada for women’s one-syllable names to be feminized by adding a syllable, whereas guys have their names masculinized by dropping to one syllable wherever reasonably possible. Or even not reasonably, as you observe. Good for him for not taking it to heart. A sense of humour (and proportion) is a wonderful asset in life. Glad you enjoyed the photos.
What amazing and interesting pictures.
Tom
Thank you. 🙂
Isabel – if Canada is a land of “sticks and snow” in the winter time, do you suppose as a retired editor you were taking that usage a bit too literally when you applied it to the Phoenix area in the winter time, and then went out looking for sticks. Nice pics of the sticks you found though.
If Phoenix still had an NHL hockey team you might even be able to find some snow in the ice shavings behind the hockey arena.
John – Good points about the sticks. I hadn’t thought to go looking for hockey sticks. I find it unlikely that I would be too literal. 🙂