Description

Picnic in the Grass
Sego Lilies, Sedona
40×30 Oil on Canvas

Arizona Highways magazine project

During the spring bloom we took True Blue (my Jeep) and headed to the dirt roads of Sedona, because there were some special flowers I wanted to see. I had marked my map from the last bloom and knew right were to look. That is the wonderous thing about wildflowers. They mark their territory, so to speak. When flower hunting with my mom as a child, she would say, “If you leave them alone there will be twice as many next year.” She taught me which flowers to gather, and which to leave alone.

Past all the hikers and ATVs, we arrived at a section of dirt that was alive with Sego Lilies. I took many photos and then we sat in the grass and had a snack. The Native people of this area may have also sat here at some point and had a snack. They would dig up the bulbs of the Sego Lily and grind them into flour for bread as an emergency food.

As I looked upward from my picnic, I thought of how the puffy clouds seemed to mirror the white blooms on the ground. And I thought of my mom, and laying in the grass as a little girl, imagining all sorts of animals dancing in the sky. The outdoors are magical.

Part of the True Blue Arizona series