Arizonan Allergies

When my family moved here from Connecticut a little more than a decade ago, we were told by multiple doctors that our allergies would just up and disappear due to the local flora being so vastly different than our current selection. They could not have been more wrong.

Since moving here, I have developed worse seasonal allergies than ever (almost everyone here has them, so maybe everyone notices less?) and sever asthma from living in a literal dust/smog bowl due to the mountains surrounding the valley.

On the plus side, the allergies out here are seasonal. And with the stuffy nose and itchy eyes comes some beautiful flowering plants and a considerably softer side of the desert. There is a ton of pollen being produced, creating the next generation of local plant life. The ground is yellow in some places from all of the fallen golden dust. Petals are covered in the stuff, and it is happily carried around by all manner of creatures.

As of late I have produced dozens of images of pollen covered bees, hummingbirds, butterflies and other creatures. Dressed in their new found golden hues, they are the catalysts for this whole plant reproduction thing.

I try not to think of it that way. After all, who really wants to think they feel cruddy due to plant sex?