Transmitting from the Mojave Wilderness in Joshua Tree, California, now is the time for Desert Oracle Radio, the voice of the desert.

Night has fallen on the desert.

And I cannot tell a lie.

It's the most beautiful spring I've ever spent in the Mojave.

My first springtime in Joshua Tree as a camper, not a resident, was back in

1983, and it was hot and smoggy

like it is too often

but especially back then when the thick brown soup of Los Angeles air

shared the blessing

with much of the surrounding desert until you got out around Baker and Shoshone.

And here we are in the year 20 and 20.

The songbirds and the wildlife are thrilled.

They seem thrilled anyway.

The cotton tails gorging on grass and wildflowers,

coyotes singing all night.

Great clouds of honeybees drifting by, the sky's otherwise silent,

and deep, deep blue.

There have been days and days of mild Pacific fronts, making it across the mountains, over the mountains, immense fluffy clouds of silver and white, everything blooming and green on the ground as you don't often get in the desert. And just outside the Desert Oracle Studio, the Desert Bunker, the bunnies are growing up quick and the gambles quail are calling and the big lizard is back strolling around the patio like some kind of gorilla.

A thick lizard.

The roadrunner from across the road is here all the time now.

In fact, all the creatures from across the road are over here all the time because nobody's really driving on the road.

Except for the trash trucks once a week.

...