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, the desert-tend springtime.

God's gift to the patient.

If cactus blooms and carpets of wildflowers are the love of your life,

patience is a virtue.

The springtime stretches into July in some parts of the desert.

Places like the eastern Sierra, the slick rock country, anywhere the winters are cold

and occasionally snowy, the higher elev are cold and occasionally snowy.

The higher elevations.

Spring is well underway in Tucson and Anzabarago, well underway or nearly gone.

It depends.

Depends on the rainfall. Depends on the last year or next year. Depends on the rainfall, depends on the last year or next year, depends on the increasingly

weird variations caused by catastrophic climate change.

Up here in my little corner of the desert, it is peak spring, and honestly it's the first spring I've truly enjoyed up here in many years. Yes, it's been an exceptionally cool and wet early spring with more snow than I've seen up here in a decade.

And a very steady delivery of storms that managed to make it over the mountains and bring some rainfall to this arid land.

There's so much rainfall that I almost got used to it.

Putting on this rain gear that's starting to crumble from age and lack of regular use.

Lacing up the Marine Corps water-resistant rain boots,

toweling off the dog and convincing him to sit by the fire for a while afterwards

when he'd really rather go jump in my bed and provide it with that nice mildewy wet smell

of old wet dog for the next week.

And everything's blooming pretty good,

...