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 waxing moon is moving through the constellation of Leo.

Mars is fading in the night sky.

And Venus hangs heavy in the West.

Venus seems enormous right now, especially late at night, low over our western mountains. From my vantage point, it sets in the San Bernardino Mountains about 15 degrees northwest of San

Gorgonio,

which is still crowned with deep snow as we enter

the merry month of May.

And meanwhile, upon the desert floor, and splashed brightly up the desert hillsides,

there are wondrous carpets of yellow and orange and violet wildflowers.

The nights are still cool. cool still cool and fine

and the day is now in the 80s

still mild

the narrow jack rabbit

trails I prefer

barely discernible through knee-high stands of fiddleness

and great clumps of chia and mallow. The saturated color of the desert bluebells is reaching a violet perfection in these days of middle spring.

Now, if you look up the desert bluebell, the flowers are described as blue or purple.

But purple is a mix of blue and red while violet has its own place on the color spectrum.

The final visible color before ultraviolet.

The great alchemist and astrologer Isaac Newton divided the visible spectrum of color into seven.

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