Happy Fathers and Mothers Day and Happy Summer Solstice

Since I missed Mothers Day...


Happy, happy Fathers and Mothers Day!


Better together anyway!


Just like Mom and Dad who are off today pedaling somewhere, who knows where...






Some of my favorite photos from last fall in Vermont. My friend Brian and his son Noah in the apple orchard at Vermont Technical College. Very happy Fathers Dayish.







































To happy Fathers and Mothers everywhere!


Today is also the Summer Solstice and as we haven't seen much of that big yellow ball in the sky lately, here in south central Idaho, I am posting a little yellow of my own in celebration!

So far just this morning it has rained and hailed, which is not a bad thing. I thoroughly enjoy seeing, smelling, hearing, and feeling all that flurry of activity going on outside with the sliders wide open into the backyard, while drinking the best cup of coffee all week.

And in absence of the sun, a little yellow...










Ooops, couldn't help myself.
It's yellow.

But it is not where the trees are at for now.
Here's where they are for now.

More of the Marsh and some other stuff

We visited the marsh again and although the camas have gone to seed the birds are still there along with lots and lots and lots of mosquitoes. We took the new camera but we forgot the bug dope.

Wait, wait, wait....I know there's a hike coming, I just know it.
If I just wait.

After the marsh we went east to Fish Creek Reservoir. One of my favorites spots.

Along the way some roadside flowers.

And a dog in his truck. Still waiting.

And people wonder why I anthropomorphize dog on a daily basis.

Fish Creek Reservoir

Finally!

Fields of Blooms

Camas lilies and lupines are in full bloom all over Camas County.

Camas lily (Camassia quamash)
















Meriwether Lewis, of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, wrote of the camas lily in his journal in the spring of 1806: "The quawmash is now in blume and from the colour of its bloom at a short distance it resembles lakes of fine clear water, so complete in this deseption that on first sight I could have sworn it was water."


























Yellow headed blackbird found in the Camas Prairie Centennial Marsh







































Wild lupine (Lupinus perennis)

That Smell...

Try as I might I don't think I can possibly convey the amazing scent that is being given off by the fruit tree which is just steps from my front door.

The first thing that comes to mind when the scent hits my olfactory glands is "Can't you smell that smell?" (I think it's an age thing) but using lyrics from a Lynyrd Skynyrd song who's origins lie in alcohol and drug abuse and the referenced "smell" is the smell of death is probably not the proper way to try to convey the amazing scent that is heralding Spring even more so than the color that is popping all over the place.

So instead an e e cummings poem.

spring omnipotent goddess Thou

Spring omnipotent goddess Thou
dost stuff parks
with overgrown pimply
chevaliers and gumchewing giggly

damosels Thou dost
persuade to serenade
his lady the musical tom-cat
Thou dost inveigle

into crossing sidewalks the
unwary june-bug and the frivolous
angleworm
thou dost hang canary birds in parlour windows

Spring slattern of seasons
you have soggy legs
and a muddy petticoat
drowsy

is your hair your
eyes are sticky with
dream and you have a sloppy body from

being brought to bed of crocuses
when you sing in your whisky voice
the grass rises on the head of the earth
and all the trees are put on edge

spring
of the excellent jostle of
thy hips
and the superior

slobber of your breasts i
am so very fond that my
soul inside of me hollers
for thou comest

and your hands are the snow and thy
fingers are the rain
and your
feet O your feet

freakish
feet feet incorrigible

ragging the world

e e cummings



















So I think the fruit tree is a pear tree but I'm not certain. Maybe apple?
Any suggestions?











More tulips.

Finally some color!

The tulips have finally bloomed.



And there are grape hyacinths randomly popping up all over the yard.