Sunflowers

As Summer is slowing fading into Fall

This weekend not only did I have the need to wear my down jacket in the evening to take the chill off I also noticed a lot of trucks coming home from up north full of firewood.

By no means am I ready to even think about the recent rain turning to snow, and I LOVE the snow, so I am posting lots and lots of wildflowers I've found throughout the summer to warm me up a bit.

Subaplpine spiraea, Spiraea splendens or wild rose
Found in the backyard.

Ciliate bluebell, Mertensia ciliata
Found in Slaughterhouse Canyon where we take our daily dog walk. Just behind the house.

Sitka columbine, Aquilegia formosa
Scarlet paintbrush, Castilleja miniata
Elephant-head, Pedicularis groenlandica or pink elephants
Elegant camas, Anticlea elegans
Slender cinquefoil, Potentilla gracilis

All found at Washington Lake in the White Cloud Mountains while hiking with Mom and Dad. What a treat.

Closeup of pink elephants.

Closeup of elegant camas.

A lone Silver lupine, Lupinus argenteus
found in a field of Twin arnica, Arnica sororia.

Following are a couple of my favorite
wildflower photos from this summer.
Both were taken while on a hike
to Betty, Baptie and Goat Lakes.
The same hike I found the white bog orchid on
mentioned in my previous post.

Lewis's monkey-flower, Mimulus lewisii
Oregon bluebell, Mertensia bella
Spear leafed arnica, Arnica longifolia

California false hellebore, Veratrum californicum

While working in early July I was lucky enough to be up in Copper Basin during some of the height of the wildflower season.

Prairie smoke, Geum triflorum

Taper-leaf penstemon, Penstemon attenuatus
Spear leafed arnica, Arnica longifolia
with the Pioneer Mountains in the background.

Pioneer Mountains in the background again. Only this time from the other side. The field of wildflowers consists mostly of American bistort (white), Bistorta bistortoides, Mountain sheep sorrel (red), Rumex paucifolius, and Upland larkspur (blue), Delphinium nuttallianum.

Another view of the Pioneers with
Longspur lupine, Lupinus arbustus in the foreground.

And last but not least some cactus flowers.
They are some of my favorites
as they grow in extreme heat and dryness,
they are very delicate, their color is amazing
and they last for only but a day or two.

Spiny prickly pear, Opuntia polyacantha

Brittle cactus, Opuntia fragilis

And...
an Aztec poem

From within the Heavens
by Ayocuan Cuetzpaltzin

From within the heavens they come,
the beautiful flowers, the beautiful songs,
but our yearning spoils them,
our inventiveness makes them lose their fragrance,
although not those of the Chichimec prince Tecayehuatzin.
With his, rejoice!

Friendship is a shower of precious flowers
White tufts of heron feathers
are woven with precious red flowers,
among the branches of the trees
under which stroll and sip
the lords and nobles

Your beautiful song
is a golden wood thrush
most beautiful, you raise it up.
You are in a field of flowers.
Among the flowery bushes you sing.
Are you perchance a precious bird of the Giver of Life?
Perchance you have spoken with God?
As soon as you saw the dawn,
you began to sing.
Would that I exert myself, that my heart desire,
the flowers of the shield,
the flowers of the Giver of Life.

What can my heart do?
In vain we have come,
we have blossomed forth on earth.
Will I have to go alone
like the flowers that perish?
Will nothing remain of my name?
Nothing of my fame here on earth?
At least my flowers, at least my songs!
What can my heart do?
In vain we have come,
we have blossomed forth on earth.

Let us enjoy, O friends,
here we can embrace.
We stroll over the flowery earth.
No one here can do away
with the flowers and the songs,
they will endure in the house of the Giver of Life

Earth is the region of the fleeting moment.
Is it also thus in the Place
Where in Some Way One Lives?

Is one happy there?
Is there friendship?
Or is it only here on earth
we come to know our faces?

(as translated by Miguel Leon-Portilla)


With a little bit about Aztec poetry.

Some orchids and a poem

White bog orchid, Platanthera dilatata

Found while hiking in the Pioneer Mountains
to Betty, Goat and Baptie Lakes.
Goat being the highest lake in Idaho.

An Encounter by Robert Frost

ONCE on the kind of day called “weather breeder,”
When the heat slowly hazes and the sun
By its own power seems to be undone,
I was half boring through, half climbing through
A swamp of cedar. Choked with oil of cedar
And scurf of plants, and weary and over-heated,
And sorry I ever left the road I knew,
I paused and rested on a sort of hook
That had me by the coat as good as seated,
And since there was no other way to look,
Looked up toward heaven, and there against the blue,
Stood over me a resurrected tree,
A tree that had been down and raised again—
A barkless spectre. He had halted too,
As if for fear of treading upon me.
I saw the strange position of his hands—
Up at his shoulders, dragging yellow strands
Of wire with something in it from men to men.
“You here?” I said. “Where aren’t you nowadays
And what’s the news you carry—if you know?
And tell me where you’re off for—Montreal?
Me? I’m not off for anywhere at all.
Sometimes I wander out of beaten ways
Half looking for the orchid Calypso.”

On the way to work the other day...

I finally got to shoot a photograph of an antelope. Usually when I see them they are long gone before I get my camera out but not this one. He seemed very content to be resting in a pasture with horses. It was a treat to be able to see one so close up instead of watching one bounce away. I know, I know he looks like a colt all curled up...but he's not. Click on the picture so you can see it enlarged and it's an antelope. Really.

And today I took lunch in a field full of flowers. Some of my favorites, pussy-toes and prairie smoke, are in full bloom right now. According to my Mountain Wildflowers book and I quote "Pussy-toes are not particularly attractive, but they are so numerous that one cannot help but notice them"....

I'm quite partial to them.

Rosy pussy-toes Antennaria rosea

And in the same field lots and lots of prairie smoke.

Prairie smoke Geum triflorum (pink)

With lots of Slender and Early cinquefoil
Potentilla gracilis and concinna (yellow)
and a little bit of Upland larkspur
Delphinium nuttallianum (blue)

More cinquefoil

Wild Flowers

Wild Flowers at the height of the Burma Road, Idaho

For myself I hold no preferences among flowers,
so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.
Bricks to all greenhouses!
Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!
~ Edward Abbey

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!