Category: wildflowers

Posted on

It was a dark and stormy night…

…or to be more exact…it IS a dark and stormy night. I write this post with thunder rumbling and getting closer. The sky is dark at 8:00 p.m. an hour and 45 minutes before sunset. My S.A.M.E./NOAA radio has alerted twice for severe thunderstorms.

I cannot help thinking of and missing Karl…knowing this weather would be so upsetting to him.

…Bear, it does not faze. Bear is lying on my bed. The window is open, lightning is flashing and thunder is rumbling and he is calm.

Bob is under the daybed in his room!

It is a dark and stormy Saturday night.

The grass has been mowed. The yard and house and woods grasses glow green – more so against the backdrop of the stormy skies.

But during a time of light…

Mariposa Lily.

The woods has a bumper crop of Mariposa Lily this year.

Beautiful.

CRASH, BANG, BOOM and a flash of lighting! The storm approaches. It is raining…harder.

Time to unplug. Happy Saturday evening.

Posted on

Indian Paintbrush in the woods

Saturday had that gorgeous morning light and then a sunbreak here and there. Sunday, was overcast, cool at 43F and it rained most of the day. The rain was a gentle, easy rain – the kind of rain that allows everything to get a long, cool drink. The woods floor glows with the color of Spring green.

I was out with Bear. He was preoccupied with a squirrel so I puttered about pulling noxious weeds and digging up thistles…you can not pull thistles unless you are my friend Hal who apparently has VERY tough skin. (a shout out to friends Kris, Hal and Magic: their amazing Samoyed puppy!)

Wandering here and there – amongst the lupins, I found a lone bloom of Indian Paintbrush.

Indian Paintbrush in the woods.

Posted on

What was the name of Jacques Cousteau’s research vessel?

If you didn’t watch “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau”…BUT, you recognize the wildflower above…

No???

Calypso is the name of Monsieur Cousteau’s ship and the wildflower is a Calypso Orchid…one of my favorites and rare to find in my woods. This year I have found 5! And they survived last weekend’s snow.

Calypso – such a fun word to say. If you were fortunate to grow up with Jacques Cousteau and his grand passion for the undersea world, you are very fortunate!

Calypso was a sea nymph in the Odysseus myth. Additionally, the etomology of “calypso” is something hidden…to cover, to conceal: appropos to the ship as well as the wildflower :) !

The Calypso Orchid – so small and from the top…only a bit of purple leaf.

But, when you really look at what is hidden, what is concealed…

Incredible beauty. An orchid. An exotic. Calypso.

In honor of beauty, passion, exploration and the seeking of knowledge and understanding:

Lyrics | John Denver lyrics – Calypso lyrics

Posted on

Tableaus

Tableau: picturesque scene

Tableau: striking picture

Peaceful, pretty: things I love.

Posted on

Evening bling

Last evening, Bear and I walked the loop as the sun was getting low – about an hour before official sunset: 7:45 ish. Morning or evening, I love to watch the sun through the woods – the light playing with the ground, the woods plants and the trees.

To the East, the tops of the trees in the small valley between foothills – dramatic contrast in the evening sun break after a cloudy, rainy day.

And the topper? Lupins, dressed in raindrops…a little evening bling :) !

***that little scraggly thing to the bottom right? It is a wildflower (weed?) of some sort. They are all over the woods, but I can’t find them in my flower book. They look like miniature bottle brushes that have seen better days. They make me laugh to see them – silly laughing…fun in the woods laughing – so maybe not a “traditionally” beautiful wildflower, but as in all things, beauty in the eye of the beholder and also not always outward appearance …sometimes beauty [for me] is in how whatever or whoever makes me feel. There…my life metaphor of the day :)!