Friday flowers…peonies

I arrived back home yesterday about noon after having a perfect time (with the exception of coming down with a bit of a cold the last couple of days.) I managed to avoid both the rain and Tulsa on the way back, the rain through none of my own doing and Tulsa because President Biden was visiting on Tuesday when I would have arrived to spend the night and when the President comes to town, major roads close down. So I made like an Okie from Muskogee (lyrics follow), heading there and then to Oklahoma City for the night without ever going near Tulsa. Worked like a charm. The next night Albuquerque and tonight home and I got to watch Stanley Cup hockey playoff games in the motels. 🙂 Tomorrow it’s back to the real work and blogs as well. Happy Friday.

Merle Haggard

We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee;
We don’t take no trips on LSD
We don’t burn no draft cards down on Main Street;
We like livin’ right, and bein’ free.

We don’t make no party out of lovin’;
We like holdin’ hands and pitchin’ wool;
We don’t let our hair grow long and shaggy,
Like the hippies out in San Francisco do.

And I’m proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
A place where even squares can have a ball.
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin’s still the biggest thrill of all.

Leather boots are still in style for manly footwear;
Beads and Roman sandals won’t be seen.
Football’s still the roughest thing on campus,
And the kids here still respect the college dean.

And I’m proud to be an Okie from Muskogee,
A place where even squares can have a ball.
We still wave Old Glory down at the courthouse,
And white lightnin’s still the biggest thrill of all.
In Muskogee, Oklahoma, USA.

Friday flowers…French pink

We’ve done some traveling this month and this week so for our final photo, let’s hop back to the lovely village of Plombières-les-Bains. If you’ve been following my blog for some years, you’ve seen and read about this but just a brief review. Les Bains means “the baths”, referring to the hot water springs discovered by the Romans. We didn’t try the baths (really, really hot water just doesn’t sound exciting in the middle of a hot summer), but we returned a number of times to enjoy the various things to see and eat. This is a glimpse of a garden we saw while climbing one set of the steep steps leading from the main commercial part of the city to where our vehicle was parked on a much higher street. With great exercise comes great beauty, Grasshopper.

Becky and Jude, thanks for hostessing these two challenges once again. It’s been fun.

Costa Rican pink

After my parents giving me a horse when I was in grade school, probably the best, most unexpected present I ever got was a week-long trip to Costa Rica with our older daughter. Besides spectacular scenery and unusual animals, there were all sorts of interesting, beautiful plants and flowers, like this one. I have no idea what it is, but it’s pretty cool AND it’s pink. However, if you ever come across something like this on another planet or somewhere in outer space, get away from it as soon as possible!! If you’ve watched enough sci-fi movies, you’ll know this but just a reminder.

for Life in Colour: pink

No idea what we’ll be up to today, but coffee is likely to figure in there somewhere or perhaps today’s the day we’ll go to the tea house.

Wordless bright pink Wednesday

for Squares: bright and Life in Colour: pink

Friday flowers…curvaceous

Friday flowers…companions

Companion planting is a gardening technique, but I have no idea whether or not humans had anything to do with these two types of flowers growing together. Either way, they go well together.

Friday flowers…pretty in pink

Friday flowers…invasive beauty

These small, bright beauties, called “pinks” by the people I know in Wyoming, are evidently some sort of invasive flower. However, seeing a hillside of them is breath-taking.

(As usual in my search of online data bases of wildflowers, I can’t find this one anywhere, so if you know what it is, please feel free to mention it in the comments.)

Friday flowers…pink

Friday flowers…for its own joy

“A flower blossoms for its own joy.”
~Oscar Wilde

“Gardens and flowers have a way of bringing people together, drawing them from their homes.”
―~Clare Ansberry, The Women of Troy Hill: The Back-Fence Virtues of Faith and Friendship