Friday flowers: purple rain

This isn’t just an example of a Friday flower, it’s a fabulously fantastical Friday flower from France.  🙂  I think my language nerd self is taking over: yesterday puns, today alliteration.  (There’s even an “The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As” reference.  What’s that all about??) Who knows what tomorrow might bring other than the weekend?  Whatever it brings to you, I hope it’s wonder-filled!

If anyone knows what this flower is, please let me know in your comment.  Thanks!

People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.
~Iris Murdoch

I love the smell of rain and growing things.
~Serina Hernandez

A drift

Merriam Webster has numerous definitions for “drift” but persevere and you’ll arrive at:

8 :  a grouping of similar flowers planted in an elongated mass.

On my photography walk last week, once I entered into the wooded part of the park, I was adrift in drifts of wildflowers, not all of which show up well in photos.  Of course, no person planted these elongated masses of flowers but nevertheless, there they are.  (As an aside, a photography walk for me is one where I deliberately set out with Nikon and lenses in addition to the ever-present iPhone and don’t even plan on getting any exercise other than the most rudimentary walking.  Call it soul food.)

At any rate, there were still wildflowers aplenty, which I featured on my blog Friday and Saturday.   Here then, is a drift of wildflowers and, I hasten to add, taken with said phone, not my Nikon, lest Sally whip me with a wet noodle.  🙂

May you be adrift in flowers today, whether literal or figurative!  Perhaps I should also include “virtual.”  And happy May Day, which is celebrated with flowers as well!

For Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Nature

Wilder

More wildflowers today.  Have a happy and beautiful Saturday!!

Spring beauty (beautiful, but resilient):

Wildflowers

I’ve been promising you wildflowers and wildflowers I shall give you.  Tuesday morning I spent a blissful, damp, and muddy two hours on the back trails of my park.  I didn’t see any wildlife other than various birds, but the flowers were still out in profusion, more so where there was shade.  These shots were all taken with my iPhone 5s.  If I misidentified any of these, someone let me know.  🙂

Violets:

The wildflowers are here!

This morning, I took my s-i-l on a walk through “my” park.  To my joy, I saw drifts of wildflowers in the forested area as well as some evidently uncomfortable in crowds, blooming shyly on their own or with only a friend or two.  Although it’s quite muddy, tomorrow morning will find me properly dressed for a walk on one of the dirt trails that meanders close to the river, carrying my Nikon as well as my phone.  I didn’t get very far off the path this morning, but here are a few of my finds.

Perhaps wood anemones?

Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Nature…carpeted

Not long ago, I walked through the forest part of my park, reveling in the signs of the long-anticipated spring.  Immediately upon entering, there were wild flowers carpeting the forest floor, each more breath-taking than than the one before. Their beauty brought a grin, not just a smile but a full-fledged grin, to my face that stayed with me, sometimes morphing into actual noises of joy. It was a glorious morning of nature at her best.

The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra la

The flowers that bloom in the spring,
Tra la,
Breathe promise of merry sunshine –
As we merrily dance and we sing,
Tra la,
We welcome the hope that they bring,
Tra la.
Of a summer of roses and wine.
And that’s what we mean when we say that a thing
Is welcome as flowers that bloom in the spring.
“The Mikado”, Gilbert & Sullivan

OK, it’s not spring.  But I might be forgiven for thinking it is and for thinking springtime thoughts. In recent years, the west has experienced lots of drought, when the grass for grass for grazing has been short and sparse and hay has to be purchased, rather than taken from the barn.  This year is different.  This year the grass, even in August, is lush, high enough for a horse to snack on without lowering its head and dotted with wildflowers.  It looks almost like spring.

This winter, the Big Horns had 22′ or more of snow, much like the “old days” and  justification for putting up brace poles inside the cabin before closing it for fall.  That translates into lots of water when the spring melt comes and that’s a good thing!  The cabin’s metal roof bent slightly under the weight of the snow.  During the winter, a person could walk on the snow from the rooftop of the tack room to the roof of the workshop.  A snowmobile wasn’t even useful as it would sink and have to be dug out.

Plentiful water means plentiful flowers, flowers which are usually gone by this time of year.  Although we’ve only been here two days, I have a few pictures to share with you and I imagine there will be more once I’ve had more time to go hiking.  In the meantime, enjoy these and don’t forget the sunscreen and either sunglasses or a hat.

As seen on our ride today…