Wildflower Garden

Before I post photos of Dragonfly Cottage's interior, local explorations or this year's quilt show, I wanted to share some closeups I've been taking of the flowers in the wildflower garden right in front of our cottage. Although it's one of the common areas for this new Pocket Neighborhood, it stands in for our front yard. Because Dragonfly Cottage has no front yard - just some mostly nekkid (so far) flowerbeds on either side of the front porch. Because of its very close proximity to our front steps (about 18 inches), and the fact that watering it became my responsibility when we moved in, I feel a stronger sense of possessiveness toward it than I probably should. (But when passers-by often call out, "I love your wildflower garden!" I can't help replying with a proprietary "Thank you!") :-)

I'm still getting to know a few of the late summer/fall flowers in it, though there are several familiar faces (like wild sunflowers and Gaillardia) to make me feel right at home. Here are a few of my favorite blooms so far, many of which are still going strong despite Halloween being only a week away!

You'd think, from all the photos I've taken of them, that most of the flowers in the Wildflower Garden are poppies. But they really represent a small minority - they've just been the most dazzling and my favorites! Check these beauties out in all their diversely-colored glory...

Most of the flowers at this time of year are yellow ones. I don't know this one's name yet, but love its cheerful face...

Sweet little Bachelor Buttons...

A neon fuschia-colored charmer (anyone know what it is?)...

Another cheerful yellow flower I haven't been able to identify. A member of the sunflower or daisy family, perhaps?...

Although it's not in the Wildflower Garden, since no cottage is complete without at least one Hollyhock growing beside it I had to include this photo of ours. :-) I'm glad I got this photo when I did, because we had a hard frost that night that pretty much obliterated the blooms...

I'll be sharing more flowery eye-candy photos soon, from my neighborhood walks and bike rides as well as from some of the stunning floral quilts in this year's exhibition. What fun! :-)

In unrelated news ~ Though I don't really follow baseball, I do try to watch the World Series. Though generally a Red Sox and Rockies fan with no personal connection to St. Louis or Missouri, I'm enthusiastically cheering on the Cardinals because of their manager Tony LaRussa and his lovely wife Elaine. Click here to read why! And Go, Cardinals! :-)

(I can't see Cardinals - the birds or the sports teams - without thinking of you, Spudly!) ;-)

SkyWatch Friday: Late Summer Sunflowers

I'm having to shoehorn this SkyWatch Friday post into a crazy day, but I couldn't bear to miss it because I've really been wanting to share these beautiful wild sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) that I photographed during BW's vacation last week. They grow in great profusion all along a dirt road that climbs up to a couple of gravel pits, on property that is part of the ginormous ranch where we board Mocha. It's a great place to hike with our dogs and enjoy the views!

The view from halfway up the gravel pit road, with

Beaver Creek road and the Big Horn Mountains beyond.

The whole area is thick with sunflowers and thistle,

and the many birds and butterflies that dine on them.

Though the sunflowers were sparse in this shot,

I couldn't resist including one of the girls running to Daddy.

:-)

All the other sunflowers are keeping an eye on the storm,

while this one prima donna preens for the camera! ;-)

Trying out different theories about where the sun is hiding,

this group's got 3 of the 4 cardinal directions covered!

I love this friendly guy, who looks like he's waving!

Their bright yellow sure pops against those storm clouds.

I don't know what that ugly rusted culvert-thing is,

but I loved how this lone sunflower looked with it!

View more skies around the world at

Enjoy your weekend! (And a safe and happy Labor Day to my fellow Yanks!)

SkyWatch Friday: Salsify against the Sky

(Click photos for more detailed images)

Western Salsify (Tragopogon dubius) in our pasture

With a yellow budding Salsify flower to its left and fragrant wild Bergamot at its base, this Western Salsify will soon release its large dandelion-type seeds to drift across the summer sky on mountain breezes.

Wildflower seed on the sand and stone

May the four winds blow you safely home...

Wildflower seed on the sand and wind

May the four winds blow you home again.

~Grateful Dead, "Franklin's Tower"

Aren't they beautiful?

The seed has no idea of being some particular plant,

but it has its own form and is in perfect harmony

with the ground, with its surroundings ...

and there is no trouble.

This is what we mean by naturalness.

~ Shrunyu Suzuki, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind"

Click on

for more skies (with and without wafting seeds) :-)

ABC Wednesday: C

Wow, ABC Wednesday, back already! Let's C what Clever Concepts we Can Come up with this week. ;-)

Well for starters, C is for Camera, and I've been having a jolly time with mine this summer! So here are a few recent Captures (except for the hummingbird, I fetched that one from my archives) that I hope you'll find Charming...

C is for Childhood ~

"Twist in Time" by James Haire

Sculpture on South Main St, Sheridan, WY

C is for Columbine ~

Columbine flowers (Aquilegia vulgaris)

in Kendrick Park, Sheridan

C is for Contrast ~

Pretty, gentle Harebells (Campanula rotundifloria)

contrast with brutal barbwire (I loathe the stuff!)

C is for Copper ~

A Rufous Hummingbird rests on our deck railing

As well as for Chubby and Cute! :-)

I love his wee little toes!

And the coppery shimmer of his throat in the sunshine.

For more takes on the letter C, check out

Better Late than Never!

So here's the buzz. Mere hours after I published my "B for Bergamot" post for ABC Wednesday, BW and I took the dogs for a hike. I, of course, took my camera, on account of you just never know. And this time while we were amongst the fields of blooming bergamot, we were joined by a big, fuzzy bumblebee. I've tried and tried in years past to get a single good photo of a bee on a wildflower, to no avail. Until now! When I got not one, but several!

Doesn't that just figure? These would have been perfect on my ABC Bergamot post, and I thought about adding one to it, but I was, ahem... too bzzzzy! :-) Besides, I had gotten enough good photos that I thought they deserved a post of their own. So here it finally is (click on pics to enlarge)...

Arrivals, Concourse Bee ;-)

Nom-nom-nom

Check out his little feet, grasping the petals

*slurp*

BW really wanted me to include this video, even though except for a wiggly-butted bee balancing precariously on a flower and enjoying his nectar smoothie, not much happens. Until the very end, when you'll want your speakers turned up to catch all the excitement ;-) ...

LOL, what a spazzzzz!

He seemed to be getting full at this point,

so instead of flying to the next flower,

he just reached over and grabbed the adjacent one!

A good look at his big, black eyes

And finally...

Departures, Concourse Bee

Bon voyage, you precious little pollinator!

ABC Wednesday: Bergamot (+ Bonus Border Collie)

I thought I'd try another fun weekly meme that I've enjoyed on several blogs - ABC Wednesday.

A new round began last week, but no way could I get it together in time to jump in at the beginning with the letter A. So I'll Begin with the next Best thing, the letter B! :-)

Because a Bounty of Blooming Bergamot currently abounds around our place, I photographed a Bunch during a hike earlier this week. So here, for my Blog's celebration of the letter B, are the Best of the Batch...

Wild Bergamot

Monarda menthaefolia

(aka Bee Balm, for two more points!) ;-)

Menthaefolia means "mint-leaved," and Both the leaves and the flower release their sublime spicy-minty fragrance when pinched or crushed. This flower attracts Bees, hummingbirds, and Butterflies and is supposed to improve the health and flavor of tomatoes when planted with them. You may know Bergamot from Earl Grey tea, and in addition to Brewing up a fragrant cup of tea the leaves can also be used for flavoring in cooking, with a taste similar to oregano. The plant also has several medicinal uses, including as an antiseptic.

A large area of them are Blooming in this deep, rich shade

With ABC Wednesday, you can also interpret the weekly prompt with artwork or poetry. While I'm Besotted with photography and am no Bard, for this post I thought I'd pen a silly poem...

With Arrowleaf

I've got no beef,

But Bergamot

I love a lot!

;-)

And I really do. From its Bodacious color, to its charming "Bad hair day" looks, to its Brilliant mint Bouquet ~ what's not to love about Bergamot?

And you double the Bliss when you find a rare "double-decker" Bloom...

Looks like a two tiered fountain or wedding cake topper!

Of course with three dogs, I never hike alone, and a furry someone always insinuates themselves into one of my flower photos eventually. This time that furry someone was Willow. Who, as alphabetical luck would have it, is a Border Collie...

A Beauty among Beauties

Actually, BW was also on this particular hike with us Because he's on vacation this week. But although his name Begins with the appropriate letter, he was too Bashful to Be in any photos. Maybe next round!

Update: A few hours after posting this, I went for another hike and got several photos of a Bumblebee on the Bergamot! A Bummer of Bad timing But some pretty Brilliant photos (if I do say so myself, lol), which you can see here.

Visit

for more interpretations of this week's letter

from blogs around the world!

Poppies & Puffs

I promise I'm working on the next Colorado trip post, honest! (You guys crack me up, it's like you're in the back seat of the car whining, "Are we there yet? How much farther?" LOL) But I wanted to share a quick post of this pretty local scene first.

On my way home from town Wednesday, I pulled over to take a photo of these pretty poppies and handsome barn on the Gallatin Ranch in Big Horn...

And check this out: the day after I took this photo, an almost identical photo was taken and submitted by a professional photographer to our local media web site! :-) His poppies look red (methinks a bit of PhotoShop shenanigans was afoot!), when in reality they're orange like in my photo.

The poppies were so beautiful, I took a couple of closeups...

They don't even look real, do they? I think they look like they're made of day-glo orange tissue paper! But I swear they're not only real live poppies, this is a SOOC ("Straight Out Of the Camera") photo.

Just in case all that day-glo orange is blistering your eyeballs, here's a more soothing photo I took after I got home that same day and took the dogs for a hike. (I thought of Rose when I took this, since her blog's name is Dandelion Vegan Blog!) Here a field of Arrowleaf Balsamroot and Lupine provide a colorful backdrop for a lone dandelion puff in our pasture...

They remind me of a lead singer with her backup vocalists, like Gladys Knight and the Pips! :-)

Have a great weekend, and we'll meet up in front of the Armstrong Hotel for the start of our Fort Collins tour early next week!