Here’s a pretty lavender-colored High Desert dahlia seen on a garden tour in Bend, Oregon last year. These popular plants prefer full sun and good drainage. Though this one was seen in July, they are treasured for blooming well into the fall months.
This was one of the many flowers in bloom we saw on the tour. I think the color of this one made it my favorite High Desert dahlia seen that day.
If you’re travelling to Wyoming and like dinosaurs, consider stopping at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center (WDC) in Thermopolis. In 1993, dinosaur fossils were discovered near here at the Warm Springs Ranch. Fossils discovered here and elsewhere are on display at WDC. Visitors will see fifty-eight articulated dinosaur skeletons and a wide variety of fossils.
You’ll see dinosaur skeletons large and small in the display hall. Some are real, others are recreated from casts of fossils.
Remember the Velociraptors in “Jurassic Park?” Here’s one, blending into the background.
I especially liked this one because it shows a Tyrannosaurus dinosaur attacking a Stegosaurus.
Scenes near the sea on a stormy winter day
A bridge of rope, swinging and swaying
An ancient castle, deteriorating yet persisting
A seaside cafe, satiating and breathtaking
A shoreline sculpted by waves, ebbing and flowing
Scenes near the sea on a stormy winter day
We saw this large Sitka spruce, Picea sitchensis, tree at Fort Clatsop, Oregon. This is where the Lewis and Clark expedition spent a long, wet winter in 1806. Lewis noted how this tree was commonly 27 feet in girth, with some trees reaching 36 feet around. This tree’s height averages 125-180 feet, and may reach over 250 feet. Sitka spruce can live up to 800 years.
Indigenous people used parts of spruce trees in several ways. Roots and cedar bark were woven into baskets and hats. The pitch was used as a varnish, to waterproof canoes, and chewed like gum. Various parts were used to treat diarrhea, constipation, and back aches. Sitka spruce was thought to possess “mystical powers and provided protection against evil thoughts.”
The tree’s fine-grained wood is both strong and lightweight. It is used in turbine blades, aircraft, sailboats, racing sculls, and oars. its unique qualities also make it a favorite in making musical instruments, including guitars, harps, violins, pianos, and flutes created by Native Americans.
Here’s the view as we were driving across the Columbia River into Hood River, Oregon on a recent trip. You can see Mount Hood peeking over the hills on the left side of the picture.
We happened to be there when the annual Association of Wind + Watersports Industries event was taking place. Here’s a picture of the Hood River Bridge from the Oregon side. Can you see all the windsurfers out there?
lamplit paths tremble
a bridge arises from green
ripples of summer
Weekly Haiku Challenge (WHC) – Lamp & path
Here’s a picture of a white cosmos up close, taken a couple of days ago in Bend, Oregon. Cooler weather is on the way so it may soon disappear. They are one of my favorite flowers!
Macro Monday (MM)
Flower of the Day (FOTD)
When I looked through my Oregon photos, it was hard to narrow it down to only ten pictures for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge of Tell us why. These are the photos I chose, shown by category.
Sometimes you take a picture and when you look at it later on a larger screen, you say, “Wow!”
I took this picture of an old homestead without fussing with the settings first. It almost looks like one of those old-time stereoscope images. I like this photo because it captured a glimpse of history.
I took a lot of pictures of the Spruce Goose aircraft in McMinnville and described it in a recent post. When I saw the lines in this photo, I knew it would look great in black and white.
I noticed I had many portraits of majestic mountains when I browsed through my Oregon photos.
The first photo, is of Steens Mountain, in southeast Oregon. The lupine was in bloom so I focused on its purple flowers. This 50-mile long mountain is one of my favorite places in Oregon. I like taking pictures that show its powerful presence.
When I went on the High Desert Garden Tour in Bend, Oregon in July 2022, I was impressed by a couple edibles & more gardens. Their yards had edible plants in the front, sides, and back.
These are gooseberries growing on a shrub in full sun. I remember a gooseberry plant at one of my childhood homes.
These radishes were in a raised bed. We grow them as well and I love their spicy taste.
Raspberries! One of my favorite fruits. Over the years, our dogs have enjoyed eating them off the vines so we have to pick them fast.
These three sandstone formations are located in Tillamook Bay, north of Garibaldi, Oregon. Known locally as The Three Graces, they’re also called Crab Rocks. If the tides are low, they’re a great place to explore when out kayaking. Check tides before venturing there.
The Oregon coast has several seastacks near the shore. These are smaller in stature, but still very photogenic.
A Malheur view at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters in Oregon.
Florists and gardeners use red flowers to represent a wide variety of emotions and characteristics. You may associate them with love, but they have many other meanings.
Columbines are symbols of strength, wisdom, and peace. Red columbines symbolize love, intense emotions, and encouragement.
Hibiscus are symbols of youth, beauty, success, glory, and femininity. Red hibiscus symbolize romance and love.
Black-eyed Susans are symbols of justice, inspiring motivation and positive changes. They are sometimes associated with the sense of wonder of childhood.
Poppies are symbols of remembrance and hope. The flowers are used to recognize members of the Armed Forces around the world. In some cultures, red poppies represent love and success.
Indian paintbrush are symbols of creativity, passion, and the pursuit of dreams. Their red and orange flowers represent fiery energy and the drive needed to achieve your goals.
Red flowers stand out in both wild and cultivated landscapes.
Meanings of flowers may vary, depending on the source. For this post, I relied on information on Petal Republic.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Primary Colors LAPC
Flower of the Day FOTD
Beneath a cloudy Wyoming sky
Bunchgrass buffeted by the wind
Wave a welcome to pronghorn
Sage embraces the herd
Distant thunder booms
A doe trembles
Giving birth
Beloved
Fawn
Weekend Sky (WS)
Do you need to weed? It’s not something we want to do, but it’s something we have to do.
Some weeds are pretty, but spread aggressively. I call this one the “Root of all Evil” because it can be hard to pull and develops seed heads almost as soon as it pops out of the ground.
About an acre of our land is planted with landscaping, fruit, or vegetable plants. We need to weed often, especially in the spring. Today I’ll share some tips and tools that may help you when you need to weed.
I have tried several seats while weeding, and this is my favorite. You can sit on it as a seat or flip it over and kneel on it.
My dogs like when I sit on it because then I’m at their level. Shelby thinks it’s the perfect opportunity to play fetch with me.
“Monkey tree can’t pinch me!” I remember saying that as a kid every time we drove past one of these odd trees on the way to our grandparents’ house. We would try to be the first one to pinch our siblings before they could pinch us. Did anyone else play that game?
Monkey puzzle trees, Araucaria auracana, are native to Chile and Argentina but grow well in many parts of the world. In their native habitat, they grow to a height of 100-130 feet, but in gardens in North America mature at 30-40 feet.
Their common name originated in 1850 when Charles Austin, who was visiting a friend’s garden in England, remarked, “It would puzzle a monkey to climb that.” Those triangular leaves have sharp edges and tips!
I took this picture of a foggy day at Boiler Bay, Oregon a couple weeks ago.
In 1910, the J. Marhoffer schooner ran aground here. Its engine caught on fire and the fuel tanks exploded, sending debris everywhere. During extremely low tides, you can still see its boiler, for which this site is named.
South Falls waterfall washing away worries at Silver Falls State Park, Oregon
South Falls from behind
A glistening serpent slithers through a natural frame of duckweed and sedges
White calla lilies, surrounded by leathery green leaves, enlighten
Crimson canna lily leaves punctuate a layered landscape of greenness
Continue readingIn early June, while driving the roads in Custer State Park, South Dakota, we saw these bison & bikes in front of us. YIKES!
It ends up we were driving through the Ride Across South Dakota (RASDak) annual event. The route for this six-day event changes every year. The part we saw had participants riding 37 miles from Hot Springs to Custer, South Dakota. Mileage of each leg of the 330-mile route varies by day.
Though a RASDak support vehicle parked nearby, I would be nervous being this close to bison with calves. In fact, visitors to Custer State Park are advised to “remain in your vehicle or stay at least 100 yards from bison, elk, and other animals.” I admired the bravery of these bike riders.
I’m sure the participants saw amazing sights along the entire route, but they were probably glad to get past this bison & bikes roadblock. What a great way to see the state!
Fluttering into a wild iris meadow
White-faced Ibis alight
Curved bills preen and probe
Iridescent feathers catch fading light
Casting rainbows over dusty hills
Awakening dormant wildflowers
Yearning for an opportunity
To shine
I like to walk the trails in Norris Geyser Basin when visiting Yellowstone National Park. One day, while I walked along a forested trail, I nodded at two people passing me going the opposite direction. Another person walked some distance ahead of me. All of them overlooked something alongside the trail. In fact, they missed it by a hare.
Can you spot what I saw near the trail?
Maybe everyone passing by was looking at this geyser on the other side of the trail and missed it.
I spotted a movement from a distance and stepped towards it for a closer look.
What is that? A new kind of rabbit? Maybe a pinto bunny?
Continue readingI saw this beautiful Western Tiger Swallowtail on a penstemon flower in my front yard recently. We try to plant flowers that attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. We’ve seen LOTS of butterflies this year.
When I think about waterlilies, I think about perfection on the water. Delicate blossoms radiate over thick floating leaves. No more words needed.
We recently returned from a long road trip through several western states and spotted hundreds of pronghorn along the way. I’m a big fan of this antelope of the west and love taking pictures of them.
Pronghorn, Antilocapra americana, also known as antelope or pronghorn antelope, are quirky animals in many ways. Their scientific name means “American goat-antelope.”
In September of 1804, upon first seeing pronghorn, Lewis and Clark expedition members assumed they were goats. Captain Lewis noted the “superior fleetness of this anamal which was to me really astonishing.” Upon examining them more closely, Lewis referred to them as antelope, based on their resemblance to African antelopes.
In reality, pronghorn are the only surviving members of the North American Antilocapridae family. Goats and true antelopes are in the Bovidae family.
In this post, I’ll share more about their natural history.
Pronghorn range from the southern prairie provinces of Canada, southward into the western states of America and into northern Mexico.
These Canna Lily leaves are beautiful up close. Lovely shapes, lines, and colors.
Macro Monday (MM)
Flower of the Day (FOTD)
Fencing of rock is heavy and enduring,
Guiding the way
And dividing the land to conserve it
A fence of rope is lightweight,
Preserving the past
I saw this grove of lovely maidenhair fern near South Falls, at Silver Falls State Park, Oregon. The 7.2-mile Trail of Ten Falls wanders through forested lands where you get great views of the waterfalls. You’ll also see many types of fern.
The genus name of maidenhairs is Adiantum. It comes from the Greek word for “unwetted” since this plant sheds water without getting wet.
Here’s a picture I took of some growing near Upper North Falls in the park. On this image, I increased the contrast, giving it an almost black background.
This fern, with its delicate, arching fronds growing in fanlike arrangements, is one of my favorites. I experimented with developing pictures of it in black and white when I first became interested in photography. Here’s a picture from my archives.
Simple scenes I’ve seen in Oregon
Ripples of sand forming near a single log
A foggy mist surrounding a lighthouse
A golden sunset shining within a blurred landscape
It’s time once again to share a piece of my artwork for the First Friday Art prompt. I created this watercolor painting yesterday afternoon. This is a cholla cactus in bloom. For my inspiration this month, I looked in my own backyard.
We have a few kinds of cactus growing in our landscaping. You have to be careful when working around them or you’ll get poked by the barbed spines. I held my phone out at arm’s length and snapped a picture, but I couldn’t see the photo I took. It turned out surprisingly well, I thought. I like the how the spines radiate outward from the magenta blossom.
Several chollas grow in my backyard. I started a couple in the front yard by placing a cactus stem on the ground. There was no drip irrigation going to those parts of the landscaping, but the plants grew anyway.
Here’s one of the propagated cholla plants blooming. It’s doing great, and currently measures about three feet across.
Do you have artwork you would like to share? Be sure to include the First Friday Art tag.
First Friday Art (FFA)
Flower of the Day Challenge (FOTD)
Visitors from near and far converged in Burns, Oregon for the Harney County Migratory Bird Festival in mid-April. I signed up for six tours and events spread out over four days. I already featured the Downtown Walking Tour in a previous post, but this time I’ll focus on the bird-related tours.
Though I have participated in this bird festival several times, this was the first time I was able to register for the Basin Big Day Tour. Eight participants, guided by Brodie Cass Talbott and assisted by Duke Tuffy, met at 6:00 am at the Fairgrounds for this tour. We returned at 7:00 pm. The goal was to see as many species as we could in that time frame.
One of our first stops was in front of someone’s house, northeast of Burns. We had permission to scan their feeders for birds. We saw lots of White-crowned Sparrows here and elsewhere that day.
A bit farther north, we stopped near flooded fields. A few days before my arrival, snow covered these fields. That’s unusual. Our guide said the weird weather meant fewer birds were being seen, but there was more diversity. More species was what we were looking for so this could work out great for us.
This week, as part of the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, host Ritva Sillanmäki asked us to show a photo of our favorite cup. My favorite mug features a wraparound image of Grand Prismatic Hot Spring at Yellowstone National Park. It’s beautiful, like its inspiration, and comfortable to hold. I also like how there is printing inside the mug near the rim.
Grand Prismatic Hot Spring is especially photogenic. Though I can’t get a drone shot like the one on my mug, I have taken many pictures of this hot spring. Here are a few that show its gorgeous colors.
My Grand Prismatic mug reminds me of this special place in Yellowstone everytime I use it.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Inspiration found in the Kitchen
A couple of days ago, Bunny & Kitty had a little FaceTime meeting. I wonder what kinds of stories they shared. Hmm…
A fall Japanese maple surrounded by green trees at the Oregon Garden in Silverton, Oregon. The red leaves of the maple are surrounded by cedar, pine, and spruce trees.
I always think of yellow and gold flower petals as capturing sunlight in a flower.
The flowers shown in this post of little rays of sunshine are dedicated to fellow blogger, Bren, of Brashley Photography.
She recently lost her fight with cancer but will be remembered for her stunning, ethereal portraits of flowers. May her gentle soul rest in peace.
I saw this little bit of everything garden on the High Desert Garden Tour in Bend, Oregon in July 2022. The long, narrow yard at this house included fruits, vegetables, and lots of flowers. The homeowners have been working on it for 22 years.
The owners created large, elevated raised beds from wood and tin roofing. You can see sweet alyssum blooming near the front edge. Hummingbird feeders hang near them. They’re growing pear, cherry, and apples on espaliers behind the raised beds.
This raised bed was at ground level. It included red lantana, yellow petunias, orange ganzia, purple salvia, and dark pink snapdragons.
This tiered bed surrounded a tree. It included common sunflowers, orange marigolds, and golden celosia.
