Wordless Wednesday
Can I help?: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
High Desert Garden Tour: Colorful
Colorful Flowers on the High Desert Garden Tour
Here are some pictures from the High Desert Garden Tour located in Bend, Oregon. Lots of colorful gardens out there!
There were gardens with winding paths and comfortable places to sit to take in the scenery.
Ice plant in my garden: Friday Flowers
These colorful ice plant blossoms brighten up my garden in the spring and summer months. This a drought resistant plant that the bees love. The small succulent leaves are interesting too. Ice plants are a low-maintenance ground cover plant that does well in areas with hot, dry summers.
Fence King: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Log Cabin Scene: Tuesday Photo Challenge
Cabin scene from the past
Here’s a cabin scene in Torrey, Utah. It looks as though this old building could tell many interesting stories. Lots of drama in those walls…
Tuesday Photo Challenge at Dutch Goes the Photo! – Scene
The Toad Queen: FOWC
Emerging from the earth
The Spadefoot Toad Queen
The ground trembled beneath a stunted sagebrush shrub. The Toad Queen emerged from her burrow to a changed world. Clouds of smoke hung over the land from a wildfire. The spadefoot toad gazed at this new world through golden slitted eyes. Sand tumbled down her spotted back.
A purple larkspur plant stood near her burrow. Its head of flowers tilted toward the earth, wilted from the blistering heat.
The Toad Queen heard a meadowlark singing nearby. The song stopped abruptly, interrupted by a fit of coughing.
“What happened while I slept in my burrow?” She glanced around at the desert landscape.
Winter Ridge from Summer Lake: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Patterns in water: Lens-Artists Challenge
Hard and soft patterns in water
To me, this image of patterns in water looks like the chiseled profile of a white-frosted creature from another world. The shape is echoed in the shoreline across the stream.
Amber Echoes
This image looks like an alien planet where worlds float on pale greenish-gold islands anchored by strong strands of green. Once the worlds are full, they detach from their moorings and float away.
Floating Green Worlds
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Patterns
Apple blossoms: Friday Flowers
McCoin Orchard apple blossoms
I saw these apple blossoms in the McCoin Orchard near the trailhead for the Gray Butte trail. This orchard, near Terrebonne, Oregon, was originally planted in the late 1880s and it was rescued by range specialists 100 years later.
There’s a nice hike here with some spectacular views of the country. The close up views of spring flowers are great as well.
Tatarian honeysuckle blossoms: Friday Flowers
Pretty but invasive
These honeysuckle blossoms are pretty but they are on an introduced plant that has been so successful it’s considered invasive in some parts of the country. These tall shrubs are growing along the Deschutes River and they produce a lot of berries later in the summer.
Friday Flowers
Moo-ving on up: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Soft sights at Sunset Lake: LAPC
A harsh landscape with soft edges
There are many soft sights to see in Yellowstone National Park’s harsh environments. Soft and steaming mist drifts over Sunset Lake. Soft puffy clouds float over rounded hills in the distance.
The colors along the shorelines blend softly into one another giving the lake its name. To me, it is a mystical sort of place that has many stories to tell.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Soft
Red Hot Poker: Friday Flowers
Red Hot plants in the garden
Sometimes the common name of a plant really fits. Here is one of those plants. The red hot poker plant is native to Africa and it grows well in the high desert of Oregon. It is a drought tolerant perennial that has both herbaceous and evergreen species. They are also known as torch lilies.
Red hot plants can grow to a height of five feet and their colorful flowers attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. Orioles are also attracted to the nectar. Here’s a post from Mountain Valley Growers showing orioles busy sipping nectar. This plant is deer and rabbit resistant.
The Better Homes and Garden site refers to this plant as “an eye-catching burst of color that is both whimsical and architectural.” Yes, that description fits the red hot poker well. 🙂
All spruced up and nowhere to go: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Bison coming right at you: TWI – Action
Up close and personal with bison
I was glad I was inside my car when I saw these bison coming right at us. Some people think they are calm and tame like a domestic cow. They’re not! Bulls weigh up to 2,000 pounds and cows weigh up to 1,000 pounds. Since they can run up to 30 miles per hour, it’s best to keep your distance.
Here’s another post on them plus a link to more information. Bison Celebrating 4th.
Travel with Intent Photo Challenge – Action
Visiting the ghost of a town – Shaniko, Oregon
Stopping at Shaniko
I visited the ghost town of Shaniko, Oregon this spring. The town is right on U.S. Route 97 and I’ve driven by it many times but didn’t really know much about it. The 1910 census showed its population at its peak level of 600 people. By 1911, the population plummeted. It’s called a ghost town today but according to the 2010 census, 36 people still call it home. They originally named the town Cross Hollows.
The first thing I wanted to know was where the current name came from. In 1867 Oregon received a grant to build a military road from The Dalles to Fort Boise, Idaho. They discovered gold in Canyon City and thousands of miners relied on small towns nearby for supplies. Settlers traveled to areas that had previously been hard to access. They grabbed up large parcels of land under the Homestead Act of 1862. One of the settlers was August Scherneckau, and he established a post office in the area. Members of the local Wasco tribe pronounced his name SHAN-i-koh, and the name stuck. As someone with an unusual name, I can relate to that!
Marmots Playing: Tuesday Photo Challenge
Pups playing
I had fun watching these yellow-bellied marmot pups playing while their mom kept a watchful eye on them. A mother’s work is never done!
Scooby Doo & Calypso Too: TWI – Dwarf mini
A dwarf mini with big attitude
We used to have two miniature horses. One, Scooby Doo pictured on the left, was a dwarf mini. He stood at only 27″ at the withers. His pedigreed companion, Calypso Blue pictured on the right, stood at 32″. Calypso was calm and even-tempered. Scooby had a lot of personality and let you know it.
When it was time to move, the farrier who trimmed our horse’s hooves took Scooby. He had worked with a lot of horses in his days and could see that Scooby was a big personality in a small package.
Travel with Intent – Dwarf
New About page on Bend Branches
About page story
Yes, that pronghorn is kind of bossy, but I hope you’ll take a minute to look at my “new and improved” About page. Thanks for visiting!
Bend Branches About page
Cooling Otters: Lens-Artists Photo Challenge
Three guys cooling their jets
When it’s as hot as it’s been (102 degrees here yesterday!) I wish I could do a little cooling off by being an otter. Here are three cooling otters in motion.
They always look like they’re having so much fun.
Lilacs in bloom: Friday Flowers
The special scent of lilacs
The smell of moist earth and lilacs hung in the air like wisps of the past and hints of the future. Margaret Millar
Friday Flowers
Green Worlds Beneath Me: Photo Challenge – Wonder
Tiny worlds beneath me
I often have to remind myself to look down and notice the worlds beneath me when I’m taking pictures. Here’s a picture of aquatic plants being combed by the waves and highlighted by the sun.
Here’s a picture of a lichen “forest” growing on weathered wood. Worlds of wonder exist in landscapes large and small.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Wonder
Cup of Gold: Friday Flowers
A dawn lily
Here’s a photo I took in the early morning hours of a daylily splashed with rain. It looks like a perfect little cup of gold.
You get a two-fer today since this is being posted under Friday Flowers and Cee’s Flower of the Day . Enjoy!
The Watcher Within: Thursday Doors
Doors with eyes
I took this picture on a trip to the ghost town of Shaniko, Oregon and didn’t notice the watcher within until I edited the photo. I thought it was something inside but realized later it was a reflection of the Shaniko Hotel across the street. It looked like some alien creature out of a Star Wars movie watching me. I found some interesting doors in Shaniko but apparently they were keeping an eye on me.
End of the Trail: Silent Sunday
Silent Sunday: End of the trail to Clarno Arch
Wisdom in Black & White: CB&W
Great Horned Owl Up Close
Here’s a shot of the piercing gaze of a great horned owl. The bird looks even more powerful and full of wisdom in black and white.
Cee’s Black And White Photography Challenge – Birds
Clarno Palisades Hikes
Stepping back in time at Clarno Palisades
Arch at Clarno Palisades
In May I visited the Clarno Palisades area, 18 miles west of Fossil, Oregon in the Clarno Unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. This unit gets light usage. We only saw a few other visitors.
The palisades
There are three short hikes near the covered picnic area. The Geologic Time Trail winds along ¼ mile to connect you to the other two trails. Interpretive signs note the changes of the last 50 million years. The colorful small signs explaining the geologic history looked brand new. The Trail of Fossils takes you up a ¼ mile loop trail on the hillside and shows you fossils that left their imprints in large boulders.
Layers at Three Creek Lake
Looking for layers
I was just thinking about a kayaking trip last fall to Three Creek Lake near Sisters, Oregon. When I was looking for photos of layers for the Travel at Wit’s End challenge, that trip came to mind.
Yes, there were obvious layers in the rock faces bordering the lake, but there were other layers as well.
- Green reflections of trees in the lake.
- Snow covering parts of the scenery.
- Reflections in the lake highlighted by snow.
- New growth in a forest bordered with an edge of sedges.
- Rocks in volcanic-hued rainbows of color.
- Waves lapping at the shore.
Sometimes you need to look a little harder to find nature’s hidden layers.
Travel At Wit’s End – Layers
Thoughts from a wolf: Silent Sunday
Silent Sunday
Lupine in my garden: Friday Flowers
A stately lupine
This lupine flower stands tall and stately in my garden. Though different from its wild cousins, it is just as beautiful.
Friday Flowers
Grand Prismatic Circles: Travel with Intent – Circle
Circles within circles at Grand Prismatic Spring
Circles of varying size dissected with cracks and surrounded by steaming mists arising from a rainbow of color at North America’s largest hot spring. Oh the wonder!
“Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
To see a photo of this spring as a thunderstorm approaches, see An Artist’s Wish.
Travel with Intent – Circle
Baby bunny: Tuesday Photo Challenge
New life in the form of a baby bunny
Last night my dog was shaking with excitement looking at something right outside the sliding glass door. A baby bunny! However, it wasn’t just any rabbit. This one was a tiny “kit” that was just a few inches long.
I have seen jackrabbits and cottontails in the shrub-steppe High Desert habitat where I live. This could be a cottontail or maybe even a pygmy rabbit. It’s hard to tell when they are young.
Yes, the background is not the best for this shot. But sometimes nature comes to you and you have to take advantage of it and grab your camera. The sprinkler head is just over an inch across so this gives you an idea how small it was.
Needless to say, my dog did not get to go outside for a while. The bunny went back to its burrow which is probably under our porch. Life goes on for this little cutie.
Tuesday Photo Challenge – New
Shaniko Hotel: Silent Sunday
Silent Sunday
Strawberry Blossoms: Friday Flowers
Things to come
Delicate pink strawberry blossoms capturing the passing rain to feed the succulent fruit to come.
Friday Flowers
All-time Favorites: WPC
The theme for the very last Weekly Photo Challenge was All-time Favorites. I’m late getting these up because my computer was in the shop and I was traveling. So without further ado…
North American river otter
All-time Favorite Critters
I have a lot of photos of animals so it’s hard to choose favorites but here goes. Here’s a handful for you.
Great horned owl
Peek-a-boo view of an Northern flicker
Young Western fence lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis
North American porcupine at Hart Mountain National Antelope Range, OR
Lamar Valley Elk: FOWC
Elk at Yellowstone
Here’s a group of elk making their way through a small lake in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park. A peaceful scene is mirrored in the lake. However, the elk are in an area where several wolf packs live.
Did you know that the environment is changing in a positive way since reintroducing wolves? To see a fascinating video about this, click How Wolves Change Rivers.
Fandango’s One-Word Challenge – Mirror
Painted by the Earth: Silent Sunday
Silent Sunday
Central Oregon Wildflower Show
The Central Oregon Wildflower Show is on hiatus in 2018 but the Native Plant Sale is taking place this weekend, June 9 and 10, at Sunriver Nature Center. Click on Sunriver Nature Center – Upcoming Special Events for more information. I am sharing an article I wrote last year about the show.
Getting to know local flora at the Wildflower Show
Colorful examples of native plants drew crowds to the 29th annual Central Oregon Wildflower Show at Sunriver Nature Center on July 1-2, 2017. Participants could visit a room packed full with cuttings of plants, each of which were clearly labeled. Visitors could go on short staff-led wildflower hikes near the Nature Center to see some of the featured plants growing in the wild. Volunteers working at the event were ready to answer questions visitors might have.
Wild Rose: Friday Flowers
A moment with a rose
There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I was fortunate to share a moment with a wild rose near Clarno, Oregon. It is beautiful and delicate when viewed close up.
Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.
Alphonse Karr
Zooming out you can see how its blossoms and fruits are protected by sharp thorns. As you make your way through the thorns of life, keep looking forward towards the moments of peace offered by its flowers.
Delicate Arch – Beloved Icon: CFFC
A treasure in stone
There it is. The view of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park I was waiting for. What a sight!
Now here’s “the rest of the story.” Lines of people wait to take pictures of their loved ones or themselves under the arch. That is the life of a beloved icon like Delicate Arch.
It’s great that so many people treasure our natural resources in national parks. Just be quick if you want to get that perfect shot! 😉
CFFC: Arch, Dome, or Half Circle