Lupine plants were in full bloom on a recent trip I took to Glass Buttes, Oregon. They have beautiful flowers and a unique leaf form. The palmately divided leaves of lupine can have five to 28 leaflets. Water often funnels down the leaflets and collects at their base.
“Stretching his hand up to reach the stars, too often man forgets the flowers at his feet.” Jeremy Bentham
Shooting Stars at Zion National Park, Utah
The pollinators are certainly enjoying my Oregon grape blossoms.
Friday Flowers
Friday Flowers
Friday Flowers
Friday Flowers
The desert produces a profusion of colorful wildflowers at certain times of the year. Here is a stunning penstemon plant inside the Fort Rock volcanic tuff ring.
I have posted a couple pictures of bridge art on one side of this bridge in Bend, Oregon. Now it’s time to show the other side. The colorful artwork brightens up these cool cloudy winter days.
Here’s a link to a photo of the artist, Sandy Klein, working on the paintings on the bridge – Bridge of Art.
Here’s a link that shows the completed artwork on the other side – Bridge of Art Update.
Friday Flowers
Friday Flowers
A single sego lily in the desert of Arches National Park in Utah.
Friday Flowers
A beautiful smorgasbord of summer flowers in the Old Mill district of Bend, Oregon.
Brilliant in a spring flower
and glowing in autumn leaves.
Warm in a winter fire
and stinging in summer bees.
Yellow,
chameleon of the seasons.
Friday Flowers
The blooms of sagebrush are not not big, showy, or colorful. Nonetheless, their muted colors and delicate blossoms exude a certain form of grace.
Here’s a photo of some cactus plants blooming in my garden this summer. They make gorgeous flowers but you have to be very careful when weeding around them. 😉
Friday Flowers
Friday Flowers
The leaves of a plant usually frame a beautiful flower. In the case of the bitterroot plant, the flowers are so “big” you hardly notice the leaves. These delicate flowers are only about an inch and a half across.
In the early spring months, you might notice the narrow succulent leaves of the plant sprouting up long before they flower. They are so small that you may overlook them. Here’s what they look like.
This plant was very important to Native Americans in western North America. The roots were dried and mixed with berries and meat. The plants were also used medicinally. Bitterroot roots were collected and traded and they were an item of high value. For more about them, visit my post – Desert Bitterroot Oasis.
Here are a few pictures of the blossoms from that post. They are a very small plant with tiny leaves, large blossoms, and enormous beauty. One of my favorites!
Friday Flowers
I have fond memories of plucking the slender blossoms of honeysuckle from their twisting vines and sucking the “honey” from the delicate flowers. A sweet memory. Have any of you enjoyed the sweet treat hidden in these flowers?
Friday Flowers
Here’s a picture of the flowers on some hops plants. Here in the Bend area, there are many breweries (about 30) so it’s not uncommon to see this plant. Yes, it helps flavor beer, but it’s also a pretty plant with a distinctive aroma.
Benham Falls on the Deschutes River
Why are there so many breweries here? One big reason is the water. The relatively soft and flavorful water requires little processing. Water has a strong influence on the taste of the beer.
I saw the hops flowers near the Deschutes Brewery plant in the Old Mill district of Bend. The air was thick with the scent of brewing beer early this morning. Deschutes Brewery opened in 1988 and it was one of the first craft breweries in the Pacific Northwest.
To learn more about beer in this area, see my post Bend=Beer. The post mentions an exhibit at the High Desert Museum. Though the exhibit is no longer at the Museum, you can taste many different types of beer in Bend.
You can get samples of beer from 16 of the breweries on The Bend Ale Trail. If you complete the trail, you’ll get a souvenir. Click here for more info.
Yesterday we visited The Ale Apothecary’s new tasting room. This brewery does small runs of beer that are aged in oak barrels. They have truly unique flavors. There is a hollowed out log in the tasting room to show you one of the tools they sometimes use to create their drinks. The beer filters through branches in the log and ages for four to six months. That process was developed in the 1500’s in Finland.
The Ale Apothecary brewer Paul Arney once stated that “a brewery is designed to the place…the environment affects the flavor of the beer”. Bend is fortunate because it’s located in a great environment that is a feast for the senses and the origin of some great beers!
Saw lots of beautiful flowers while out walking my dog this morning in the Old Mill District of Bend, Oregon.
Here are some of the flowers I walk by when I’m out walking my dog. Pretty aren’t they?
Friday Flowers
