consworld

bees, wildflowers

In my world,  flower gardening means weeding.There’s nothing to plant.   I let all native wildflower volunteers grow and remove most  (can you ever get them all?) invasive weeds.

The wildflowers have grown so much in this summer of rain the garden path has almost disappeared. Bees buzz busily at the flowers and ignore me as I push through on the path.

I learned the common names of all the plants several years ago, but have forgotten many.  There are wild roses, bellflowers and blanket flowers, asters and daisies, and pussytoes just to name a few.

Granite gravel soil makes weed removal rough, hard work. The tall dandelion with enormous sead head is allowed to stay as it doesn’t spread and take over like the shorter invasive ones.

Let nature do it’s thing. Photography it.

Wildflower gardener. That’s me!

wildflowers

Detail from a drift of wildflower snow flowing down my rock garden.

wildflowers

Wildflowers are a summer thing, like the local festivals in consworld. Both flourish in the summer and keep me busy photographing, printing, and showing.

This year, afternoon rains have been very good for flower and stormy sky photography, however, not so good for packing up and breaking down the booth at outdoor festivals. Am I complaining about the rain? Never. The paintbrush image, above, was captured on a stormy day less than 1/2 mile from my home.

wildflowers

Backlit by the setting sun, this very common wildflower blooms continuously throughout the summer in my area.

wildflowers

I woke up early this morning dreaming of photographing flowers.  It was a good day for working the flowers alongside the bees and hummingbirds. The columbines around my home are taller and have many flowers thanks to all the  rain we have had this year.

wildflowers

Elk in the early morning yesterday after a night of rain showers in a Staunton Park prescribed burn area. The burned area is turning green with new growth, but the tall grass in the unburned area is still brown. 

Some minutes later at upper lake, a heron, startled when I opened the ranch gate, flew across and stood on the other side.

Captured with 100-400 mm zoom at 400, handheld at the gate, the photo above is a crop of the original. I chose an ISO of 1000 for the weak early light.

The bird didn’t allow me too close. It did stay while I drove in, closed the gate, and parked.  The image above was taken across the small lake, also at 400mm and cropped to perhaps 1/2 of the original image.

My regret is that I didn’t change batteries after capturing the elk images earlier. I suppose, at 36 degrees F, it was cold enough to weaken the battery. I’d forgotten about the cold’s effect on battery life because these spring days seem warm to me. An early morning above freezing is a wonderful thing this time of year.

As I changed battery, the heron stretched its neck, then its wings, walked a few steps and took off. I got the battery in and was able to capture a few images as it flew over middle lake toward lower lake where it stayed until I left the area.

I’ll go back in a day or two and try again. After the heron left, I walked around upper and middle lakes and was able to capture images of a sparrow and a red wing blackbird. 

I was surprised to see how far the sparrow could turn its head. I wish I could do that.

The redwing called again and again while I photographed.

When I got home, wild buttercups (aka pasque flowers) with raindrops were waiting for the camera.

It was a good day for photography.

Birds, Lower Lake Ranch, wapiti (elk), wildflowers