In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.
∼Mark Twain
While waiting on the fresh snow to melt outside, I had a bit of fun photographing the bright flowers in a mixed bouquet given to me by a friend. I spotted a couple of crocus blooming in the garden on 31 March, but they were eaten by jackrabbits within a few hours of my noticing. “Ephemeral,” indeed….
These sweet little yellow columbines (Aquilegia flavescens) make me smile whenever I come across them. This one caught my eye last June while out at Grotto Mountain, and the photo is an absolute bright spot for me on this snowy, blustery day in January.
I hope everyone had a joyful holiday season and that the start of 2017 has been good to you! I will be taking a hiatus from Flowery Prose at least until the end of January and possibly until mid-February to tackle a bunch of projects…I look forward to catching up with all of you then!
I can’t say I’ve ever had anything blooming in my garden at this time of year – and this is the only plant that is. It’s November 16th and there is a single Scabiosa caucasica ‘Perfecta’ flower merrily swaying in the frosty, foggy breeze. How sweet and beautiful is that?
‘Autumn Joy’, indeed. As always, I am delighted by this ubiquitous Sedum (I mean Hylotelephium) – it is seriously the very last plant blooming in my garden, bravely weathering multiple heavy frosts and more than one snowfall. But this might actually be it for the year.
Do you grow any Sedum spp. (ahem, Hylotelephium)?
Snow in June!
Well, at that altitude anyway (2,437 m/7,995 ft). My hubby and I hiked up to the top of Moose Mountain in Kananaskis Country a couple of weekends ago. I should say, “almost” the top – you can’t actually completely summit the mountain as it is home to a fire lookout and it would be impolite to invade the privacy of the personnel stationed there. We got to a few feet away, and sat atop the heli-pad to enjoy the absolutely incredible views. “On a clear day you can see forever…”.
The ranch lands in the foothills of the Rockies have been repeatedly Chinook-scoured – you won’t find much snow out here right now! I took these photos on January 30, just east of Chain Lakes, where my hubby, brother, and I had spent a few hours ice fishing.
*If you’re interested, here’s the Cowboy Trail route information. It’s a very scenic (if a bit meandering) 700 kilometer drive partway across the province. We’ve traveled it on numerous occasions, albeit not the whole thing all at once.
A couple of snaps from a snowshoeing trek on a Chinook-cloudy, balmy day in West Bragg Creek two weeks ago. The Snowshoe Hare loop is about 5.5 kilometers long, quite hilly, and treed nearly the entire way. It’s not quite as scenic as the nearby Snowy Owl trail (which we snowshoed last year), but it’s a bit more of a workout. There wasn’t much snow out there at the time, and the trail was pretty compacted from the heat and the traffic. Wandering around out there that day, it rather felt like spring was near….
