Friday, July 3, 2009

High country flowers

I spent this morning perusing my pictures from yesterday's hike again, gloating over my new camera's ability to make such gorgeous images. (Click to enlarge any of these pictures.) Inside this lupine, there are at least two ants doing their industrious ant thing (there are many flowers, like peonies, that are dependent on ants to open; maybe lupines are the same). I used the macro feature and actually cropped this picture in order to focus more on the ants.
This columbine is also taken with me laying down in the trail and pointing the camera in the general vicinity of the flower. Fortunately, I was hanging back at the end of the hikers, along with Mike who was also snapping pictures, so I was in no danger of being run over by any overzealous Seniors. I only saw red columbines, but in Colorado they are usually purple or blue.
Speaking of ants, this thistle plant, which is just beginning to bloom, has an ant right in the middle. The thistle plant, down in the low country, is considered to be a weed, but up here they just brazenly and proudly show how beautiful they can be. These get full sun all day (whenever the sun is shining, which it obviously did all day long yesterday).
Glacier lilies in the foreground, Canadian mountains in the distance. A little snow in the right-hand corner, I'm telling you, Colorado (my old home state) doesn't have anything on the Pacific Northwest except a whole lotta altitude!
This is not a picture of flowers, but I am enchanted when I look at this picture and amazed at how it turned out. The largest mountain is Mt. Baker, accompanied by awesome sky, pine tree, snow, and a very happy photographer on the other side of the lens.
:-)

11 comments:

  1. Beautiful photos, I love the one of the thistle plant and ant.
    That is a beautiful part of our state and you captured the awesome sights wonderfully.

    Hope you are having a great weekend,
    Judy
    PS, it's 94 degrees in Walla Walla and climbing.

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  2. Beautiful pictures. Great camera, but I'm sure some credit goes to the photograher.
    Happy Fourth.

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  3. DJan I clicked the first photo and it was beautiful, I saw an ant! Was the flower in the first photo belongs to the orchid family? They looked like orchids to me.

    I have been hearing about the thistle flower often but I don't have any idea how they look like so now I know they're lovely.

    Nice photos.

    AL

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  4. Thanks for the comments about the flowers! AL, the lupinus perrinus is an annual flower that is related to the sweet pea, usually purple but sometimes a little blue. You can get wild lupine seeds at the garden store. They look a little different from the cultivated variety.

    The thistle looks VERY different when it's in full bloom; this is the beginning and totally awesome. Thanks for the comments, ladies! You really make my day! Happy Fourth to all...

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  5. I have always loved a thistle. Thanks for paying one a complement!

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  6. Your flowers are beautiful and the scenery too. I’d love to be able to see some snow or mountains, but all around us are only pine trees and kudzu vines. I know I should not complain since I spent 10 great days in Alaska.

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  7. Absolutely breathtaking...I can almost smell them from here.
    We used to live at the foot of Pike's Peak Mountain, snow-capped even in the middle of summer...
    Have a wonderful july 4th !

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  8. I didn't know about the ants and peonies... That's why my bouquets were always full of ants! I always dipped my cut peonies to shed the ants before putting them inside.

    Beautiful pics!

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  9. What a lovely blog. I can't remember exactly how I got here, but I'm glad I did.

    I'm a children's author and have a blog for writers at: http://ignitetowrite.blogspot.com/

    I'm also an animal lover. I have another blog at http://animaltalk4u.blogspot.com/

    Please come visit.

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  10. Would you stop with the gorgeous pictures already? Now you've got me looking up information about that Canon camera and that's the last thing I need to be spending money on!

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