A flashback to mostly spring blooms...flowers make everything better, n'est pas?
May 21, 2017
A clump of buffalo beans alongside the highway just north of Simpson, Montana. It's not spring without these cheery golden yellow blooms.
May 28, 2017
At one time it was common to plant irises at the grave of a loved one...especially in country cemeteries on the prairies. A lovely way of remembrance. The grass was just barely turning green at Kincorth Lutheran Cemetery but these irises were already in full bloom. They're tough and hardy.
June 2, 2017
Fleabane is a native plant throughout the prairies. This clump of happy white flowers was just outside the entrance to the Empress Cemetery. The town of Empress is in Alberta, but the Empress Cemetery is just across the border in Saskatchewan.
June 11, 2017
I'd stopped in Hilda, Alberta to take a few shots of the grain elevator and while doing so, came across this beautiful orange butterfly amongst the alfalfa flowers.
June 17, 2017
If you're lucky enough to be traveling along Eagle Butte Road near Woolchester, Alberta at just the right time you'll be rewarded with the visual delight of these masses of pink flowers. I always look forward to seeing "the pink fields" in full bloom. I believe they are a species of vetch.
June 21, 2017
A bee foraging in the blooms of a froebelii spirea in one of the gardens I tend in town. Bees really are the busiest little guys.
June 24, 2017
Flowers and butterflies aren't the only spring delight...a doe with her fawns just across the lane from the Post Office where I pick up my mail. The second fawn is hidden mostly behind mama deer.
June 24, 2017
A pincushion cactus flower on an acreage where I tend to some gardening. The resulting fruit is sweet and delicious. Leave some for the animals and birds...they need a treat every so often too.
June 28, 2017
The waxy yellow flower of the native prickly pear cactus. I found this one high above the southern bank of the South Saskatchewan River in southern Alberta.
June 30, 2017
Bunchberries blooming in the Cypress Hills of Alberta. They are the smallest variety of the dogwood species I've seen anywhere. The unique four-petal flowers later develop into brilliant red berries that are enjoyed by a variety of wild animals and birds.
An interesting fact about bunchberries...when a bee or other insect lands on a flower it stimulates the flower to open at the incredible rate of half a millisecond...spreading the pollen at a few thousand times the force of gravity. Imagine that.
Hope you enjoyed the somewhat belated spring tour of 2017.
Photographed in Montana, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
I wonder how the town of Empress' cemetery ended up in another province? The town and cemetery must have been established before the Alberta and Saskatchewan provincial boundaries were set in 1905. Awkward!
ReplyDeleteThe lines would have already been drawn already. Maybe the land was a donation from a farmer who just happened to live across the border?
DeleteBuffalo Beans - now that's an interesting name!!
ReplyDeleteIntersesting fact about the bunchberry flowers opening with such force. The bees must feel like they're taking a shower in pollen.
Buffalo beans are a member of the pea family.
ReplyDeleteBees are such great pollinators.