Don's Blog Getting used to the altitude 7-31-18

It is taking longer than usual to acclimatize. It seems that there is nothing more valuable than oxygen. At least my dull headache is gone. 

The other day we had surprise guests. Two grandsons (Blake on the right and Adam in the middle) and a friend (Clay on the left)  had come up for the day from Denver. 

Blake starts at the University of Colorado Boulder in a few weeks and Adam goes to Denver East High School. Clay goes to Arapahoe High School. It was great to see them.

They had just climbed Twin Sisters Peak. They said it was so windy it was scary. We can see Twin Sisters on the left from our condo. Have not been up it since I was a kid.

Don's Blog Colorado

Welcome from beautiful Colorado where its almost cold -feels more like September. 

We are in Estes Park for awhile. The skies are clear today but we have had haze for several days allegedly from California wild fires. 

They have had weird weather this summer  - hotter and dryer than usual. 

Before we left home last week our morning glories bloomed about 6 weeks early.

The flatlands are still trying to get enough oxygen in so that we can think straight. It hasn't happened yet.

Flower for the Day Rattle Snake Master 7-25-18

Rattle snake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) has yucca shaped leaves and flowers in small balls. We are heading out west to where rattle snakes live but hopefully we will not have to use this plant.

Early American history reports that Indians chewed the root, blew it on their hands, and then handled rattlesnakes without concern. The root was more often used in bitter teas as an antidote venereal disease, snakebites, impotence, expelling worms, and to induce vomiting.

Flower for the Day Milkweed 7-24-18

I have a large stand of milkweed (Asclepius) in one of my meadow circles. The nectar of all milkweed plants provides food for butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. The leaves of milkweed are the only food that caterpillars of monarch butterflies can eat. We've only seen a few monarchs this year. Later they come through in large numbers as they migrate south.

Flower for the Day Swallowtail Butterfly 7-24-18

Friends have identified the butterfly as a spicebush swallowtail. The upper surface of the hindwing has

an orange spot on the costal margin and the female has a sheen of bluish scales. One friend wanted to call

'her' George - that's ok with me.

Flower for the Day Zinnia 7-23-18

My zinnias grow better and last longer from seed. I usually start them in pots and transplant the plants to the garden. Then all they need is water. Their colors are pleasing.

I looked out the window and saw a huge butterfly on the zinnias. Can someone name it for me?

Flower for the Day Monarda 7-21-18

Monarda is in the mint family. It is also called bee balm, Oswego tea and bergamot.

I started with a few plants and now have 60 plus yards of monarda meadow.

I like it because it is messy - always in disarray.

And looks different at different times of its growth cycle.

Flower for the Day Trumpet Vine 7-19-18

My trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) is blooming like mad. I have stopped savaging it every fall. 

It does tend to attach itself to my wood fence so that after all the leaves have fallen I dis-attach it from the wood.

It is wild but provides total privacy around the hot tub. 

Ours blooms apricot instead of the more common red.

Flower for the Day Classic Stargazer Lily 7-18-18

This classic Stargazer Lily (Lilium orientalis) just bloomed today, warts and all.

Flower for the Day Deptford Pink 7-13-18

I love this miniature flower. Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria) has small flowers with toothed petals and white dots.

I have not seen a yellow stamen/carpel complex before. They seem to be increasingly rare.

Flower for the Day White Grapes 7-12-18

We have been between dogs for many years and have 

converted our dog cage into a grape arbor. My brother-in-law 

donated two concord grape plants which have been growing well

 for many years. 

Flower for the Day Black Eyed Susan 7-11-18

Black eyed susan's (Rudbeckia hirta) are ubiquitous here for months. They are drought

tolerant and deer do not eat them. Tiny songbirds feast on them.

Flower for the Day Day Lily 7-10-18

There is nothing more beautiful than this original day lily. Its simplicity is its grandeur.

This was the prime flower in the garden when we moved to this house more than 40 years ago, 

well before the day lily hybrids took over. 

 Day Lily

        life is but a day;
A fragile dew-drop on its perilous way
From a tree's summit;
-John Keats Sleep and Poetry

Flower for the Day Purple Coneflower 7-9-18

Our purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpura) are thriving this year. They are huge. I just watch them show off.

Birds have been spreading them. I love it later in the fall when the bright yellow finches perch on them and eat the whole meal while swaying in the wind.

Flower for the Day Chanterelle 7-5-18

Here is a little change of pace. I have a friend who is a mushroom hunter. She called this week

to say she had happened on to a big stand of chanterelles. Jan took the call and told her I did not want any.

Say what?

Chanterelle is the common name of fungi in the genus Cantharellus. They are among the most popularly eaten species of wild mushrooms. They are orange, yellow or white, meaty and funnel-shaped.

v i n c e n t Feb 14

eyes wide shut

a severed midnight
taking the calls of a thousand
dreaming souls, fading

i wonder if the rain will wash us away

drifting into a somnolent embrace
against clashing tides of aegan
until i have sand between my fingers
breathing in the hawthorn blossoms

reaching again until it falls
and stops crying beneath my feet

just close your eyes and softly
rest amid sounds of synaptic crickets and
faint traces of chanterelle
between your slightly-open mouth

waiting to hold onto forbidden auguries
coalitions of sweeter reveries
i couldn't find behind your eyelids

and then, perhaps, after a million years under
the stars, i'll open my eyes to revelations

the light sleeps on. where can we be alone to watch them?

Flower for the Day Tiger Lily 7-4-18

Happy Fourth of July. Tiger lily (Lilium lancifolium) is an asian species of lily native to China, Japan, Korea,

and the Russian far east. Jan planted these over 40 years ago and the birds have spread them around to various gardens nearby. Here is a stand near the edge of our meadow. Its one of the beautiful reasons I cannot

go all native.

The flower heads are about 4 inches across with 6 orange petal-like tepals strongly recurved backward, covered in many purplish brown spots and hairy near the throat. A long style and 6 long stamens flare out from the throat.The stamen tips (anthers) are dark rusty brown and up to ¾ inch long. 

I have found the down facing flowers difficult to photograph.

Hannah Jane Call Apr 2016

If

If you loved the thought of me as much as you love the air you breathe
with the passion of a hundred lights of night fire
with the greenness of a parlor fireplace

If you waited for what is clearly yours within the skin that traps me
with the tenacity of a tigerlily
and the brutality of a butterfly

If you wanted what lies beneath the cold hard marbles beneath my eyelids
with shyness befitting a lion
and coldness that wisps from deep within the earth

If you did
why are you
so far
away

Flower for the Day Blackberry Lily 7-3-18

Our blackberry lily (Belamcanda chinensis) has become invasive. I love it anyway. It is now coming up in almost all my gardens. DNA evidence puts it in the iris family. Because the name I.chinensis was already taken the suggested new name is Iris domestica. 

It has exotic flowers and a real bonus -in the fall the seed bunches look like blackberries - very ornamental and they last until the frost.

Flower for the Day Ginger 7-2-18

My ginger plant loves the heat and the water from our many recent rainstorms. It is a gift 

from friends in Hawaii and will bloom later in the summer. I take it in for the winter before the freeze.

Ginger (Zinger officinale) is a flowering plant whose rhizome is ginger root or ginger. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pdeudostems and blossoms (inflorescences) arise directly from the rhizome. Its family includes tumeric and cardamon. It was one of the first spices exported from the Orient arriving in Europe during the spice trade and was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans.