Among all the dainty flowers above 9000 ft in the Bighorn Range sits the showy Primula parryi, named in honor of Charles Parry, an esteemed botanist in the early days of the US Department of Agriculture. The second photo is the flower from the side, showing the united petals.
Tag: nature
The Pollinators are Here
The cherry trees are abuzz with insect activity. As one of the earliest flowers around my house, the cherry trees offer an early source of nectar to pollinating insects. Insects represent 80% of the world’s species. There are over 900,000 species of insects. Worldwide, many scientists agree there are more unnamed insects than named. There…
Perhaps the Cutest Sign of Spring
All baby animals are cute, but it’s hard to beat the cuteness factor of newborn lambs.
Spring Time in Wyoming
Regardless of the dry, dry weather. Spring is here. The first birds to return to my locale are the Mountain Bluebirds. They’ve been here for almost a month. Their cheerful deep blue and sky blue feathers are a treat to behold.As the summer progresses, we watch them dart and dive after insects. It’s satisfying to…
Warm, Dry March
It seemed like March was really dry, but I’m in a new place, so I don’t have years of personal experience regarding March weather in this location. According to the maps below, my impression was correct. We had good snow cover all winter, then it was as if someone just turned the clouds off. Almost…
Yes, Wyoming is Desolate
Sometimes I’m a little miffed at the way people describe Wyoming. Words like barren, desolate, and god-forsaken have been used. I recently read a best seller where the protagonist walks through Wyoming and dismisses it with a few sentences as ugly and trashy. The author then goes on to spend pages and pages describing a…
Rookie Photographer
After having my DSLR camera for more than a year, I’ve decided it’s time to delve into its finer capabilities, ie, quit using all the auto features. I used to do a pretty ok job back in the day before digital, setting my own aperture and shutter speed, but it’s been awhile and digital has…
Winter Treasures
I thought I needed a new look for the blog now that winter is here. Winter in Wyoming has a beauty all its own. We’ve had some bitter cold temps over the last week, but the cold creates a kind of light unmatched on warmer days. Every morning and every evening there is a rosy…
Arctic Blast
A temperature drop of 80 degrees in less than 48 hours: That’s what most of Wyoming experienced early this week. It was a balmy 60 degrees late Sunday night, and a klondike-like 16 degrees below zero Tuesday morning. I can’t help but wonder how the local flora and fauna survive these extremes. The range plants…
Western Blue Flag
Iris missouriensis forms a rhizomatous clump and can exist in large colonies. Its range extends from BC to Baja California and east to Minnesota. The beautiful purple flower is actually composed of three sepals, three petals and three petal-like styles. Also called Wild Iris and Missouri Iris, the leaves, stems and roots are poisonous if…
Easy to Miss
It’s easy to miss the subtle beauty around me. On any given day I can get wrapped up in my to-do list and forget to take the time to simply look around me. On photo hikes I can get wrapped up in looking for that “once in a lifetime” shot and not see the brush…
Wyoming Life 