Scarlet Paintbrush
Okay, everyone, I need you to imagine the sound of a bottle rocket launching. Here, I’ll help you: tskssssssssssksssssshsss…. sksssssssshssskssssssss…. shsssksssssssssssskssssss… Bang! Castilleja miniata
Groundsels
Senecio species I’d need to dig deeper to narrow down the name, since we have a couple of variations in leaf shape/wooliness and some differences in the ray shape and arrangement. Based on the habitat here, chances are pretty good that these are Rocky Mountain groundsel, S. streptanthifolius. In any event, these flowers have quite…
Sticky Geranium
Geranium viscosissimum One of our relatively few pink wildflowers.
July Vacation
This morning began with work on a blog post I’ve had in mind since sometime in May. I took a batch of pictures for it on the first of June, and finally started writing this morning, running late but determined and optimistic. By mid-morning, I had a rough draft and broke off for a quick…
One Last Fire
Spring, as I’ve said before, is a slow unfolding up here in the mountains of central Colorado: the season isn’t to be rushed. But eventually the days lengthen and long-dormant plants emerge. Among the first of these are rough cinquefoil, dark clustered leaves scattered like green pawprints through the dead grass, the silver-brown thatch of…
My Father at Eighty
My Dad as an old man is a mystery. Actually, I’m not sure that’s right—or if it is, I must qualify. My father, who would have been eighty years old on May 8, is the sort of mystery that is blankness, unanswerable, beyond the reach of workaday comprehension. This isn’t the mystery of suspense, not…
Lifting the Moon
On the evening after the full moon, as dark settles fully in, I’m settled in, too: sunk deep in the cushions of the reading chair, reading, with feet under a throw and a glass of wine at my elbow. Doug, on the couch, stirs, gets up, announces he’s going into the hot tub. I nod…
Mud
Griping about it seems peevish if not gallingly insensitive while a good portion of the nation’s midsection is suffering from the effects of widespread flooding, but I feel compelled to offer a few words on the topic of mud. The thing is, we don’t see it much. In these parts, mud is a relative rarity.…
Winter Pasture
There’s a distinct pleasure in being able to make someone else happy. Sometimes their pleasure persists even as your own memories of the effort involved in said happy-making fade, tipping the scales of your satisfaction even further toward the positive. In the spring of 2018, almost a year ago now, I was getting started on…
Top Twelve Books of 2019
No, that’s not a typo. I know this cusp-of-the-new-year timeframe is a popular time to spotlight favorites and best of’s and top tens from the year about to pass, but I’m in the mood to look forward, not back. A couple of years ago, I started gathering references to books I wanted to read together…