Two "Discoveries"

1. The deer discovered my back yard petunias. They now look like this. 

2. I discovered the real name for "butter and eggs" -- it's Mullein. 

Busy Bee

It's hard to get a good close-up with a smartphone camera. I was lucky on this next shot. Take a look at how busy this bee has been. His legs are loaded with rich pollen. 

The lupine must "bee" happy too

Cycle of Life

A wildflower garden has a definite life cycle. Some years, the cycle is faster than others, depending on the weather. I've been walking and talking to, and taking pictures of my little acre of wildflowers for several years now.

By mid-July, the blooming cycle is just about at an end. Many of the flowers are starting to show the perils of time.

The Susans (as I call them) are getting droopy, when they are prettiest.

The yellow salsify are changing into huge "puff balls" (for lack of another word) in order to send their seeds far and wide. 

I think the salsify puff balls are wonderful! This one looks like it's floating on an aspen branch, while the one below is already over the hill! Again, like the Susans, the salsify puffs are prettiest when they are getting ready to "fly away."

 The asters are blooming up a storm! This year we've had a banner crop of asters!

 Queen Anne's Lace is full and ripe! 

 The harebells are still "ringing"

I don't the name of this bloom, some call it "butter and eggs." It appears in July every year, growing on a tall stem, with yellow flowers on the end it looks like it comes from the Pleistocene. Some folks don't like this weed, but as you know, it's more than welcome in my garden!

There are a lot of sego lilies this year, growing in places they have not grown before!

 The lupines are going to seed. Look at the tiny "pea pods." 

 The Paintbrush is still going strong

 but, the tall prarie grasses are starting to droop and go to seed.

 Lastly, I try to grow some petunias every year. This batch, planted in an aspen log is thriving. Unlike the petunias I have planted in the front of the house, these have not been eaten by the deer. 

Roping

We went to a huge family birthday party in Colorado last weekend. Along with great food, conversation and laughs, we were treated to a roping show by the little ones. From an early age, these kids practice roping a "calf." OK, it's not really a calf, but a model of one. It's still quite a feat when you look at it. Have you ever tried to pick up a rope, make a loop, then swing that loop over your head in such a way so that when you let it go, it will lasso something? There were tiny 3 year olds taking their turns with the best of the bigger kids. It was great fun to watch. 

Getting a lesson

This little girl is 3

Sometimes a bigger "kid" joined the sport

Call Air Museum

 The tiny town of Afton, WY had two manufacturers of small airplanes: Aviat and Call. Today we visited the Call Air Museum. Our guide was Glen Call, a grand nephew of the founder of the company. Call never made big planes, but they made a fair number of crop dusters and early snow machines. 

It was enjoyable to look at the old pictures of the valley, circa 1930-1950. There were 3 planes on display, as well as a snow car. The whole museum, with Mr. Call as your guide, takes about 45 minutes to tour. It's a hidden gem in the valley. 

Call Air B1-1A crop duster, boasted a 450 HP Pratt and Whitney engine. 

Mr. Call and a crop duster. 

This 1950s snow car was the precursor to the modern snow machine. 

Call Air A3 made between 1944 and 1952

Home of the Plywood Bull

Tonight we are in Rock Springs, WY, a town name that always evokes a funny image. What is a rock spring? How do rocks spring? Do rocks have springs? I could continue, but I'm sure you get the idea.  Whatever it is, there does not seem to be a lot of water around. Rock Springs is in the dry  part of WY. The terrain is rolling and this time of year, there's not a lot of green unlike where we live a few hours drive north.

The big event seems to be the upcoming rodeo. The local merchants are showing their support for the rodeo with painted/decorated statues of bulls. These are placed around the town and near the big mall. Some cities have fancy fiberglass statues that are decorated by local artists and groups. I'm sure you have seen painted bison or cows or wolves. I've even included some pictures of decorated long horned sheep (from Oman, no less).  Here in Rock Springs the statues are plywood cut-outs of bulls. Very different. 

In Oman, the fiberglass statue was the local long horned sheep.

The plywood bulls do have a simple charm that the fiberglass statues can never achieve. 

New iPad

The "home" button on my iPad 3 started to malfunction. It would work some of the time and not work the rest of the time. I called the nice folks at Apple and asked if there was a remedy for the problem. There was...replace the unit. 

Replacement, the common way we "fix" things nowadays. It seems like such a waste of resources. But, if I wanted a working iPad, replacement was the order of the day. For the next two days I backed up my faulty iPad with the idea I would be ready for the transition. I also carved out some time so as to ease the transition. The last time I made a transition from iPad 1 to iPad 3, I needed several hours. 

It took over an hour to download files from iPad to computer. Today, the replacement iPad arrived. I plugged it into my computer and reversed the process. Less than an hour later 95% of the material was switched to the new iPad. I did need to input some passwords. All 258 apps were on the replacement iPad and apps that had specific information were unchanged. I did not need to input any additional data from the old iPad.  Seems like the folks at Apple have improved the backup process! 

As an added benefit, the new iPad has a new battery with a longer "life." All is good in my little iPad world. 

Asters, Lilies, Susans and Coneflowers

Last night we had a rain storm and this morning all sorts of new flowers appeared. I was happy to see the 3 spot lily, also called the Sego Lily. It's always welcome in the garden.

I as not pleased to see the asters. The folklore says that the aster is the "last flower of summer." Since summer just started a few days ago, I hope the folklore is wrong. The other local saying about asters is they predict the coming of fall...six more weeks of summer and then fall is in the air. Last year the asters started blooming on 2 July...this year on the 6th. I hope that fall does not arrive on the 17th of August! Way too early!!!

 I call this yellow bloom a "Susan." I only like this flower when it's over the hill, like this one is. There's something whimsical and delightful with the "older" bloom that cannot be found in the more "organized" bloom of a few days ago.

 The coneflower is starting to mature. It still does not have the teeny-tiny yellow flowers that are smaller than a period, but they will show up soon.

A guest showed up a while back and asked where are all the flowers--I don't see any. I pointed to the front garden and said "They are in there"...at first blush, all you see are the tall grasses; but if you look closely, the flowers are there, hiding in plain sight.

Fireworks

The ethereal and the real come together with fireworks. Take a look!

One old--one new

As I was enjoying the wildflowers yesterday I saw an old friend. A delicate light purple harebell. It's appearance in the garden is "on time." But I was surprised by a white lupine. We have rafts of lavender lupine this year as in years past...but I've never seen a white lupine in my garden. I wonder if it's a new color or a variation on the lavender?

Here's a lavender lupine...you can see the difference.

Meet Chris

A new teddy bear has been added to our collection. He's a special little bear imported from Ireland just for me.  He's a Waterford Crystal bear in fact. Right now he's learning the rules of the house from the senior bear, a cookie jar bear named MomBear. 

Thanks Ed. Chris is a wonderful new bear. I love him a lot. 

Independence Day #237

237 years ago we declared our independence from England and the 13 colonies became the United States of America. It was a new, bold country where there was freedom, and liberty, and justice for all. While not perfect, it's still the best place to live!

In the early days, folks observed the day by reading the Declaration of Independence and marching in parades to celebrate our freedom from tyranny and oppression. Nowadays few read the Declaration,  but we still have parades. Our little parade consisted of decorated golf carts (you can only imagine what the Founding Fathers would have to say about them!), with horns and whistles. It was great fun. 

We've come a long way baby! Happy Independence Day!

Baked French Toast

I normally do not write about recipes, but today I am! 

We went to Jackson yesterday and bought some crunchy whole grain bread at a new bakery, the Persephone Bakery on Broadway. We thought we would eat the bread at lunch today. It was so crusty and hearty we could not stand it. I now had a whole loaf of bread and it seemed wasteful to throw it away. We had eaten only 2 slices...what to do,  I said, I'll use it for baked French toast. The other DrC said, what's that? I looked up a recipe and made it for dinner. (Sometimes it's fun to have breakfast for dinner.)

The recipe is located at http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2012/08/baked-french-toast

They recommend serving it with blueberries...I served it with strawberries...but it was fantastic! 

The recipe is easy, tasty, and if you come visit, I know I will make it for you at breakfast. It's that good!

PS: The Persephone Bakery makes a killer baguette and their croissants are to die for... But I'm warning you--

Avoid their crunch multi grain bread. 

Another Late Bloomer

The wild flax is usually here the third week in June. In fact I have seen it in its usual haunts but not at my house until today! Welcome back stranger.