This area of Spring Creek Basin where I found Corazon and his family recently was booming with yellow prince’s plume blooms, but though I tried fairly hard for a little while, Corazon wasn’t terribly interested in posing with the golden glory. He and his band members were much too interested in seeking out and eating the yummy Indian ricegrass, a cool-season grass that’s growing like gangbusters right now. It must be sweet and tasty because all the horses love it!
No, that’s not what we’re calling Skywalker these days. The blog post title today refers to the pops of color from the – in this image, scarlet globemallow – which is blooming like crazy all over the basin right now.
And not just those sunny little orange blossoms; we also have prince’s plume, larkspur, Indian paintbrush, still phlox, claret cup cacti blooms and numerous other colorful flowers!
Spring Creek Basin is GREEN with numerous spots of color all over. We had to wait a bit for our green and orange and yellow and purple and blue and red and pink … but it’s been worth it. 🙂
To all the beautiful, wonderful mothers out there who support their children – theirs by blood and theirs by love – and who raise us up to cherish our mothers! 🙂
Especially to my mom, thanks for passing on your love of horses. 🙂 Thank you for being my mom! I love you – see you soon!
Some current Spring Creek Basin wildflowers for moms:
Evening primrose is starting to appear in numerous locations. Like the sego lily, the primrose seems almost too delicate for our desert environment.
And of course, perennial favorite (see what I did there?): prince’s plume. 🙂 Recently, I was a little afraid that the prince’s plume that was up had been battered terribly by the relentless wind … but very current plants look very healthy!
P.S. If the sky behind Aiyanna and Bia looks a bit grey, that’s because it WAS. Within half an hour of that pic, rain was sweeping Spring Creek Basin and lower Disappointment Valley! We need it BADLY, so it was a wonderful Mother’s Day eve gift to us all.
Juniper appears to wonder where Mysterium gets her energy to forge ahead on a sunny, windy day in the east pocket of Spring Creek Basin. Sometimes, I know just how she feels.
Storm’s band has a knack for staying out of sight in the back-of-beyond backcountry of Spring Creek Basin. Then, just as I’m really putting out the effort to find them – not just “casually” looking for them – they appear, in the best-most-beautiful place.
Because of course they do. 🙂
Despite our recent unsettled weather, rain remains elusive (nearly as much as Storm’s band).
(Storm himself isn’t actually in the above pic, but don’t worry, he’ll make an appearance here soon.)
Looking at Sundance in the opposite direction from the pic I posted of him recently. Wonderfully stormy sky, which we haven’t seen for a few days and would very much like to see again!
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Happy, happy May Day birthday to my brother, Jeff! 🙂
This photo of Tenaz does a better job of illustrating the windy conditions than it does convincing viewers that the greyer-than-usual haze in the background is SNOW and not just our usual Mancos shale ridge slopes. …
But it is.
Snow, that is.
Happy late April, almost May?! 🙂 Welcome to Colorado!
Can we do any better than to give them these wild-and-free lives, that they were born to live? It’s the least and absolute best we can do. I’m so glad we can do it in Spring Creek Basin.
April’s full moon is known as the “pink moon” for pink flowers in the phlox variety that bloom in April. It’s also the first full moon after the start of spring, which was March 20, which makes it the paschal full moon, which is the full moon before Easter Sunday.
Phlox (I don’t know the exact kind) is usually the first tiny wildflower that blooms in Spring Creek Basin. I haven’t seen any yet, but with the warm temps and the winter moisture, it can’t be long. Phlox here is usually white, but it also sometimes takes on a pale pink blush. … Pink moon, indeed. 🙂
Maybe instead of having April Fool’s Day in Colorado, we could have April-Snow-in-Colorado Day! Instead of being reliably on April 1 every year, it can be just whatever day in April it happens to snow, because, you know, it almost always DOES snow in April in Colorado. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 