Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Not too long ago, though … I’m avoiding vacuuming … looking for some pix I took a couple of weeks ago of Apollo … and came upon these that I couldn’t resist pulling into Photoshop for cropping and saving.

So for no other reason than “wow, aren’t they beautiful,” enjoy!

Whisper

Daddy Bounce – loved the early morning light on their dark, handsome faces!

Cinch – he’s always watchful, and I relish being able to capture him when he relaxes.

Varoujan – really … do I ever need a reason to post such divine cuteness?! 🙂

The claret cups are blooming. A few years ago – a couple of years ago? – we had a wonderful variety of colors from pale pink to yellow to this deep rosy red. This year, I haven’t seen anything but red, but they’re very vivid. In my notes about the horses, I also keep track of other details about the range – the timing of greenup, what ponds are holding/shallow/dry, what’s blooming when. For such a dry place, we have a fairly wide variety of blooming wildflowers right now: wild blue flax, white daisies, still some phlox, Indian paintbrush, 4 o’clock, larkspur, prince’s plume, globe mallow, some little purple flowers, evening primrose. Last week, I saw the first sego lilies of the year. As great as the contrast between prickly cactus and gorgeous claret cup blooms, the oddness of seemingly fragile sego lilies in our rocky, dry, tan environment always blows me away. It was WAY too windy to even try to photograph the lilies, but they have won a place as one of my favorite wildflowers – for all they represent, for their ability to grow and thrive in such an unforgiving place, to bring beauty to a place some might call harsh, to bring life to a place some might call empty … and you know I’m not really talking about flowers anymore, don’t you? 🙂