Just one of those moments

26 06 2023

All wildflower season, I’ve been trying to get an image something like this one of Winona, with softly out-of-focus blooms in the foreground to create a misty, magical sort of look. Finally, as most of the flowers are waning or gone, I got this one.

The light was still a bit bright, and she’s just nuzzling an insecty-itch, but I’m still happy with the overall mood as a moment in time … a moment in the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, seasons, years … that the mustangs recognize absolutely not at all. She’ll never remember that particular moment (because it will happen gazillions of times throughout the insecty seasons), but it reminds me of all those strings of beautiful moments I’m so blessed and grateful to witness with the mustangs. … Peaceful and serene (despite those pesky, insecty gnats and other buzzers).





Traipsing

20 06 2023

Buckeye tiptoes through the tulips … err … moseys through the prince’s plume and larkspur. 🙂





Bizzy buzzer

16 06 2023

Just a bitty bee, doing what buzzy spring bees do!





Through the blooms

11 06 2023

As noted, it’s a good year for the prince’s plume, which continues to flourish. While it’s there to admire, giving color to our landscape and mustangs, I’ll continue to take photographic advantage of it.





All the pretty colors

8 06 2023

Despite the promising sky and definite rain *around*, we got just a brief drizzle – the day featured above and below, which was a couple of days ago. …

** I had to update this post: We got rain yesterday! **

I had previously written after the first sentence: That’s good, but we always like/want *better*. Buckeye and his ladies and baby don’t mind waiting … it’s the humans who stress out!

We DO stress out … and we’re infinitely grateful when the rain finally falls!

All those little white bits on the ground are sego lilies.

Aren’t they spectacular? I posted another pic of sego lilies recently … taken with my camera, as compared with this one, taken with my phone. I’m not tall enough to give my long lens room to focus on the interior of these little beauties, but my phone does a pretty good job.

The prickly pear cacti are blooming now, too. Most blooms are shades of yellow and peach-ish:

But I found these blooms – PINK – just about 10 yards away from the yellow cluster above:

How wonderful are these colors?! And the flowers are pretty, too. 🙂

All the blooms and all the green – and the horses and other wildlife and humans, too, – are grateful.





Desert lilies

31 05 2023

The sego lilies are blooming! Every spring, I eagerly await the blooming of these delicate desert bloomers, and every spring, I try to capture their particular beauty. Good thing there are numerous opportunities while following the mustangs!

I kid you not: This year, they started blooming on Memorial Day.





A little yellow gold

30 05 2023

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!





Not forgotten

29 05 2023

This wasn’t my first welcome back to Spring Creek Basin after my return from Texas, but it was maybe the third. Pretty nice of Buckeye and his ladies and baby girl to greet me at the west boundary.

Today, Memorial Day, is more than a start-of-summer celebratory holiday and third day of the three-day weekend. It’s the day we as a nation remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defending America’s freedoms. A hope is that it can be also a day to put aside political and ideological differences and remember what unites us all: love of independence, freedom and family, our unique way of life. Our service men and women who died protecting the freedoms of this country, our diversity and pride in what makes us Americans, made their personal sacrifices so we can enjoy all of the above.

As we celebrate, don’t forget those sacrifices … and what unites these United States.





Delayed but just as beautiful

28 05 2023

It’s taking me a bit to get back in the groove after a Mother’s Day/week visit to my folks’ place in Texas. When I got back, I was ASTOUNDED to see how green it was – after an absence of just a week! And the wildflowers, which certainly had started coming up a bit in places, are now somewhat profuse (all things are relative).

A bit of snow is still visible in the highest of high reaches visible from Spring Creek Basin, and if you can discern the greener-green on the very farthest ridges, that’s aspen, finally leafed out and fluttering in the spring breezes.

While these images highlight the prince’s plume and globemallow, a variety of wildflowers are providing a colorful palette currently … mostly requiring a bit closer look than these long-view pix.

Quite a welcome home. 🙂





Happy Mother’s Day!

14 05 2023

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.