Tough b'noogies.
Where was I? Wildflowers! So, a friend of mine, Terry, made the near-fatal error of mentioning she likes wildflowers too. So, I kidnapped her from her place and we were off! Barely got out of eyeshot of Terry's place when the first blooms of the day were spotted. Looking them up much later, they turned out to be Foothill Prettyface, in this case nearly dowdy flower, when compaired to it's cousin, which were found later in the day.
Right nearby the Prettyface was a deceptively pretty flower with an EVIL agenda. Here it is looking all innocent.
Here that flower is again, later in the day, strangling whatever it can get itself twined around. Evil stuff. Here's the thing's M.O., it’s not green because it doesn’t make its own food as any honest plant does - nay, the Twining Snake Lily steals nutrients from other, more self respecting plants. Bwah, ha, ha, ha, ha! Isn't Twining Snake Lily just the best wildflower name ever?
I exaggerated my description – just a bit.
Next stop, Starbucks; one does not live by flora and fauna alone.
Next we hit my recently discovered stomping ground, Ice House Road, which winds it's way up the mountain. There Terry enjoyed the Indian Pinks, Western Wild Flax, Dogwoods and vistas of blue lupin.
More of same - just crying out for a stanza or two of The Sound of Music, isn't it?
We headed further up the hill and started looking in earnest (translation, drive slowly, look out the window). Here’s what we found.
I suspected – only about ¼ inch across
Now, there was one fancy little patch of monkeyflowers we passed on the mountain road. They were Yellow and White Monkeyflowers and they were stunning! The bad bit was they weren't anywhere near a place that either had a pull-out nearby for the car, nor was the road wide enough to safely walk along the road. So... that left no choice but to do a u-turn and drive sort-off off-road. I thought my idea would work, but when I stopped the car, unfortunately, my Honda was at a... sort of a 45 degree angle. I would have had to open the car door by pushing straight up... uh... decided to stay put. I couldn't get a shot of the Monkeyflowers but here's someone else's shot of them.
The photo doesn't even do the patch we saw justice - it was like a yellow and white blanket snuggled over green grass. Oh well - maybe I'll see some within shooting distance, next year.
There were some other flowers we spotted too, here are some of them.
Isn't that a great name for a plant, Mountain Misery? Though it has the white daisy sort of flower, it is not really known for its flowers, but for it's heavily scented ferny leaves. The scent - which I rather enjoy really - is heavy and said to give a headache if lingered around.
After a tough day out on the trail wrangling pink, blue and yellow blossoms, a girl needs a good meal. So it was back to Terry's spread for some hot barbeque served up by Terry's wife Terry (otherwise known by me as Terry2 or T2). The beef was WONDERFUL, grass fed beef which they bought on the hoof. Yum! Nice ending for a lovely day.
