Summer Flowers

FIRST FLOWER

Justin points out the first flower of spring, a light purple pasqueflower. It grows on the hill in Mr. Jim’s yard of the way to the mailbox. During the day it opens revealing a bright yellow center. In the late afternoon it closes and the flower hangs down the hill in a long bell shape revealing a hairy stem and leaves.

DOWN THE HILL

In Lakewood poppies and irises brighten my day as we deliver school supplies for Books for the Barrios. The poppies are as big as my hand and fire engine red. They are tall and move back and forth in the breeze as if whispering secrets to each other.

The woman that coordinates Books for the Barrios has a house sitting high on a ridge. Bright yellow irises have spread around and between the rocks on the steep hillside in her backyard.

WALKING THE LAKE

Field Bindweed weaves its messy carpet of blossoms along the edge of the trail around Evergreen Lake. The foliage isn’t pretty, but the white funnel-shaped flowers opening in the sun catch your eye as your sneaker skims the air inches above. On closer examination you see the mat is held firmly to the ground and the stems of the plant weave themselves around other plants and rocks.

Plants at the lake come in a wide variety, some loving the water, others loving the rocks and packed earth of the trails. The cattails that line the marsh side are dotted with red-winged black birds. Their shrill call and small splash of red on the top of each wing is a bright contrast to the brown ducks checking out the bottom water below. Sometimes a catch a glimpse of a red creature that looks like a little lobster scurrying from sight as a approach on the trail.

Near the lake house clumps of purple irises grow. They are the foreground for the beautiful mountains behind the lake. Your eye focuses on the flowers and then drift off into the purple repeated in the mountains and sky. I always stop to look at the mountains when we head to the parking lot. They are so big and dramatic they at once I feel small and large.

BACK AT HOME

A nine point buck was eating some of the lilac bush outside the study window. When I got up and walked to the window he didn’t seem afraid. Turning to look at me we were less than three feet apart. 

I bought three Geranium, Brookside plants for the front of the house. They are hybrid Geraniums. The flowers have bright pink/violet veins that attract bees by reflecting ultraviolet light. In the afternoon they almost glow. The stems grow in long tangled masses with lots of wildflowers. They look like unkempt bushes of wildflowers. When the bees land on the stems or the wind blows the plant ripple with waves. The large black bodies of bees stand out in contrast to the bright cupped flowers.

This geranium’s vivid blue flowers that last into fall. The plant is a hardy perennial that will come back year after year. I’ll have plants to divide and share with neighbors.