Tag Archives: wildflowers

Pygmy Poppy Eschscholzia minutiflora

Posted on March 8, 2015 by John | Leave a comment

February 24, 2015

March 3, 2015

I first spotted these flowers in March 2012, misidentifying them as Hill Sun Cups, then, due to drought conditions, only saw them briefly again in 2014. At two locations across the creek and east of the house about 1/4 mile, they began blooming in late February of 2015.

According to the Calflora map, this is the northernmost sighting west of the Sierras. Not a rare species, if confines itself to Southern California and east of the Sierras. Always nice to find a wildflower established beyond its normal range.

BIRD’S EYE GILIA

Posted on March 7, 2015 by John | 1 comment

Gilia Tricolor – March 3, 2015

Everyone wants a turn
to be in perfect focus,
too many to count.

1 Comment

Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

Tagged Bird's Eye Gilia, Gilia Tricolor, Greasy Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, wildflowers

Agoseris

Posted on March 6, 2015 by John | 1 comment

Hard to concentrate
under the camera lens
interrupting work.

1 Comment

Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

Tagged Agoseris, bugs, Dandelion, flower-friday, Greasy Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, wildflowers, wildlife

ON GREEN, ON GRAY

Posted on March 5, 2015 by John | 13 comments

Haven’t wondered about Heaven
since Sunday school’s cold
pearly gates and alabaster walls

seemed drab by comparison,
and the blinding shine of silver
and gold eternities much too bright

even for the pure. Out of dust
and dirt we rise, generations
personified in living colors.

We need not preach poetry
or pray for more than what’s
before us full with awe—

small enough to see through
purple stems of Wild Hyacinth
on green, on gray—I believe.

WPC(3) — “Reward”

13 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

Tagged grass, Greasy Creek, heaven, Minature Lupine, pearly gates, photographs, poetry, Popcorn Flowers, rain, resurrection, Section 17, weather, weekly-photo-challenge, Wild Hyacinth, wildflowers

SHOOTING STARS

Posted on March 4, 2015 by John | 4 comments

Sierra Shooting Star (Dodecatheon jeffreyi) – March 3, 2015

No wildflower man, but of all he saw
worth a mention once or twice
in his lifetime—suggesting value

in the time invested for a boy’s
inspection. Too delicate to touch,
what could we know of grace

refined by harsh survival,
each tangent honed to fit and fly
by millennia of failures?

Perhaps heaven-sent by night
to find transcending daylight
well-apart from the myopic zeal

of mortals, these long stems arched
above the grass on steep and damp
north slopes just waiting to be seen.

4 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

Tagged Dodecatheon jeffreyi, Dry Creek, Jeffery's Shooting Star, photographs, poetry, Sierra Shooting Star, wildflowers

RAIN IN THE GROUND

Posted on March 3, 2015 by John | 5 comments

Perfect for early bloomers,
Fiddleneck, White-veined Mallow,
London Rockets pale the pasture.

Rain in the ground, thick Filaree
overreaches like loose-fringed
lettuce for more—more of the same.

Grass ahead of the cattle, it’s war—
every seed battling for real estate,
real dirt damp, for sun and rain,

green hills puddled with spilt paint.
Everything perfect on it’s own, yet
I fret with the brittle momentum

of lean, dry years—months of dust
and hay—a hard pace that interferes
with becoming forgiving as this ground

exploding in all the colors of rain.
Desperately, I reach through
early morning black for light.

5 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

Tagged Drought, Dry Creek, photographs, poetry, rain, resilience, water, weather, wildflowers

BERMUDA BUTTERCUP

Posted on March 2, 2015 by John | 2 comments

Oxalis pes-caprae – March 1, 2015

Non-native invasive,
clusters of yellow spill down
draws along the road.

2 Comments

Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged Bermuda Buttercup, Dry Creek, haiku, Invasive, Non-native, Oxalis pes-caprae, photographs, poetry, weather, wildflowers

SPRING DAWN 2015

Posted on March 1, 2015 by John | 13 comments

Just short of heaven,
dust and ashes come alive
to color hillsides.

WPC — “Reward”

13 Comments

Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

Tagged death, Drought, Dry Creek, haiku, photographs, poetry, rain, resurrection, weather, weekly-photo-challenge, wildflowers, wildlife

HOMEMAKING

Posted on February 28, 2015 by John | 8 comments

                        Perhaps man has a hundred senses, and when he dies
                        only the five senses that we know perish with him,
                        and the other ninety-five remain alive.
                              – Anton Chekhov (“The Cherry Orchard”)

The past walks here, all the dead
horses and livestock men grazing
a hundred and fifty springs—

all the promises and passion spilled
upon this wild mat of grass and flowers,
naked lovers idly pinching petals

along the creek for centuries
within the mottled shade
these same trees have cast, yet see

to keep alive. We have had
our moments here, left ourselves
so wholly that we rise and rest

among them, add our song
to the canyon, our cries to the sky
to forever make our home.