Pale Purple Coneflowers

Prairie Flowers Pale Purple Conneflowers

Pale Purple Coneflowers © 2010 Bo Mackison

My first wander through the Wisconsin prairies this summer – a feast of color. The pale purple coneflowers were in full bloom and danced merrily with huge stands of  orange milkweed. There were a few tall yellow compass plants, towering a good five or six feet high and bright orange wood lilies, too. Plus the waving grasses.

I so love the prairie in bloom.

Awakening – The Wild Onion in Spring

Awakening © 2010 Bo Mackison

Couldn’t resist trying to capture the almost abstract lines of  these three drooping stems. Looks like the flowers are from the onion family, but uncertain of an ID. Photographed in a private garden in Madison, Wisconsin.

Horsehead Fern

Fern at University of British Columbia Arboretum In Vancouver, Canada

Horsehead Fern © 2010 Bo Mackison

I noticed a fern that reminded me of a tiny sea horse in the fern gardens at University of British Columbia Botanical Gardens in Vancouver.

Crowning Glory

Yellow Flower with Crown from Vancouver, British Columbia

Crowning Glory © 2010 Bo Mackison

This lovely yellow flower has one of the most spectacular crowns I’ve ever seen. Photographed at the University of British Columbia Arboretum in Vancouver.

Blue Lupine in the Cascades

Blue Lupine, Washington State Wildflower

Blue Lupine in the Cascades © 2010 Bo Mackison

Mother Nature makes it really hard to drive on the back roads of Washington state. Every few yards along the sides of the roads are massive spreads of blue and purple lupine. When she wants to make it especially difficult to concentrate, she adds a few white or pink lupine into the mix. Occasionally there are yellow ones, too.

I finally pulled off the road to get my photography fix for the morning. We were driving from Seattle to Vancouver — shouldn’t have been all that difficult, seeing as it is only a two hour drive. But we were already a day behind our plans, since we had taken the turn off I-5 the morning before for a spontaneous detour through the North Cascades. But even being off schedule wasn’t a good enough reason to not stop. So stop we did.

The lupine were definitely worth the delay.