Scallops of Pink © 2008 Bo Mackison
Does anyone remember reading the book Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney? It is a children’s book written in the early 1980s, popular when my children were little. Miss Rumphius was a woman who wanted to do three things in her life – travel the world, live by the sea when she grew older, and make the world a better place. She easily accomplished the first two, but was a little stumped on how to accomplish her third goal until she hit upon the idea of scattering lupine seeds wherever she went. Wow! She must have made her part of the world really beautiful. Certainly a better place, too.
I think these flowers are pretty spectacular, standing about 3 feet high. This is an eastern Lupine, grows east of the Mississippi River. There are about 200 lupines in the family, and many of them are strictly West Coast plants. Many more are native only to California. This sweetie blooms from now until early June, though if the plant is dead-headed it will send up a second, though less spectacular, blossom.
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I love those kind of flowers!
And nope, haven’t read that book 🙂
Beautiful colors & I love the shape of the blossom.
i like the abstract background in the upper left corner. reminds me of mac commercials.
Somehow I missed that book. I didn’t miss the lupines though. They are beautiful and that’s a terrific photo! We have the blues around here and just two days ago I found the first blooms.
What a beautiful photo of a beautiful flower! There’s a home in my town where the owners have left the field in front “wild.” It is full of blue and yellow irises and a pale blue or lavender lupine. Perhaps “Miss Rumphius” was “responsible” for this particular patch of lupine?! 😀 How pretty!
I don’t remember the book, but maybe that’s because I had sons (no daughters) and somehow I don’t think either one would have been interested in a book called Miss Rumphius. Just a guess. You never know. 😉
Very pretty flowers and photo.
Robin – I think the kids read it in school in about 2nd or 3rd grade. It’s supposed to be a philisophical book of note, though maybe lost on that age. It’s probably the parents who ended up getting the story.
really neat color of pink.
I read Miss Rumphius and I loved it.
That’s some mighty sweet bokeh you’ve got there, Bo. Mmm, mmm, good!
Remarkable photo … the flowers look like they’re made of fabric.
One of my favorite books…Miss Rumphius. Lupines are magnificent!
Have you read My Great Aunt Arizona? while on the topic of children’s books…?
I don’t remember the book, but the photo and the flower are incredible.