Looking for Love Amid the Wildflowers
Looking For Love Amid the Wildflowers
Are your eyes trained to notice wildflowers? For many years my eyes focused on more obvious scenery such as road, forests, meadows, mountains, and billboards. I was oblivious to small detail. Wildflowers were noted as just patches of color.
Linda changed all that when we began dating. Linda has a passion for flowers and she was determined that it would become mine as well, or at least that I was sufficiently exposed to wildflowers to make up my own mind. From then on wildflowers became part of my life.
Outings were planned to eastern Washington each spring timed for the arrival of the first wave of wildflowers. Phlox, balsam root, lupine, loco weed, buckwheat, would begin to paint the hillsides with their brilliant colors. Eventually I became aware that as soon as these flowers would cease their short bloom, others would come up to take their places. Iris, calochortus, Indian paint brush, Camas, trillium, daisy, alliums, tiger lily and poppy each had their own flowering cycle and off we would go on another safari to photograph some of them. Each change of elevation or variation of moisture would introduce a new set of flowers that had adapted to local conditions.
New varieties keep coming up through the summer. Bright blue and red penstemon appeared at times to grow out of rocks as we drove through canyons and mountain passes during their bloom. The fall brought yellow rabbit bush, and purple aster which resemble fiery embers as they scatter their color amongst the dry dusty sagebrush adding new life and interest to the fall landscape.
I was amazed that I had been unaware of these masses of color. Some hillsides have massive swaths of a single species of flower in bloom. Now I can close my eyes and recall masses of rippling blue camas as the surrounding tall green grasses dance with the wind near Cle Elum. More often we need to get out of the car to see the vast variety. Our wildflower tour would begin by simply stopping at a rest area and taking a brief walk around the grounds. If flowers were plentiful, I picked a small bouquet and presented them to Linda for identification. Occasionally I found ten or more varieties on a short walk, but I seldom stumped her.
Try following the wildflower bloom for a year and see if you can locate your own favorite. Revisit a scenic location next year about the same time and watch your favorite wildflower reappear like an old friend and dazzle you with its beauty.
Today, these many years later, if we are on a drive and the conditions are right, I will still wander off when we visit a rest area. When I return, I usually present Linda with a small bouquet of wildflowers. Linda will smile, name them all, and then, sometimes, get a little misty eyed and hold my hand.
