There are some beautiful wildflowers to be seen this time of year in Texas. Here are a few Eryngo - found on a back road near Stephenville       Buffalo Burr - I am seeing some of these this year but not as many in our area     Gayfeather- this is an older picture. I need to get out and get some new pictures. There are zillions of them blooming this year!  

...when the generator isn't running.  The solar panels haven't arrived yet either, but their rough-in is one of the next things on the agenda. Clearing for the wind turbine: A couple of pretty wildflowers found on the knob near the clearing area: Generator: Generator shed. The opening will have a garage-type roll-up door to match the garage doors on the house. Battery monitoring...

 A few images from the last couple of days,  found while mowing and then photographed later.             This small bush is in the mallow family; it has ragged-edged heart-shaped leaves, and...from the house, and walked back out to it, most had fallen (it was evening.)   It's an original prairie plant, and it seems to be spreading to different areas of the prairie restoration project.

That would be Brandon Canyon, and the Rachel River... Looking southish... ...and northish... As always, click through for more pictures... in this case, a few more of the river and canyon...of the meadows there and up on the sandmound, as well as a single picture of Mr. B (friends & family only) and nearly a dozen of an as-yet unidentified spider (must admit, I haven't even tried...

I traveled on a hidden road today. I remembered the names of boneset and snakeroot , both in bloom right now, and knew them one from the other, and maybe because of that I found this other road, and...it on the time scale of a tree? Or a swallow? That's how life is, the warp is mundane, the weft is magical. Wouldn't it be cool if there were a program that would let you type mirror writing

Here is someone who has learned to move both sly and slow... A little research tells me that he will reincarnate into a black swallowtail butterfly one day. Meanwhile, old man's beard, also known...of cash to keep them alive. I never wanted cars or a fridge, anyway. Time for a swim in the sky ocean--you can ride in on these waves, or be carried off into the ultimate blue by the riptide.

I found myself in Avalon today, and the wild apples were ripening... In one tree many ruffed grouse were roosting--they all took off at once: a terrifying whir of wings. Near another tree a deer...at all. Late-season flowers are brave and beautiful, but summer's glamour is fading; the sight of them only confirms that autumn is coming... coming... here. Them, and the apples, of course.

mugwort and ragweed are in bloom right now; I love the smell of mugwort, and I'm fortunate not to be bothered by ragweed. Meanwhile, the cicadas and crickets are singing and the tiny wild grapes...and mica and ripening grapes, all things are possible, and nothing is daunting. Oh, and here is a 16-second video of a jewelweed pod exploding in my hand, but it's more as if the pod just vanishes...

I could have spent the whole Yellowstone trip photographing wildflowers. I didn't, but I still captured a few. This one is a Penstemon , I believe Wasatch penstemon, specifically. Clearly a lupine--maybe dwarf lupine? We saw a bright red flower while driving and resolved to try to find it to photograph it, but didn't see it again for days. We finally passed a patch of them, parked as close...

On our last day in the park, we woke up early to beat the traffic and see some things without being surrounded by fellow tourists. It worked, in fact the park is even more beautiful in the early hours...has its own name. I don't know what it is, though. This is Sheepeater Cliffs, one of many sets of geometric basalt columns in the park. They are wonderfully painted with many colorful lichens