Flowers in Lambert Park

In an effort to squeeze all the fun we can out of the brief time I have before chemo again, Ed and I went for a walk in Lambert Park this morning. We did a 2 mile hike past the seedlings, the dead moose and back up through sunflower alley.

We saw some amazing things. The mullein looks like it was planted by the sun!

The sagebrush seedlings planted last spring are gigantic this summer!

Even many of the saplings are doing well! I don't really know which one this is. We planted several different kinds and it looks like none of them. See https://www.alpinenaturecenter.org/winter-range-planting.html.

There are a few blue flax left, adding a splash of color at the end of their season.

Don't confuse them with the pretty purple chicory that is in full bloom now.

Speaking of mixing up flowers, con't mix up the curly-cup gumweed with the hairy golden aster. The gumweed is a little sticky and has brackets below the flower that curl back towards the ground. It blooms almost all summer.

The hairy golden aster blooms later in the summer. It is also in bloom now. It has fuzzy leaves and is not gummy at all!

This is all that is left of our dead moose. We heard the coyotes ate it. We'll see if we can get some pictures from the Department of Wildlife Services of the coyotes.

And, lastly, there is a plethora of sunflowers in bloom. It turns out only the immature ones follow the sun. The mature ones prefer to face east and get the morning sun. There are also no shortage of flowers listening to the beat of a different drummer. We found plenty of west, north and south facing blooms.

It was great being out in nature, but I needed (and took) a nap after we got home!