One of the first prairie flowers to bloom in the spring are the pasque flowers. They thrive in gravel prairies and are found in various areas throughout Minnesota. Yesterday I ventured south of the Twin Cities to a Minnesota Scientific and Natural Area. When I first arrived, the morning was cool and overcast, but I was thrilled to have found a wonderful slope dotted with these small pasque flowers. Standing only 4 to 5 inches tall, they are easily overlooked from a distance. As I walked along I found more and more of these little gems pushing their blooms up from under the brown grasses. I spent over an hour photographing, all the while accompanied by the sounds of Canada geese and mourning doves. As I stopped to take in the beauty of the landscape around me the skies slowly cleared and I was treated to a warm sun and beautiful pasque flowers against a blue sky — a delightful and wonderful welcome to spring.
flowers
Winter at Como Park
Snow has continued to fall this past week. We haven’t received the dumping that the East Coast is dealing with, but rather we have a beautiful coating that’s put everyone in the holiday spirit. The Marjorie McNeely Conservatory is located in Como Park in Saint Paul, and is a wonderful gem in the city. No matter how cold and wintry it is outside, it’s warm and tropical inside. It’s presently filled with poinsettias, begonias, and hibiscus — a wonderful burst of color during this season of white. As Christmas is fast approaching this week, I wish everyone a season of joy and wonder, family and friends.
Fall colors
How quickly we’ve moved from late summer to fall! The weather change happened almost overnight, with cooler temps and much-needed rain settling into the area. Everyone was digging out their sweaters and jackets, and looking for cool-weather comfort foods to warm them up. With the season change it seems we all look to deeper, richer colors, as seen in the dark maroons and golds of the mums that are in full bloom in our area. Their colors remind us that the lighter shades of summer are past, just like the sun’s heat. But there’s great beauty in the fall too, and they’re a prime example. Soon the leaves on the trees will turn to the reds, golds, and oranges, and they will fall down to decorate the lawns and streets — one last blast of color before the white of winter settles in.
Hard at work
Everyone is busy getting ready for fall, including the bees. The asters are in full bloom in our backyard, and they seem to be a magnet for the bees. It’s exciting to see all the activity; I wonder at all the flying and flitting around that they do. It was fascinating to observe this one bee as he moved from bloom to bloom, stopping for short while and then moving on to another. Our summer-like weather has yet to turn over to fall temperatures, so he’s like all of us – busily trying to get all those jobs and tasks done that we’ve put off hoping that summer would last longer than September.
White cosmos
Earlier this week I found myself at the Munsinger Clemens Gardens in St. Cloud, Minnesota. It was late in the day and the sun was getting lower in the sky. These beautiful gardens are located right along the Mississippi River. I’d been here earlier in the year when the tulips, daffodils, and iris were brilliantly proclaiming spring, but now it seems that the flowers are bravely holding on to our last bit of summer. They bloom as if the days were still long and the nights were still warm. They dance in the setting sun and promise that although fall is almost upon us, they will return with their lovely faces and welcome us to warm weather again next year.
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