I’m on a new plan: whenever prudent, I will be hiking Mars Hill at 5am to see the sunrise over Flagstaff. I did so this morning, and I’m feeling fantastic. I’m also rather proud of my plant ID list:
- Pinus ponderosa – ponderosa pine
- Quercus gambelii – Gambel oak
- Pinus edulis – pinyon pine
- Linaria dalmatica – Dalmation toadflax (invasive little bastard)
- Artemisia carruthii – wormwood sage
- Ceanothus fendleri – Fendler’s ceanothus
- Festuca arizonica – Arizona fescue
- Lotus wrightii – deervetch
- Ipomopsis aggregata – skyrocket
- Penstemon barbatus – gold-beard penstemon
- Cirsium parryi – Parry’s thistle
- Cirsium vulgare – bull thistle
- Gutierrezia sarothrae – broom snakeweed
- Verbascum thapsis – common mullein
- Bouteloua curtipendula – side-oats grama
- Bromus anomalus – nodding brome
- Bromus tectorum – cheatgrass
- Hordeum vulgare – common barley
- Muhlenbergia montana – mountain muhly
- Muhlenbergia wrightii – spike muhly
- Melilotus albus – white sweetclover
- Lupinus argenteus – silver lupine
- Abies concolor – white fir
- Bouteloua gracilis – blue grama
- Thalictrum fendleri – Fendler’s meadowrue
- Poa pratensis – Kentucky bluegrass
- Poa secunda – Sandberg bluegrass
- Juniperus communis – common juniper
- Geranium caespitosum – wild geranium
Woohoo! Didn’t have my field guide with me, either. Unfortunately, as I sat down in the grasses to watch the show, I realized I’d lost my camera. I furrowed my brow and pondered it for a moment. Aha! I’d crawled under a barbed-wire fence. And, indeed, after leaving, I found my crossing point, my camera, and the gate through the barbed wire a mere 30 feet away.
Beautiful morning, beautiful sunrise… I’ve started painting again, and intend to try to paint something from the sketches I drew up there.
Also:
wild geranium