Heartbreak

At the beginning of the month, I posted the graceful buds of the 26th Flower of Spring. This was a flower I found a couple of weeks before on our ridge line and took its picture as the buds got bigger. For the next couple of weeks, I checked every few days to see how the buds were developing, and one day I went up to discoveer that at last the day had arrived that it began to open!! Here is my joyful image of the bud beginning to crack open, the first petal freeing itself and starting to turn backwards. When I saw this, I finally knew exactly which flower I was looking at! The stunningly beautiful Scarlet Fritillary Lily!!

I took this picture at the end of the day, and went home to tell Steve how excited I was! The next morning I popped out of bed, gathered the dogs, and up the hill we went! I zoomed over to my beautiful flower friend...and...just stood there in complete shock. It was gone. I simply couldn't believe it. When I finally got my wits back, I kneeled down and saw that there were just a few leaves at the bottom, and the flowers had been eaten just hours ago. Talk about HEARTBREAK. I know it was just a pair of blossoms. But I'd watched it grow, I'd taken many, many pictures as it got bigger, and I was so elated about seeing it in full bloom that it really hurt to see it taken away. My Flickr friend, Toni, mentioned a deer spray for her special flowers, and it crossed my mind to get some, but never got around to it. And I have searched all over for more of these flowers to no avail. This flower was chomped up about a week ago, and maybe it's silly, but I am still very depressed over losing it. :( :(

The good news is that this flower can be found in many places as late as June. I saw budding flowers on our trip to the Upper Table Rock and I even have a picture of one! I also discovered that I actually took a picture of one last May during a hike to Lost Lake Reservoir. I remembered, when looking at the picture, that I knew it was a little blurry, but it was such a beautiful flower that I put it up anyway. Steve and I will find another Scarlet Fritillary and then I'll have my pretty flower blossom to show, but I will always remember this pretty lily that didn't get its full day to shine! (By the way, if you would like to see an awesome image of an open blossom, my friend Donald took a stunning one! Donald Tedrow's Scarlet Fritillary)