Rimmed with red

Macro shot of a gorgeous Yellow Lady's-slipper wild orchid, growing at Griffith Woods on 23 June 2011. One of the ladies pointed out this particular flower as it had a red rim, instead of being plain yellow. I had seen this before with this species, but I'm not sure if I have a photo of a previous red rim. I wonder why some of these flowers are plain yellow around the rim and others are like the one in my photo.

When several of us spent a wonderful day yesterday, exploring a forest north of the city, that is under The Nature Conservancy of Canada and belongs to Joanne Susut, we saw more Yellow Lady-slippers than I have ever seen before. It was interesting for us all to see both yellow- and red-rimmed flowers. Does anyone know why this happens? Joanne inherited this land, which she has named Spirit Rocks Sanctuary, from her parents and has donated it to the Nature Conservancy of Canada. It was about two and a half hours' drive north of Calgary, to near Rimbey. The day started off with rain and ended with rain, but luckily not a drop fell while we were walking. Four of us went from Calgary and we met up with three delightful and very knowledgable ladies there. Thanks so much, Joanne, for letting us explore your land - we appreciated it greatly and enjoyed spending this time with you and your friends.

Off with friends to Bow Valley Provincial Park (very eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, west of the city) for the day today - a lovely, leisurely day, searching for beautiful things and taking photos : ) We are so lucky that within an hour, we can be in such a beautiful place.