Bristlecone Pine

We don't normally have Bristlecone Pines growing here, but this one happens to be at the Reader Rock Garden.

Sorry for the huge number of photos I have been posting! I really wanted to get caught up on recent, local shots, so that I can now begin sorting and editing images from Day 5 of our trip to South Texas.

Many of the 13 images I posted this evening were taken at the Reader Rock Garden on 21 April 2019. That afternoon, there was a very well-attended meeting there to learn about how to upload photos to iNaturalist for the Nature Challenge 26-29 April. I knew I would not be taking photos to upload for this, but I thought that it would get me out the front door and as far as the Reader Rock Garden. Unfortunately, there were so few plants in bloom - everything has been delayed because of our weather. The main flowers were the Hepaticas, which are always one of the first flowers to flower in early spring. They are such a beautiful colour, though some plants are paler than others. Two tiny clumps of Snowdrops were a delight to see. A handful of European Pasque Flowers were also blooming.

The rest of the photos, of Prairie Crocuses, were taken at a local park. Many were well past their prime, but I was able to find several that were sufficiently photogenic. Always a joy to see these flowers appear each spring, sometimes when snow is still on the ground. The last few days, they will all have been covered with a few inches of snow from this past weekend, 27/28 April 2019, when we had a huge, early spring snow storm.