Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Nose Hill

Quite a few years ago, I took a photo of a much more closed, hairy bud and found it fascinating and beautiful. I looked through my plant books but just could not find any photo that looked like mine. It was several years later that I discovered that it was a Gaillardia bud. Love these flowers in all their stages. Taken on 20 June 2012, when I was on a walk on Nose Hill, in NW Calgary. "Gaillardia /ɡeɪˈlɑrdiə/, the blanket flowers, is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family, Asteraceae, native to North and South America. It was named after an M. Gaillard de Merentonneau or perhaps Charentonneau, an 18th-century French magistrate who was a patron of botany. The common name may refer to the resemblance of the inflorescence to the brightly patterned blankets made by Native Americans, or to the ability of wild taxa to blanket the ground with colonies. Many cultivars have been bred for ornamental use." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaillardia

Just a brightly coloured macro of a Goat's-beard flower that I grabbed from my archives last night. Taken at Nose Hill on 20 June 2012. I noticed something I'd never noticed before - the very tiny, flower-shaped tips of the inner petals (?). I really should know the names of the various parts of a flower after all these years, ha. This is one of our most invasive, destructive plants and it has taken over a lot of our parks and natural areas. Introduced from Eurasia. The bright yellow flower is beautiful, as is the dandelion-like seedhead, but what a huge problem it is. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragopogon_dubius It's a really crummy day out there, yet again. STILL snowing and as dreary as can be. Got up early as I was supposed to go on a birding walk this morning, but can't face the thought of having to clear the snow off my car and then walk for three hours in -13C (windchill -20C) temperatrures. Been doing it for six months now, and enough is enough, ha. The rest of the week looks like it's expected to be much better, thank goodness. Stay warm, everyone!

Not the best photo, but usually I see and photograph the Saline Shootingstars, so wanted to add a Mountain Shootingstar to my Plants of Alberta Set(s). These small, native wildflowers are such a pretty magenta. Photographed on Nose Hill.

This weed has quite pretty little flowers. Some of the flowers are a darker pink than these. Seen at Nose Hill yesterday morning.

A few weeks ago, I was photographing several small rock "sculptures" at Nose Hill Natural Area, when this little Savannah Sparrow flew in and landed on top of this one : )

Actually, the reason I took this photo was because I felt really bad when I pulled a thin blade of grass out of the way so that my camera didn't focus on it instead of the flower - and I accidentally picked the flower! It was so pretty, and I thought it would show up against the gorgeous blue sky we had that day. This is Chickweed, but not the Mouse-eared Chickweed. It seemed to be a different kind (with a somewhat sticky stem below the flower), but I can't remember the name. Doug, LOL??? Taken at Nose Hill.

I love seeing Nodding or Musk Thistles! Each year, I do the same thing - fail to get a good photo of them, LOL! The flower part is always "blown out", for a start! Hopefully, I will get a second chance at these huge Thistles, otherwise I will have to wait till next year.