Sonja Says

It’s a good thing I allow Katie to access and bother my ‘blog, because I have important things blooming at home, and I am on the east coast, blissfully unaware of said goings-on.

I have a Stapelia grandiflora blooming at home.  It has a lovely (but very stinky) dark red flower.  The flower smells like rotting meat, because in nature, it needs to attract flies to pollinate it.  Here are some photos (and luckily they have yet to figure out how to convey smell across the internet):

Yesterday was the first time, in what seems to have been months, that the weather was ideal for a walk.  I pulled on my hiking boots and started up the hill beyond our house and took the usual tour.  It seems each time, even though my walk covers the same territory, there is something new to see.  Yesterday was no exception. 

 There was a lot of bird noise across the road from where I stopped to catch my breath so, of course, I walked over to see what it was all about.  Sitting on a rock with a morsel in her beak was Mrs. Rocky (rock wren).  She didn’t fly away when I got close, but sat patiently waiting to see what would happen.  Small chirps were coming from the hillside and, as I scanned the rocks, lo and behold, in a sandwich of flat stones, the filling was a nest of tiny rock wrens.  When mama decided no harm would come to her brood, she hopped in and stuffed the little tidbit into one of her chicks.  All of this happend at eye level so the whole experience for me, a birdwatcher, was absolutely the best.  Guess who didn’t have a camera while all this was going on?

Rock wrens are great little birds and information about them, including picutres and their song, can be found by Googling Rock Wren.

We are back from a wonderful trip through Idaho in search of Lewis & Clark trails.  How lucky we were to get into our vehicle each morning, get out the map and proceed on a paved road through some of the most beautiful country.  Lewis & Clark had already done the work of mapping out the area.  After having seen the terrain where they explored, carrying everything necessary to life including heavy iron pots, rafts, etc., and having to bushwhack trails among trees in order to pass, they are greatly to be praised for their fortitude.  It’s difficult to imagine easterners and middle westerners thoughts on entering this  incredible country opening before them.  I, personally, would have groaned on seeing such huge mountains to be crossed on foot.

Above are some photos we took along the Going-to-the-sun Road, beginning at Apgar, on a very overcast day in Glacier National Park.  Road repairs were being made in several places so, while we were stopped, we took advantage of the situation to get a much better look at our surroundings.  We went as far as Logan Pass Visitor Center and doubled back.   A fellow tourist mentioned she and her family had been up there on July 3rd to find the roads flanked by 12 feet of snow.  Now that the snow was gone, there were great fields of glacier lilies in bloom and dozens of other mountain blossoms.  Bear grass, in the first photo above, is very impressive.  It’s stalk is about five feet tall with a huge puffy flower on top.

 John and I love vintage vehicles and were lucky enough to see several on an outing plus an old park service bus, also pictured above.

Our old Buick had a terrific workout which added 2,410 miles to the odometer.  My dreams of cooler weather were also realized at Glacier.  The high temperature for the day was 59 degrees.  Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!