June Abundance

Today has been another day of amazing, frustrating, heavy, rainfall. Since 8 PM last night our rain gauge shows just short of another 1" of rain. This latest storm was being heavily forecast yesterday, so I took advantage of the "calm" before the storm to take a long hike around the property. After a few minutes it dawned on me, even with all the endless wet weather, Mother Nature was still managing to put on a pretty good show. The first of June this year was a time of overlapping cycles. The flowers of late Spring were just finishing while the blooms of early Summer were just starting. I decided to take a picture of everything I could find in bloom. The following are my results. Enjoy!

The wild roses are just beginning to open. Because of all the rain and overcast days, the blooms are retaining their bright pink color much longer.

The Cows Parsnip is in full bloom right now. We have lots and lots of it on the property.

The wild mallow is also in full bloom right now. It is another plant that is benefiting from the overcast days. The plant's pink just glows right now in all of the green abundance. I think we have more of them this year, in more areas, than we have ever had.

The wild Camas is just finishing up.

Some member of the Allium family. We just call them wild onions. They are just beginning to bloom.

Cat's Ears. They have been blooming for weeks. The cool weather has allowed them to really experience a  long period of show. I also think we are getting more of them on the property.

The common daisy. They really are just getting started. I could only find 3 or 4 open. Soon, the meadows will be a sea of tall grass and white daisy blooms.

As the Daisies begin, the Pacific Coast Iris finish. They too have had an extended bloom period this year. The mild weather of late April got them started much earlier than normal. We hit peak bloom by the second week of May. Then the rain came and everything slowed down.

Some sort of wild pea. The plants have been climbing the tall grass and are in huge clumps up to 3 feet tall. The small pink bloom just glow right now.

Some variety of small grass. They are only 4 or 5 inches tall and are capped by these small, beautiful blue blooms. When it is very overcast, the blooms shut up tight. I had to wait for a sun break to capture this picture.

I promised myself that I would only take picture of the natives, but then I found this guy. I caught a glimpse of purple hiding beneath a bunch of green along the driveway. It appears to be some a Vinca, probably brought in by birds. I will have to watch it to make sure that it doesn't spread. I must admit that it does have a pretty little bloom, even if it doesn't belong here.