TREE(S) and MOUNTAINS and FLOWERS, OH MY

 

  

We have been home (in Oregon) for almost two weeks and this is the only picture I've taken in all that time.   It's part of a bouquet  from a flower stall at the Eugene Saturday Market where we walked only four days after we got home.  Our empty suitcases were still in the middle of the room, we'd barely stocked up on groceries, and we definitely hadn't caught up on sleep.  But we had flowers …. happy days!  

 

The rest of this week's pictures are from other happy days — during our stay in beautiful Colorado earlier in June.  

 

 

Above are views from when our Colorado 'kids' took us up into the mountains west of Crested Butte.  Beautiful certainly — but there isn't enough  snow for this time of year in the Mountains.  (Most of these pictures were taken when we were at 10,500 feet … in June there should be definitely still be snow up even higher than that.)   

   

 

 Kebler Pass is home to the largest Aspen grove in the State.  Because a stand of Quaking Aspen is  actually only one very large organism rather than individual trees, this stand is actually the largest living thing in Colorado and according  to some scientists a good candidate for one of the largest single living entities in the world.     Info Source:  Denver Magazine  

 

 

 An aspen grove is a clonal colony –  every one of what looks like individual trees  grew from a single root derived from a single seedling.  The seedling reproduces and spreads by root sucker.  With sunlight, suckers sprout up from the roots until a whole stand of what looks like individual trees forms.  This clonal colony covers hundreds of acres and would weigh thousands of tons.  Info Source:  Wiki 

     

Can you imagine how beautiful *this colony* looks in the Autumn, when all those green leaves are a beautiful golden yellow?  I am definitely counting on certain people to visit the stand again in October or November and text pictures to their parents!!! 

**(it was really hard not to write 'these trees' here but I forced myself not to, since I'm trying to cement these interesting facts about aspens into my brain.)

   

 

 

The Wildflower Festival in Crested Butte is scheduled for mid-July, but it looked a bit like the season was going to beat that date.  Again, so beautiful but a much warmer spring than normal.

I am grateful that we had the chance to visit this beautiful mountain area thanks to our Colorado family!    And am always grateful for the opportunity to learn something new .  

 

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities:   

 ALL SEASONS; NATURE NOTES; MOSAIC MONDAY;  OUR WORLD on Tuesday;  THROUGH MY LENS;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS ; FLORAL BLISS;  Wednesday AROUND THE WORLD;  THANKFUL THURSDAY; and SKYWATCH FRIDAY

 

 Thank you to the hosts who do so much to  make blogging fun!