Columbine Flowers Blooming in the High Desert

Columbine Flowers Blooming in the High Desert




Meet the Columbine Flowers we grow here in our garden!





Unlike my other post Life on the Columbine Flower this will be just the Columbine flowers themselves.



The Columbine that we grow is the "old world", species. That is they have beautiful spikes. The new hybrids do not have these spikes. However we have noticed the hybrids do have more colors. We chose not to grow the hybrids due to Guy. Guy rejects every species of Columbine seeds we find that do not have the long "spikes". Once you get the Columbine established you really do have to keep them under control in some places.



This post will be mainly photographs, I dipped into my archives for these photographs. Not sure if these photographs are on the main site in the flower album or not?



I may have said in the other post about Guy being somewhat of a collector of colors of the Columbine? The Columbine grow quite tall here in our garden in the High Desert of Oregon!



The Columbine is also a wildflower here in the High Desert! The wild Columbine of course do not have the selection of colors nor are tall or have the big blooms you get in the garden.



We like the clover type leaves of the Columbine as well as the flowers, two for one is a good thing!



There are so many colors the Columbine flowers come in. Many folks are starting to plant the new hybrids. This is making the old style of Columbine harder to find in some places. We grow most everything from seed. Guy may pick up something just so I can start collecting the seeds from it. Of course the flowers that do grow by seed.



Come to think of it I should have taken some photographs of the seeds and the seed pods to show how tiny and shiny black the seeds are!



You can see by the photograph above that several colors can grow next to each other though they are not the same plant. I am sure some cross breeding of the colors we have of the Columbine is going on outside in the garden?



Yellow must be a base color, a strong gene for some years everything comes out yellow!!



The white Columbines you see here and there was a surprise and a good one! The White Columbine mixed into the other colors did stand out in 2014!



We are always in the garden section of whatever store we happen to be in where both of us are always on the look out for these Columbine seeds with the spurs. One year of growth and blooms of the fresh seeds, we really do not know what is going to bloom the next year! Having the fresh seeds in the mix is always welcomed.

Thank you for coming by and checking out our Columbine Flowers we grow in different places of our garden. The Columbine do great most every where the seeds are thrown!

Iris Flowers In My Garden

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Iris Flowers In My Garden




Meet the Bearded Iris Flowers. Most of our Bearded Iris Flowers are the "Tall" species. We have had these  Bearded Iris flowers so long we have forgot their names. Yes flowers actually have names the breeders give them ha!



In 2015 we will have a dozen or so more colors of the Bearded Iris blooming, or the new ones look as if they have taken off just fine!



Some of our Bearded Iris's we have more then one of. Since after all they grow and multiply.

This post has many photographs, makes up for some of the other posts where I talk more, photographs less. I thought some color would be good for all of us seeing it is winter.



Why the Bearded Iris you might ask? Well, we have limited space in our garden, every inch counts in such a place!                          



I enjoy floral photography. I practice this everyday that the garden grows (obsessively I might add ha). Like most gardeners I like to show off what we have worked so hard for.





As it is we do not have to much pollinating the Bearded Iris.



The Bearded Iris comes in so many colors! The tall bearded iris are quite impressive to see!



I had thinned out the Bearded Iris patch and Guy planted them in more locations around the gardens. 2015 will be interesting to see where else the Bearded Iris likes to grow!



You can see in the shots above their are columbine flowers growing within the Iris patch! The philosophy of this is, by planting more then one flower that will grow together, the pollinators that are attracting to one of the flowers may also go to the other flowers pollinating them as well!







We also have to have the Bearded Iris grow outside the dogs fence. Why? Our dogs would have everyone of them broke before the blooming stage ha!



























Thank you for coming by and seeing the many (but not all), of my photographs of the lovely Bearded Iris flowers we grow!

Cedar Waxwing Bird in the High Desert

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Cedar Waxwing Bird in the High Desert




Meet the Cedar Waxwing! A very pretty bird in my opinion and when a flock of these fruit loving birds show up they have a very distinctive call! They sometimes arrive in good sized flocks of a dozen or more to the fruit trees! The Cedar Waxwings seam to like our honeysuckle we grow here as well.



The rest of these photographs were taken around our small pond that is under our fruit tree. The chain link fence made for a great perch !



I have a tenancy to be outside most of the days when it is nice outside here on the High Desert when I am feeling good, which means the birds do get used to me doing my gardening or just hanging around.



The shot above was taken before we put in the prefabricated ponds due to the drought conditions we here been experiencing here on the High Desert fearing 2015 will be a worse year for drought conditions.



There are many more photographs in the Cedar Waxwing Bird in the High Desert album if you would like to see more photographs. You can hear the distinctive call of the Cedar Waxwing Bird here . You then can hear why I start looking around in the trees and in our lilac bushes / trees for this pretty bird! In 2014 we had the Cedar Waxwings clear up until the little snow we got started falling! This surprised me and the photographs are still in my archive.

Thank you for coming by and seeing my photographs of the Cedar Waxwings we had visiting our garden in the high desert! Make sure to check out their call so you can see them someday too! They really are pretty birds!

Pheasant At My Garden

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Pheasant At My Garden




Meet the Pheasant, a common game bird who is found in Oregon as well as many states here in the USA.



I believed I made a post about this Pheasant, however guess I just spoke about him in social media not making a blog post about him at all!



This Pheasant was living across the street on a farmers property who I know likes to see wildlife on his property. The Pheasant was coming over here to find things to eat in our garden, walking on our walking path that is one of the ONLY patches of grass we have butting up to the neighbor property.

We used to hear this Pheasant and of course see him over here. A couple factors as to why we no longer see him, hear him anymore? Main factor might be that he did not survive hunting season? If this Pheasant will come around me, he would come around someone with a gun in their hand. Heck, he could have been raised by irresponsible people who set him "free" ? People do such things, ending in death for the creature they raise to set free. If it were part of a state program to introduce more of the birds into the area there would be more Pheasants. Or I would think.....

Another factor might be, one of the coyotes, hawks or other wildlife got a hold of him? Even someones roaming pet?? We do have more activity going on in this town, perhaps with so much people moving about the bird thought it was a good time to move on? Whatever reason I am glad he visited!



I like the Pheasant bird I think they are pretty, always have and I have not seen to many here in the High Desert! Over the mountain I was with someone who hunted them as well as other game animals. The Pheasant nests also got ran over by the tractor. I would feel badly for the birds. We had quite a few over the mountain in the valley where I grew up.

Both Guy and I are bummed we no longer see or hear this Pheasant anymore! Big flashy, colorful birds!

Thank you for coming by!

Coyote Approaching in the High Desert

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Coyote Approaching in the High Desert




Meet the common Coyote ! One thing our area is known for is the Coyote. A wild dog that is not a big dog, though not a small dog either.



When heading off from the house I typically tell the son where I am going, or as my parents taught me to do - leave a note. I say in what direction I am planning to go. Just in case I am not back when dinner time comes around. I may take several cameras with me, or just one? To many variables, in fact with me that is a variables haha!

Coyote's are here in our area this is fact and I have ran into them several times on my outings. This time was as funny as the other times!

Heading to a spot I like to go for some of my photographs this Coyote just was not paying attention! I watched the Coyote approaching and a after thought was to get a photo or two! Sometimes I will take photographs of the Coyotes sometimes I just dont feel like it for we do have them here and they are a common thing to see.

The Coyote was on the other side of this gully when I first noticed the dog. I sometimes run into pet dogs running about, however the Coyote looks and moves a way any typical wild animal looks and moves while out hunting. You just cant miss them!

I stopped to observe the Coyote and perhaps to see how long it would take for the Coyote to notice me watching him ha! I wondered there at first if something did not scare the Coyote and that is why the dog was moving at the pace it was? I also was curious as to how close it would come to where I was standing haha, I'm a curious person ha!

Believe it or not Coyote's scare off the wildlife that I am out here to photograph! Everything goes quiet after those those first warning calls are heard. In other words I have lots of time to watch this Coyote. No hurry for gosh a while. It will take time for the wildlife to calm down anyways!

So I watched this Coyote go down into the gully and come back up, following it's nose is what I feel it was doing. Have dogs who do the same thing waiting for me back home! When I am out and about by myself I dont take any of the dogs with me. Why? I just cant pay attention to the dogs and do what I do. So I leave our dogs at home.

Coyote's for the most part are harmless. Typically, Coyotes have learned that people are not good news. Some people will shoot a Coyote on site for nothing more then being alive. I dont understand this practice myself for like I said I have ran into Coyotes on my own and with Guy and the dogs, Coyotes are just trying to make their way just like everyone else. However, I dont have livestock to worry about these days either.

This Coyote saw me and that is when I had to laugh! It turned around on a dime! Started heading off where it came from haha! That is when I thought well, take some photographs of it haha!

I and we have run into the loan Coyote like this time, and ran into dens with pups. Heck I even asked Guy to stop the truck once for I seen a puppy on the side of the busy road we were on! Come to find out it was a Coyote pup. The adult Coyote grabbed the pup and back into the brush they went.....You know I am more afraid of a pack of pet dogs who went wild then I ever will be of a Coyote......

Thanks for coming by and reading what happened on this day as I was out and about !

Wilson's Warbler Bird

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Wilson's Warbler Bird




Meet the male Wilson's Warbler !



This is one of our visitors to the garden and the small pond in 2014! Like a flash this man flew in to get a drink and perhaps something to eat.



Being a insect songbird this small bird darts here and there. Stopping for brief times.



The male Wilson's Warbler with his black cap stands out when he shows up!





If you are in Oregon keep your eyes open for this small bird!

Hope your weekend went well and thank you for coming by and seeing this small series of shots that was taken here at the house in the High Desert of Oregon!