Sand Lily Growing in Jefferson County Oregon

Sand Lily Growing in Jefferson County Oregon




Meet the Sand Lily! This beautiful wild flower is just one that blooms here in the High Desert of Oregon, the county of Jefferson County Oregon. Overlooked by many for it blooms as you can see very low to the ground.



We do know of a spot that these do bloom and our quite impressive to see!! The soil one would think nothing but sage brush could grow in! Wrong!



Because our area is such a unique desert, being east of the Cascade Mountains to the west, and the Ochoco Mountains to the east our area is a unique place! To the untrained eye our area may look rather ...... empty. However take the time to look around and you too may just see these Sand Lily as well!

I like to note, this spot also is home to the Pygmy Short-horned Lizard.



Because the Sand Lily blooms on the desert floor I have never even attempted to try and dig one up to bring home. I just do not feel it would survive. Plus both Guy and I agree the tap root could be very deep into the ground, doing more harm then good to try and remove this pretty wildflower.



This is also a edible plant from the Asparagaceae family. However I am not comfortable just reading something and running out to try it. A connection of mine and I spoke on twitter of foods and how I can be "picky", about such things. I do not recommend anyone putting things into their mouth just because you read it......



This wildflower is just extremely pretty and a nice bit of color on the desert floor!! Being from the Valley west of the Cascade Mountains I had not grown up stepping on such things! The Sand Lily also does not grow everywhere, or at all times here in the High Desert. I am hoping to go to this spot in 2015 in April to see if they will be blooming. The way it is going here, hoping to go several times. Early if possible since we are in drought conditions and everything seams to be growing early.

Plus like I said the Pygmy Short-horned Lizard is at this spot and I would like to spend more time with that lizard.



If you do happen to visit us here in Jefferson County Oregon (we are a hour north give or take from Bend Oregon. We are home to Lake Billy Chinook which is known by many people), bring your water and take a walk. Keeping in mind that we may not have large, giant things growing here.... however we have other things growing here that are quite pretty to see like the Sand Lily! Be careful of the Pygmy Short-horned Lizard! The lizard is horribly small and blend right in to their environment! You may think you are looking at a rock until it takes off like a flash!!

Thank you for coming by and checking out my photographs of the Sand Lily that was photographed outside of the city of Madras Oregon growing on the desert floor. Come to think of it, this could have been on the Ochoco National Grasslands ....

Painted Lady Butterfly in The High Desert

Painted Lady Butterfly in The High Desert




Meet the Painted Lady Butterfly!



This particular species of the Painted Lady is one of the many butterflies that has been showing up here at our home on the High Desert at least since 2012. I believe this Painted Lady is the Vanessa Cardui species. The Painted Lady Butterflies to my understanding is found all over America, might be a different sub species ...

I am a photographer first, meaning I take photographs of such things as this Painted Lady Butterfly then I look at my books here at home or go on the web. This is of course only after the stages of planning the garden, picking out wheat we are going to grow in what flower bed etc.. When that work is all complete then we get to reap the rewards of the visitors showing up! After this then we can make somewhat of a educated guess of what is going to show up!



Because Guy and I already know this species of the Painted Lady likes the Zinnia flower we continue to grow the Zinnia flowers. Actually many things like the Zinnia Flowers!!



Sometimes but not always one can get the Painted Lady Butterfly to do it's thing and get rather close with the camera. Practice , practice, practice!! Since this is at home, I myself get a lot of practice in taking photographs of such things as the Painted Lady Butterfly when it visits!



This shot above you can see clearly the kennel fence. Not only does one have to be ready for when such things visit, the visitors have to get used to the noise of your camera but you who is taking the photographs!



This shot above is also through the kennel fence. However with readjusting where I am standing and readjusting my lens the kennel fence is not so "in your face"! I also try and get the subject in the middle of the .... box or triangle of the chain link fence. I just think it looks better if someone asks about taking the shot through the kennel fence.



I try and get outside the kennel fence when such visitors show up, however sometimes that just does not happen. Wildlife can be somewhat predictable but not always! I take the opportunity as it presents itself! I personally do not use my tripods (Guy has bought me several), the reason I do not use my tripod? I just get to bored.... not much into waiting around for nothing. A tripod is way to restrictive for me. Heck something might be going on over there!! I can not express enough how active our garden is during spring and summer!!



This Painted Lady showed up as I was wondering out front in a different area. The flower this one is on is the Lilac. When I water, I also spray down the Lilacs. Reason? Well some of you who read my posts and keep up with my photography know we have some insect that show up here who are welcomed of course, however not welcomed to set up shop!! Spraying down the Lilacs is one way of making such places not real inviting for those looking to set up shop. Hornets , wasps etc..

Though spraying down the Lilacs that are much taller then I am, Guy is saying eight plus feet tall give the visitors a comfortable place to drink if they do not care to get to close to yours truly. This one as you can see did not mind me so much!



We do use the Lilacs as a outside "privacy face", some may call it? Guy started this here way before I moved in and I like it! Through the years the Lilacs have just gotten thicker and thicker! Of course the Lilac flowers smell so good, and attract so many visitors here it is just unreal! I have said before our place just hummmmms with activity that goes on in the Lilacs! Birds OMG the birds!! Ok getting off topic which I do .....

Butterflies of all kinds really like the Lilacs!! Then if you spray them down a lot of wildlife come to get drinks here in the High Desert!



This Painted Lady went to one Lilac flower cluster to another and I just followed it about! I laugh sometimes thinking I sure would like to be someone down the road watching what the crazy lady is doing with her camera haha!

If you are still with me, you know so much more about what is going on here in my garden then my closest neighbors who are not on the computer know! I spend more time talking with say, this butterfly then I do these neighbors ha! OK I got to get serious here .....



I have so many more photographs then I have shown you here! I figured this was enough photographs for now! I have shown you just two examples of some flowers that will attract this Painted Lady in this post! I do like showing as well as talking about what flower will attract what species of wildlife. I learn better this way so I figure others may as well?

Everyone sales Lilacs it seams!! You can keep them as a bush, you can let them grow as trees! The Lilac does not bloom very long, however this is not the point if you have other flowers such as the Zinnia around as well! Once the wildlife know they can count on your garden to have what they need, they will come around year after year! Garden season is coming up after all if you like photography why not grow the things you want to photograph right there at home?

I really do like to hear what you have growing, what you have visiting your garden! If you do photography or not....

Thank you for coming by, looking at my photographs and/or reading what I wrote! Keep a eye out for the butterflies!

Sweet William Flowers

Sweet William Flowers




Meet the Sweet William Flowers part of the Dianthus family of flowers!



Pretty easy to grow and once you have a spot they like, they keep coming back due to seeding so well here in our garden.

We grow most everything directly into the soil, the few plants we grow in pots I clearly state this since there is not to many outdoor plants we grow in pots, I need the pots for my indoor flowers and plants. We are big into seeds and the Sweet Williams seed quite well!



We have a ok sized cluster of Sweet Williams growing inside our six foot fence of many colors! Some years one color dominates, while other years we have several, just never know what color is going to bloom. This is the west side of the garden looking towards Mount Jefferson.



Guy does supplement the soil with our compost pile which consists of everything from the kitchen. Coffee grounds, fruits,vegetables,gosh anything natural that can be broken down AND a very healthy worm population!

Watering, this is the High Desert of Oregon. We get what seven inches of water a year or something? Not much water in other words! I , we water two time a day. Early morning before the sun gets hot. Then we water in the evening. This takes a good hour each, if not more.... never timed the watering. Unlike Guy I have a hard time standing or sitting still in one spot watering (I have not physically worked like he has all day long. I am not as tired as Guy ha), so I have a tendency to wonder about while the water is doing its thing. Guy's rule of thumb is four to six inches down of soil must be moist.

When I moved here from the coast, and before that the Valley growing here in the High Desert was different!! The coast it was always wet, always misting. In the Valley everything seamed to grow earlier then here, and watering sure you watered but nothing like here!! Guy is the one who taught me about growing a garden here in the High Desert!

Make sure you know what growing zone you are in for new plants and flowers. Or I tell folks to look to see what your neighbors are growing. How they are growing. Watch their routine, or if they are chatting type folks stop and ask! Some of us gardeners have routines , some folks do not mind folks stopping by to chat. While other times it is nice to work and talk! I like the working and talking this way my flowers still get the attention they have to have, though a lot of work goes on where the public just cant go. The dogs are rather protective of me and it is best if they can see who has stopped to chat. This is after all the dogs job.

Guy is another story! Guy does not chat, period. Very rarely can anyone get two words out of him haha! This is why I say perhaps just keep a eye on what your neighbors are growing, what does well for them. Then spend the money on your own garden, yard or landscape design? Some gardeners are just busy. Let the more experienced gardeners spend their money to see what will grow in your area. We have folks come by here a lot!! We just figure this is what they are doing. Fine by us....

Kind of a funny thing.... we had some busy bodies showing up. They were so wanting to know what was inside our fence haha!! One come through the mulch pile, though some of the flowers (stepping on some), just to see inside the fence haha!! This is where a lot of our prized flowers are growing! The ones I have hand pollinated, bred. The flowers I am real protective of, the ponds etc. are at. Hopefully they seen what they wanted to see and to gossip to the others so they dont do this haha



Most all of our Sweet Williams Flowers bloom out of the public's eye. No real reason. In 2014 we tried some other places of the garden which is outside our six foot fence and can be seen by the public however on the north side and the hollyhocks really did steal most of the sunshine from this batch. We will just see what they do in 2015.



I added one photo of a butterfly on the Sweet Williams, butterflies love the Sweet William Flowers. Can not say this enough!! Since of course the biggest batch of Sweet Williams grows inside the big fence the butterflies get used to me and land on the Sweet Williams a foot or so from my chair.

The dogs have gotten into this area before, ripping up , stepping on basically destroying what we had growing in this area before, the Sweet Williams bounced right back and bloomed!!



The shot above is the Sweet Williams opening up! Here soon enough I will get back into my spring and summer routine which is getting outside early where you do get to see such things as the Sweet Williams uncurling. You can also see several buds that will be opening soon enough after I took that shot.



The red color there of that Sweet Williams flower? When the sun hits that the photographs come out real funky. The red just absorbs so much light!! Since I personally have my camera settings the way I like them, I do not change my settings for such flowers. I just wait for the sun to move. I rely on natural light myself. Some folks dont and this is cool to. Whatever floats your boat!



There are several colors of Sweet Williams blooming here and no real color attracts the butterflies more or less then the other , at least to my observations. We have many swallowtails and skippers butterflies who come to the Sweet William Flowers. We do have a selection of butterflies who visit here however some come here for things like a drink, or to visit whatever flower is their favorite. It just seams to me planting most of these Sweet Williams near the Honeysuckle has worked out for us.



In this shot you can see a leaf from another flowering plant we have and that is for a whole other post. We do plant thick. That is plants live, grow and fight for the sun and the room to grow here. When one grows in pots, you do not have this happening. It just appears to us that the flowers are hardier doing things this way in which we might be wrong? Planting thick works for us and we have learned what flowers do really well around other species of flowers. What draws things such as Butterflies, hummingbirds etc when we plant thick like this. Our Sweet Williams gets more attention from the pollinators growing near the Honeysuckle.



Seeding, oh my goodness does the Sweet Williams seed well!! When I think about it I have been known to pinch off the seed pods for our Sweet Williams just seed and seed..... Like some of the other flowers, new seeds are always welcomed and at this moment I can not remember if I got new seeds in or not?



We also like the plant itself. I think it is pretty then when the flowers come it is just a huge plus!



Above I added a shot of the swallowtail on the Sweet Williams, I have many more photographs of the butterflies on the Sweet Williams and other flowers in the butterfly album here.

Some of these photographs were pulled out of my archive so I can not tell you if they are uploaded to the flower album or not at this point? It is already 2015 , new photographs are being taken and I am not done with the 2014 photographs yet! Keep me busy ha!

Thank you for coming by and checking out my Sweet Williams Flowers. The Sweat Williams really will look fantastic in your garden!! Either by seeds or perhaps you can find plants to buy and just pop them into the ground? Just because we have not had these grow in pots does not mean they wont? That might be a interesting thing to try for us? Who am I kidding, Guy does not have such time ha! I could try it some day?

Wild Frog Eating in the High Desert

Mrsroadrunner Photography | Wild Frog Eating in the High Desert




Meet this wild Frog Who had just ate something??



I come into this happening a little late so i did not actually see what this frog got itself to eat? As you can see it looks like along with something to eat it got some goobers too.



Keep in mind these wild creatures we have are used to me. That is I spend a lot of time watching them, critters are not stupid. They will get used to you watching them if you dont do anything more but watch them. Stressed out critters will lash out just like any other living thing, so leave them alone and you too will get their trust and you can get photographs without having to crop too!



As you can see the goal at this point for this fat frog is to get that goober out of its mouth! See how fat this frog is tell me this frog is a good hunter!



Our garden is a very active place! The frogs show up anywhere they are needed to help us with insect control. The frogs are welcomed to help!



The shot above the frog is using its "paw" (?), to get the goobers out of its mouth. I have observed these wild frogs eating and spitting out insects even haha! Must not have tasted good?? Insects do have their own defense mechanisms as secreting nasty chemicals that makes that insect taste nasty for instance.



This is a good shot above to how fat this frog is haha! When you hear me talking about the frogs on such places as twitter this is the species we have here the most, this is the Pacific Tree Frog which many folks think are not good to have around. I dont think this way since the frogs give me hours of entertainment just watching and listening to them.



This frog has gotten most of the goobers out by this shot above!



If one say wanted to physically capture such a thing for who knows what reasons, this would be the time! This frog has other things on its mind and is vulnerable. Though I do not see a point in picking up these frogs other then getting them out of a bad situation? Our hands have oils on them. These oils that all of us have, is not good for such things as frogs. Say you just ate some salty chips. Then you go to pick up one of these frogs, or any frog! That salt, as well as the oils on your hand goes straight to that poor frog!

Frogs skin is not real tough. Why frogs are having such a hard time these days. Then people feel the need to touch, pick up whatever for that photograph, or to put them in jars or whatever.... like I said these frogs are pretty common here at my place. How about the spotted frog if that is you get a chance to even see one! Endangered as they are. Kill a endangered species would not be cool just because a person is ignorant right? I ask you all to just think about what you are doing is all. Ying yang, I have to think as well....



All done!! The eating process takes time but as you can see this fat frog seams to have no problem catching something to eat! I am a tad bit bumbed I did not get to see what it was this frog caught to eat! Catching it with my camera or not at least I would have known haha

Thank you for coming by and seeing these photographs that I never shown anyone before! You are seeing these before Guy even gets to, I will show him these when he gets home from work. These photograph came from my archive of 2014 which I am still going through! As I am writting this several frogs are talking back and forth to each other! Warmer it gets the more frogs I hear, and see!

Robin Bird Fledgeling

Robin Bird Fledgeling




Meet this baby Robin Bird! I have several posts about different Robin bird fledgelings that are waiting for their meal from the adults in our fruit tree.



Day to day I think of what I could make a post of? Looking through my archive of 2014 these photographs caught my attention. Perhaps a post in facebook someone made about the Robin birds showing up at his house was still in my mind? We have had the Robins all year around lately. During spring and summer we have been having the fledgelings.

I think I have mentioned before about this tree? This tree hangs over our six foot fence which is part of the, "No Cat Zone". This is what I call it for no cats are allowed in the space! Perfect for the birds, and their babies! This area is as safe for the birds as I can make it. The ponds are in this space. The raspberries and this fruit tree.



This tree is not safe to have nests in for it is a community spot for the birds to gather. The "baby", birds are called fledgelings. When the baby birds get to the point they can leave the nest it has became a thing for the Robin birds to bring their babies to this tree! Here the babies wait for their meal of raspberries and worms - is what I observed.



These baby Robins are also placed pretty close to me as you can see from the photographs here and in the other posts. The other species of birds are not so kind to the babies. Food and safety is the key. If the baby Robins happen to fall for some unknown reason they will fall within the kennel where I pay attention and can help if need be. Gosh I think I have spoken about the fledgelings that have falling, or gotten into the kennel somehow in which I have fetched out of the pond, or helped in some way.....



In fact you can see some of these shots I had to get down and blur with my lens the kennel, this is the X or the boxes you can see. Some of the photographs you can see this more then the others.



I think the baby Robins are cute, from the front side ha! Their tail feathers are not developed yet. You have to be careful if you are sitting in the shade of this tree when the baby birds are around haha! You may have a surprise drop on your head... how do I know these things ha



These baby birds can also get quite loud!! Sometimes such as the American Goldfinch babies, you want to stick food in their mouths just to get them to shut up after hours of their screams haha!

The Robin bird babies are loud, however typically there is only one. The Robin can have more then one egg hatch and the hatchlings may survive for a time, however my observations are not all of them survive to the point of being left in the tree to wait.

My observation has been when their is more then one "baby" Robin bird grow to the stage of learning how to fend for themselves the adult Robins teaches the two or more "babies", to fend for themselves the babies follow the adult Robin around the garden and are taught how to detect such things as worms in the soil. This is also the time when the Robin babies are killed the most by cats and when you spend time with such a thing and watch it develop and grow it hurts to find them after they are killed. I have been accused of being mean to cats due to spraying them with the hose and running them away from the bird area. I tell the owners of these cats I have rules here on MY property.

It seams to me to find and the act of catching worms is more then just the use of eye site. Tapping the ground causes the worms to move.... moving causes motion and this motion I feel is felt by the birds. You yourself can take time out to just watch this behavior. It is quite interesting to some of us. The "baby", birds have to learn this if they want to eat. The adults will not feed these baby birds forever!



I am outside quite a lot during this time of the year, this set of photographs was taken in June. The birds and other visitors get used to my routine, me being outside. Hence how I get the photographs I do here at home.



The Raspberries are one of the favorite foods of several birds, the Robin bird being one of the birds who like the Raspberries and we really do not get many of the berries! We rather just let the birds and other creatures have them, though daily I am cutting back, pulling out or doing something with the raspberries so they do not get out of hand! The dogs even help by chewing on, ripping out some of the raspberry stalks and leaves.



The young Robin birds need to be careful around the ponds due to the drowning factor. When the baby birds get just a little older then this one here they will start bathing themselves and getting drinks themselves. I have places rocks and such just so the birds have something to help if and when they ever fall into one of the small ponds we have. Even making sure the ponds do not have a drop off point when the baby birds bath, or just get a drink.

This is where the fruit comes in, the baby birds get their liquids from the juice of the fruit the adults give them. I am sure from the insects as well?

Thank you for coming by and checking out my photographs of this Robin bird (as the frogs are just singing to each other as I write this haha. The frogs always make me laugh). I hope I did not ramble to much? I do spend a lot of time just watching the things I photograph. One can learn quite a lot just by observing.....

Coralie