A friend and I went to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge last Friday where we walked, talked, and communed with the natural world. First up is a Gray Hairstreak Butterfly on a Rocky Mountain Bee Plant.
This was one of two dragonflies that moved incredibly quickly as they darted together up-down-off-to-the-side-then-up-again as we spun around, trying to keep them in sight before they abruptly came to rest on these rushes.
Sometimes we didn’t know what we were looking at and took time to investigate.
No matter what we saw, whether it was old or new to us, we took delight in the many tiny miracles. Even a much-maligned thistle made us pause and reach out a gentle finger to touch its wondrous beauty.
All gratitude to Mother Nature.
I was intrigued by the plant in the third picture. At first I thought, Chinses Paper Lantern, which is an invasive plant often sold as a living decoration around halloween time. Then on thought, maybe Gooseberry, but the leaves aren’t right for a green gooseberry plant. So maybe Ground Cherry (physalis angustiflolia)? I’m not sure where you are, but that is only grown in the Gulf coast. At any rate, it seems to be something likely in the nightshade family, I think. I love all the pictures!
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I’m doing a little research but still haven’t figured out what it is. Your guess at Ground Cherry doesn’t fit because I’m in the Denver metro area. Thank you for stopping by to admire the photos, Melanie.
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Great pictures!
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Thank you. I hope you like the representation of “green” since you excel at that. 🙂
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Beautiful, Tracy!
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Thank you, Sandy.
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Welcome!
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What a lovely post, Tracy. It really is the smallest things that often go unnoticed which bring us such great pleasure. Nature is wonderful. Great photos!
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Thank you, Lesley. Definitely a refuge (within a refuge) to have the luxury to focus on the tiniest details.
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