Rocky Mountain National Park
9 July 2011
During the summer of 2011,
I spent a couple of days in Rocky Mountain National Park
where I found many purple flowers –
even if I don’t know their names.
Several photos from that trip will follow over the next couple weeks.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under National Park, Photo
Riverside Discovery Center and Zoo
Scottsbluff, Nebraska
6 September 2010
The 2010 Great Plains Tour made its way through Nebraska.
There we paused to visit the small zoo in Scottsbluff.
Never did figure out why the town is called Scottsbluff
and the National Monument is called Scotts Bluff.
Of course I never tried.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under National Park, Photo
Denver Zoo
Denver, Colorado
1 September, 2010
Spiders are not the only creatures
that enjoy the purple flowers of
the Denver Zoo.
The Denver Zoo
is not the only place where
bees enjoy purple flowers.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Photo
Denver Zoo
Denver, Colorado
1 September 2010
The Denver Zoo marked the beginning of
the 2010 trek Tricia and I made to
the Great Plains.
We enjoyed viewing the flowers:
the spiders enjoyed living in them.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Photo
Ghost Ranch
Abiquiu, New Mexico
23 August, 2010
A picture posted a couple weeks ago
shows a bee enjoying
purple flowers at Ghost Ranch.
This photo was taken over a year after the first one.
It cannot be
the same bee.
Perhaps a descendant?
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Ghost Ranch Views, Photo
1 April 2010
Villa Blanca, Colombia
I try to post purple flower pictures once a week,
an act of discipline,
creating a theme,
building an audience
(know that I deeply appreciate both of you).
However, today I did a blog post on Colombia for work.
And as I looked for a picture,
I came across this one
and it too me back
to a very special day.
At Villa Blanca, where displaced Colombians,
who in an act of courage and grace
beyond my imagining rebuild and start anew,
on a sunny April day, gathered
Presbyterians from Colombia and Presbyterians from the United States.
With agricultural implements
and symbols of faith,
a worship space was created;
prayers were said, songs were song,
love was shared.
I was there.
I remember the people.
I remember the time.
But until I saw this picture,
I had forgotten the purple flowers.
See you along the Trail.
Ghost Ranch
Abiquiu, New Mexico
31 July 2009
Near the Agape Center, a hummingbird stops for a snack.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Ghost Ranch Views, Photo
Sakura Park
Manhattan, New York
21 March 2010
While in New York for an event a couple of years back, I found myself on the upper west side with some free time and indulged my National Park habit. I walked to the General Grant National Monument.
On the way back to the apartment, a statue in a park caught my eye. I did not know the name of the park, but the statue clearly resembled a soldier from the Civil War. It seemed worth discovering who the statute honored.
I discovered that atop the pedestal stood a likeness of General Daniel Butterfield. I knew little of him – he wrote the bugle call Taps, he was a friend of General Hooker, he had a reputation for rather bawdy behavior whether deserved or not, and he engaged in intrigue with General Sickles against General Meade.
After the war, he was involved in the 1869 gold scandal, when speculators sought to corner the gold market.
But he apparently had his good days as well. Butterfield won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions on June 27, 1862 at the Battle of Gaines Mills.
Like all of us, his story has many dimensions.
Butterfield’s statue stands in Sakura Park.
Sakura Park owes its name to the more than 2000 cherry trees delivered to parks in New York City from Japan in 1912. The word sakura means “cherry blossom” in Japanese.
I may have seen cherry trees that day. I probably would not recognize them.
But for once, I know the name of the flowers: these are crocuses.
See you along the Trail.
Ghost Ranch
Abiquiu, New Mexico
31 July 2009
Many enjoy purple flowers for many reasons.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Ghost Ranch Views, Photo
Ghost Ranch
Abiquiu, New Mexico
8 August 2008
Working in chronological order and recognizing that photos of purple flowers have not been taken intentionally, this one comes again from Ghost Ranch – a reminder of the purple diversity that exists even within the same area.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Ghost Ranch Views, Photo
Along the Graybeard Trail 