Ant and flower, Dorothy

Love: as though the stars
rushed in upon a void, and in extinction
left a flower.

Disintegration in a Dream of Love
D.G. Jones

Yellow Lady Slipper (Bucket List item for both of us)

We have always wanted to see Lady Slippers but expected to see them 

in some ferny glen, not next to a gravel lane amid alkali sloughs 
while we were looking for shorebirds. But Helen spotted them there. 
Laying on the ground for the photo did result in me finding a tick later,
but it had not bitten me and now the answer is at hand. 

Please see the last photo.

"I hear them
deep inside me, whispering
oh what is that beautiful thing
that just happened?"

from At Blackwater Pond

by Mary Oliver

Having hauled me to the Shellbrook Medical Clinic

for infected tick bites two years running, Helen got me

 an anti-tick outfit, because she is a wonderful person. 

These are the last photos from our trip to the mountains.

For Shaun and Wendolene this is the longest car trip they

 have been on with us and they were very well behaved.

I always think of the mountains as the home of large animals

but I was surprised by how many plants had insects on them.
Plant identification is based on Plants of Alberta, Royer &
Dickinson, Lone Pine Publishing.

Feel free to disagree.

Mountain Fireweed

Mountain Goldenrod

Below we see a Hoverfly surrounded

by aphids Some Hoverfly larve feed

on aphids the adults feed on nectar

and pollen. Bugs of Alberta

Common Red Paintbrush

 

Twinflower ~ Linnaea borealis

"I stop in the gravel by the side of the road,

completely ringed by mountains so impressive

they must be fake."

                 Starting Out in the Afternoon

                                           Jill Frayne