Blue Day

Blue blue blue, so many colors of blue. I took a "mental health" day with D'har and Laura earlier this week. We drove up Bald Hills Rd. to see the lupine and other wildflowers blooming on Childs Meadow.

Lupine, larkspur, flax, brodeia, gilia, blue-eyed grass. Storms threatened all afternoon and made dramatic skies. Thunder rumbled. Bees buzzed. Butterflies fluttered. Bluebirds Buntings sang.*

I wish I could bottle the fragrance.

Here's a couple of links with more info and pictures.

• Lupin Blooming in Redwood National Park (Fox Studio)
  

• Lupine Bloom on Bald Hills Road (Lauraven's Miscellany)

• Bald Hills Road, Part II (Lauraven's Miscellany)

• http://redwoods.info/showrecord.asp?id=1715

• http://www.times-standard.com/ci_12440895?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com

* I officially name 2009 my Year of the Massive Forehead Slap

When I first posted this I was under the misapprehension that the colorful turquoise blue birds we saw -- which I thought were Western bluebirds -- were actually, in fact, lazuli buntings. If you see these colorful and melodious birds on Bald Hills Rd., please take note of the gray wings with two (count them) two white wing bars. Western bluebirds have blue wings in addition to their blue heads and rumps.