Some Wildflower Walks, Drumheller
Springs Park ,
Spokane , Washington ,
USA
Introduction
The ‘pages’
listed on the right are photographic records of my 2013 wildflower walks in
Drumheller Springs park, Spokane, Washington, USA.
The process of
this project is ‘learn by doing’. I am not a photographer. I am not a botanist.
I have learned
some botany over the 6 years of this project. I used to know a little about
photography but I am very impatient with it and am greatly appreciative of
contemporary ‘forgiving’ cameras. Some camera knowledge is forced on me. The
botany is more fun.
*
My
objective is a little different in 2013.
In 2012 the focus was on photographing as
many blossoming plants as I could find in
Drumheller
Springs Park
2012
51 Walks, 178 Plants And A Few Bugs –
Some Mosses, Some Landscapes
At the bottom of the introduction to the
wildflower walks of 2012 is a list of the 178 wildflowers photographed in 2012
in the order in which they were observed and with the date of observation.
On the right side of the page is a list
of my 51 wildflower walks in 2012. I am only allowed 20 ‘pages’ so there are
often several walks crammed on a page.
The wildflowers don’t bloom on the same
day each year. There may be a couple of weeks or more difference from year to
year. I believe there will be more difference early in the year and less
difference at the height of the wildflower season. Mid-May to mid-June, but I
don’t know that for sure.
The flowers don’t even bloom in the same
order each year … or so it seems from these too casual observations. There is a
rough order to their blossoming.
My 2012
walks can be a very rough guide to what flowers you might see in Drumheller Springs Park
Yeah, it
would be better if I listed the plants by their optimum blossoming time. And it
would be nice if I had a date for the last observed blossom. Those are jobs for
the next generation of workers on this project.
* * *
In 2010 I started working on the idea of
‘photo-biographies’ of plants.
In the winter of 2012-2013 I got serious
and sketched photo-biographies for fourteen of the earliest native plants from
my available photographs over 6 years and from my current knowledge. The
sketches are very rough indeed. Many of these photographs are from early walks
in Riverside State Park Drumheller
Springs Park
The idea of my walks in 2013 is to fill
out the photographs I do not have for my photo-biographies, to refine the ones
I have as best I can and to start work on more plant photo-biographies.
I am not a disciplined person. I will
continue to follow interests of the moment with camera and text.
* * *
What I wanted when I started this project
in 2007 in the 1991 burn at Riverside State Park with my daughter, April, was
‘An Environmental Calendar’ with information about every element of the
environment I could think of, the weather cycle, migration of animals and insects,
the cycles of the river and river life, the cycle of the plants. Needless to
say it didn’t take long to realize I would not get that done in many lifetimes.
Eventually the environmental calendar was
reduced to the plant cycle and the plant cycle at one location, Drumheller Springs Park
Disclaimer:
I am not a botanist. Too many plants are unidentified. Some are surely
misidentified. Take it upon yourself to repair my errors.
Continue
disclaimer: I only intended to walk the park every 5 days in 2012. It didn’t
always happen. And every five days is not enough. My walks in 2013 will be
occasional.
Continue
disclaimer: The park is 10 or 12 acres and has diverse environmental niches. I
never cover the whole park on a single walk.
So …
there are lots of corrections and additions to the work to be made. There is
lots of ‘stuff’ in the park I didn’t see and will never see.
I am
old, on the edge of very old. I won’t get it done. It’s your job, if not now,
soon. Do it.
Later,
slatsz
