Cool Pictures

Have my pictures set on my screen saver and was watching the pictures go by when I realized I need to share some of these. I really have some great shots and only looked originally at just a few or one that day. I was taking pictures of native plants that were in bloom in July. Since it's dry in the summer these plants are real slender and small. Special insects pollinate these plants too. 

 This plant is so small I used a spacer between the lens and tripod to get this close. The flower on this plants about 1/8 inch a cross, very small. The total plant isn't much more then a few inches tall.

 After the flowers it forms these seed in the round spheres. I noticed that the deer like native plants and not the ones brought here from the Europe invasion. Many of the native plants stay green even in the hottest of the summer months and are below the dried European grasses. I pulled the grasses out of the way this year and the green undergrowth took off. I was watching the deer stick there heads close to the ground eating something but it wasn't until I removed the dried grass did I see they were eating the native plants close to the ground.

 These little flowers aren't much but they are coming in in the dry dirt where it's not watered during the hottest part of summer. I had a couple potted trees that didn't make it because of the heat when it was over a hundred several days in a row. The trees were being watered at night but it wasn't enough to cool the trees down from the extreme day heat. I don't think they are going to pull through after growing for 5 years here. It has been a different weather pattern since I first moved here. The last four years it became summer like weather in January and February, then went back to freezing cold rain and snow. We had a very late spring. Even the wildlife seem to have babies late in the year. The deer babies still had spots on them last month.

 This is an interesting plant. The plant starts off growing close to the ground and is very leafy. The leaves almost lay on the ground they grow that close to the ground and under everything. It send this stem up and the wind caries the seeds. As you can see here the flowers are small and the seeds follow the flowers while the top part is still green and forming flowers. Depending on the surrounding  plants depends on how tall the center stem will grow. They can be from around a 10 inches to 24 inches tall.

This is just a cute picture of a deer checking out the kitten. The kittens are a bit on the wild side and don't want anything to do with me except food. That area of the yard is full of mint. There's also a plant that has a skunk like smell when the dew sets on it in the evening. The kittens are very unique in they they really stick together as a family fun and play partners. The white kitten in the background and black and white kittens are both females. I never seen cats climb trees like these guys do. It's not just a few feet up but they go way up the trees. The white kitten tried making friends with a couple baby raccoons. They also find the deer fascinating and sneak up and watch them. The rope on the cedar fence doesn't do anything it's there for looks. Thought it give it that pirates of the Caribbean type look. I noticed while on the ride that the rope on the posts didn't do anything either. It was there for looks.