Having spent my younger years in a flat land, mostly under sea level,
life at higher altitudes is an absolute wonder to me.
Flowers are hardy, like the thistle
with the same flowers of lower altitudes,
one may see a cluster at 4000 feet
still blooming at the same time
at higher altitudes some buds are burned
by the sun before they get the opportunity to open.
flowers become smaller and rocks bigger
at 9000 feet flowers hug the ground
I close with one of the many waterfalls
we saw on our vacation.
35 comments:
I love wild flowers too, Jeannette! And you are right the plants in the Netherlands are quite different. I grew up in a mountainous country till I was 12 years old. I must confess I wasn't much interested in plants then.
Thanks for your comment on the castle!
Reader Wil,
The pink flowers at 9000 feet were a a little wonder - so tiny!
Until 4 years ago, except for roses I was not interested that much in plants, flowers and animals either. Maybe because I haven't grown up with it. I share my love for discovering new things with you:)
These are lovely photos and the flowers are so pretty. I never thought of the effect of growing flowers at high altitudes before, it made me think. Wonderful post. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. I'm afraid it wasn't me earlier who commented, though I would have been here sometime as i enjoy popping in. I hope you find out who it was. To answer your other question, I didn't have my macro lens when I took my flowers. I just stepped back and used my 300 mm lens. I do this occasionally and it seems to work for close-ups when I have the space to back up. Happy 4th one day late :)
I was always amazed by the flowers on the Grand Mesa in Colorado. Did you see ant Edelweiss? I did see then in Colorado. Of course the abundant flower is dandelion (called Colorado fools gold).
Thank s for sharing your flowers!
Shalom Jeannette. Thanks for your visit to Jerusalem. No, that disappearing comment would not have been mine, since I know so little about flowers.
Looks like you had the right kind of vacation here. :)
Thank you Denise for your kind comments. I never thought on the effect of flowers on higher altitudes either till this year's trip to Yosemite.
Since you once lived in San Diego, have you been there?
Denise, PS
Thanks for explaining about your lens. I'll have to try that one:)
Joey,
Oh, I wished I had seen an edelweiss - maybe I have to come to Colorado LOL. In Europe, the only place where you may find an edelweiss is Switserland. Yes, I saw a few dandelions. For me that is a farm flower (in Holland they call it horse-flower, because there you find it often in the meadows where cows and horses graze).
Dina,
Once I hope to be able to say, Dina, it was beautiful in Jerusalem!!
But you would be welcome to comment on flowers anyway, even if you don't know anything about them - you would know which one you liked, right?
WOW!! Love these especially the waterfall.
I qam SO sorry I have not got to the e-mail yet but after being without a PC for so long last week I had a lot of work to catch up to yesterday and I am hoping to get to it this afternoon.
Wow, you got back to me quickly! It's okay Joan, whenever you get to it - just wondering if things were okay with you & your PC!
The thistle in your first picture is not only nice looking, it also has therapeutic properties in the treatment of liver ailments.
Duta,
I had no idea (thanks for the right spelling - I forgot I was writing in English and not in Dutch LOL. So what do you do - do you eat the flower, or do you dry it and then ingest it?
Such beautiful flowers, bravely succeeding under such difficult conditions!
I love visiting the Alpine Garden here. The variety of plants that grows high up in the mountains is truly amazing.
I have also lived in the mountains in Forest Falls and always liked the wild flowers that grew beside the creek. I wanted to dig them up and transplant them to my garden, but never did, because I figured they wouldn't survive the move. Pretty photographs!
Also love wildflowers, especially the small ones around big boulders and the mossy kind on rocks.
Merisi,
Yes, aren't they amazing! They remind me of some people who "bloom" in the most adverse situations.
Didn't know Vienna had an Alpine Garden. Maybe an idea to put it on your blog?
Irene,
I know what you mean - it was kind of a toss-up, wasn't it? My pics didn't come out as good as I wanted to - probably because the sun was already too high, so hardly any shady places. For a Dutch woman you have moved to many places:)
Jane,
Yes, I love those too! The ones you refer to would probably grow more in lower altitudes?
The thistles therapeutic properties, I believe come from and hot water extraction of the dry flowers. Always with such things one must take care - too much is not good. Like digitalis a little cures the heart, too much is a deadly poison!
Eww, thanks for the warning, Joey!
I am learning a lot from my bloggie friends:) I appreciate your knowledge!
In answer to your question, jeannette: The Milk Thistle (that in your first photo) is sold in health shops in two forms: dried form for tea, and extract form in capsules. It is said to protect the liver and help cure its ailments.
Any way, I like the flower and its color.
Duta,
Thank you for the info Duta! I don't know much about medicinal qualities of flowers and plants - it's a new thing to me.
I only know it's pretty LOL
Oh my...was an amazing waterfall~! I'd love to see one like that myself. Isn't nature just so wonderful?? Lovely thistle there :O)
Sreddy
Pretoria is on grasslands 5000 feet above sea level and that makes for cold crisp winters like the one we are having now! The waterfall is magical. Are you going to paint it?
Shreddy,
If you like to see waterfalls,Yosemite is the place to come - they have so many here, this is just a little one, but they have also big ones, like Bridal Veil, Yosemite Falls, Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls.
Eleanor,
Wow, that's pretty high too. It's a strange thing that you have winter, while we have summer!
I might paint this waterfall too, but right now I'm working on the one where my palette floated away in. Thanks for visiting!
Jeannette, the Thisle is one of my favorite flowers but Hubby won't let me grow them as the wreak havoc on cattle patures!
These wild flowers are very beautiful, lovely. Nature is so wonderful. So you have a brother in Den Helder?
What a small world.
Carol,
Guess your livelihood is more imortant, huh? I never though much of the thistle, till I saw them there in the wild - it's beauty comes out more that way!
Dick,
Glad to have you back on the blog! My brother always wanted to move close to the beach (he lived in Raamsdonkveer), so when his job got some openings up North he took it! My other obrother also lives in the North, close to Assen.
Hope you had a good time off?
Dick,
Glad to have you back on the blog! My brother always wanted to move close to the beach (he lived in Raamsdonkveer), so when his job got some openings up North he took it! My other obrother also lives in the North, close to Assen.
Hope you had a good time off?
Dick,
Glad to have you back on the blog! My brother always wanted to move close to the beach (he lived in Raamsdonkveer), so when his job got some openings up North he took it! My other obrother also lives in the North, close to Assen.
Hope you had a good time off?
Yes I did have a good time, thank you. Your brother is close to the beach then. Maybe we can see each other when he is on the beach and I'm on Texel's beach at the same time.
Once in a few years we go for holiday to Drenthe and we visit Assen sometimes. Assen is not near the sea but I suppose you know that, lol.
Dick,
Have to admit your Dutch humor is so subtle, that I had to read it a few times before I realized you were making a joke!
I've never been to Den Helder or Texel myself, since when I lived in Holland I live in Zeeland, Brabant and near Arnhem. But there was a time that we visited Assen almost every two months - I really like the "binnenstad" and it's not one of the expensive cities:)
So, for shopping furniture or specialty items, do you go to the mainland, or are there enough shops at Texel?
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