May 09 in the Rockies

[Paul T]

Cohan,

Some of the views with the mountains in the background are amazing.  I hope to make it somewhere to see mountains in the background like that...... they look like someone has carved them and then dusted them with snow to highlight there carving.  Must be even more amazing in person.  Nothing quite like that here in Aus unfortunately, at least nothing on a scale like that.  Thanks so much for the pics.

[Lesley Cox]

A stunning landscape Cohan, like NZ but on a grander scale.

[Gerdk]

Moody pictures of a very northern part of the world (from my view of course)!
Thank you Cohan!

Gerd

[Maggi Young]

Cohan, I am really enjoying this trip with you. I guess the shots ( excellent by theway) from the moving vehicle were because the driver just would  NOT stop for more crazy  photographing??!!  Poor soul, it cannot be easy for those accompanying a  camera toting plant freak ! Give him our grateful thanks for his persevereance, please. 

Your close-up of the Androsace chamaejasme flower is just super.... terrific to enjoy that detail.

I am getting pretty exhausted from all these trips around the world via the forum.... I obviously need to get in better fitness.... but I wouldn't miss them for anything... pure delight, each and every one!

[ranunculus]

Super pictures, Cohan ... much appreciated.

[cohan]

thanks all, glad you are enjoying--i was thinking maybe i am posting too comprehensively? perhaps i should only post more selected highlights, and further details in an album offgroup?

maggi--i can understand your exhaustion--i dont even have time to view all the great threads, just duck in here and there when i can!  my driver is to be applauded for his patience, as limited as it seems to me sometimes..lol..we are expecting to make  a trip down into southern alberta badland/cactus country, and that holds almost no interest for him, so i should be grateful...lol.. i take tons of pictures from the moving vehicle--on a daily basis to see the changing landscapes-seasons, weather, skies etc, and we would never get anywhere if we stopped everytime there was a great view..lol

paul--of course aus has other sorts of amazing landscapes we can only dream about
lesley--its true there are some views of NZ that could be in the Rockies, or vice versa..

gerd--it was a moody day, sky-wise, which i like, within reason--i love the sun, but for pics nice to have some clouds for contrast, as long as its not fully overcast, which i dont find photogenic..lol

[cohan]

still in the Kootenay Plains, farther from the moister zones which are i think around the perimeters and perhaps in lower spots; it was  VERY  dry out in the open--probably no  moisture to speak of since spring snow, and not much of a winter snow cover there.. physaria and some peas and cresses happily flowering in that powder dry soil...

[cohan]

Physaria didymorcarpa
a charming little cabbage; i had seen this plants on previous trips, liked the little silver grey rosettes, and speculated on what they were, but never was there at the right time for flowers or seedpods...hit it bang on this time..
amazing to see them blooming away in such sere conditions..

[Maggi Young]

Be assured, Cohan, it has nothing to do with the breadth of the postings that exhausts me.... it is the constant flying on my magic carpet from continent to  continent to be one moment in Europe, next in Australia, then over to the Americas.......it's all these time zones.....all this virtual travel is enough to wear out even an athlete! 

[cohan]

Be assured, Cohan, it has nothing to do with the breadth of the postings that exhausts me.... it is the constant flying on my magic carpet from continent to  continent to be one moment in Europe, next in Australia, then over to the Americas.......it's all these time zones.....all this virtual travel is enough to wear out even an athlete! 

maybe you need a magic teapot to take along on the magic carpet!

[Hristo]

Spectacular shots, many thanks for sharing your FTL trip, I sympathise with the too many places/plants too little time syndrome!

[cohan]

Spectacular shots, many thanks for sharing your FTL trip, I sympathise with the too many places/plants too little time syndrome!

thanks chris--many many more pics to come from that trip...lol--but not tonight, i think..
re: too many plants, i have been humbled a bit, the last week or so: my mom's little chunk of my grandparent's(now my uncle's) farm is abbout 6 acres, and the farm as a whole which i walk about on is somewhere over 300acres--probably i only cover about 100-150 of that, and usually much less...not a lot of ground to cover in the big picture, and i would have thought i knew it pretty well, and dont expect many botanical surprises..
well, partly (mainly?) due to slowly increasing knowledge (i've known the basics here for decades, but looking more closely at the less flashy things) i have found there are still surprises out there for me-in the narrow strip (maybe 10metres deep) of aspen woodland between us and the neighbour's pasture, i recently noticed several species i either was unfamiliar with, or didnt realise grew here--and thats just about right in front of my house, but i go there less than the mixed/coniferous woods behind...then the other day out in the bush('woods') of the main farm i came across at least two shrubs i'm unsure of and dont think i'd seen here before, as well as a small woodland flower... i've realised there are a number of flowers which present as 'tiny white flowers in the grass' and are in fact several species in a couple of different families...neat! and this is not a super floristically rich zone!

[Hristo]

Cool, maybe this is the Tao of plant hunting, you travel and search for new plants/flowers but when you stop and rest they make theselves known to you!

[cohan]

still in the Kootenay Plains, montane zone,
i was trying to find the altitude, and found a couple of pages, this tourist page gives a few details--i was amused/bemused? to see they said that native peoples 'established a reserve' at the north end of the plains--oh right! they just decided to give up their large range and settle right there! bet they asked to have half of the plains flooded for a hydro dam too....
http://www.whereadventurebegins.com/kootenayplains.htm

anyway, on the altitude, i didnt find specifics for the plains, yet, but it seems like it must be 12-1300m on the flats...

here is another pea--probably the same one from the first site, i think i will have a third siting of it later in the day;
Oxytropis sp?
and a complete unknown, sorry i missed this one, great leaves too, just  a few inches high, tons of buds..
unknown and unknown with Artemesia

[cohan]

Cool, maybe this is the Tao of plant hunting, you travel and search for new plants/flowers but when you stop and rest they make theselves known to you!

a lesson for sure--in all the sprinting, you can cover a lot of ground and see a lot of things, but you need to move very slowly to see everything!