“Mountains and Cascade” — A stream cascades down from a mountain valley in far northern Scotland.
Most of our May visit to Scotland consisted of a big loop from Inverness out to the Isle of Skye, north (often on the NC500 route), eastward along the North Sea coast, and then down the eastern coast to return to Inverness. This took us through lots of highlands country, but on this day, as we drove across the north towards John O’Groats, the mountains were receding more and more into the distance. Driving east and looking south (the North Sea was to our left) we saw this spectacular ridge.
“A Highlands Cascade” — A small creek tumbes down a hillside, Isle of Skye
I live in a place (San Francisco Bay Area of California) that isn’t exactly a desert, but it also is not particularly wet. Virtually all of our rainfall comes during a mostly-winter rainy season that lasts just a few months, and the rest of the years is generally dry. In fact, by this time of the year many of our hills and valleys have dried to a “California golden”color. So Scotland was quite a contrast for us! It rained at least a little on virtually every day we were there, and water — in rivers, streams, lochs, and the ocean — is everywhere.
“Desert Gold Bloom” — Desert gold wildflowers in bloom, Death Valley.
You often hear the expression that there is a “carpet of wildflowers” in a landscape. That description was apt in quite a few areas of Death Valley National Park when we visited in late February. To be clear, much of the landscape of this desert park sill looked like… desert. But in places there were wildflower blooms of impressive size.
“Desert Gold Flowers” — Three desert gold flowers, Death Valley.
A good number of my recent Death Valley (almost?) superbloom photographs feature vast fields of these yellow flowers. Because they appear in large numbers, standing tall and swaying in the wind, they are among the most obvious visual evidence of the bloom. It occurred to me that I rarely photograph them close up, so here’s an attempt t rectify that omission.
Desert gold flowers grow at the top of long stems above plants that may, in the right conditions, have some rather thick leaves. Because the stems are long and thin the plants are almost always waving back and forth in the breeze. This can make close-up photographs a bit of a challenge!
