Saturday, June 15, 2013

Flowers of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains.

There are a number of disciplines that I have engaged in throughout my life and a few of them bring me real joy. One of those joys comes from my knowledge and experience in botany. If you have known me for a good part of my life you know that I worked for a nursery and landscape company for about 5 years of my life. This was actually my first job and I have my uncle and his family to thank for giving me that job. Plants are just fascinating. They are marvelous forms of life that are complex, diverse, and captivating in their ability to  deal with outside forces. I love being able to get down on my stomach and look at the ground and identify  tens of species of grasses, lichen, flowers, and seedlings. It is a wonderful way to get into the micro side of the biosphere.Often in the wilds we look at the big picture, the rivers, their joining streams, the ridges the valleys but looking closer, "seeing the trees from the forest", another world, the real world of the mountains is revealed. Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch the progression of the tree canopy up a mountain from the aspen to the evergreens and down to the brush, finally in the alpine, the grasses and alpine flowers.

I would like to dedicate this post, though, to someone special. They have been with me for over a decade of my life now and have never stopped showing their support and enthusiasm for the direction of my life, regardless of where it has taken me. She also was one of the people that helped get me so excited about plants. Thank you Peggy, you really have been like my second mom (who I haven't visited in too long).







-MG

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