San Rafael Valley, AZ ~~ Photo by Bill Haas

Saturday, July 28, 2012

YAQUINA HEAD OUTSTANDING NATURAL AREA, NEWPORT, OR - Part II

THE LIGHTHOUSE GROUNDS
Basalt Cobble in the foreground --
Seeps and crevices in the cliffs are home to tiny, but not-at-all fragile, mini gardens of incredible beauty and color...

...some bold...
...and some with blossoms no bigger than a little girl's pinkie fingernail!








In the fields around the lighthouse and rimming the parking lots, there were  great masses of wind-hardy wildflowers...

...including some curious, almost comical stalks that reminded me of the "coneheads"
Salal's three stages of "bloom"; the berries are edible once they become berries.

Beach aster, clinging to the cliff.
Some kind of daisy-like daisy!
Lots of lowly Wild Cucumber...


...and plenty of elegant Queen Anne's Lace.  I caught this one in its early pink-fringed state of bloom...
...and this one in its full almost-all-white flowering stage.  
I'm still researching the name of this eye-catching plant...a tall stalk holding cream-colored (with a little pink blush) giant pompoms made up of little, individual pompoms.
OK, so for now it's name is "Creamy Pompom-on-a-Stick."  









And the best and brightest flower of them all, my sister Janet!