A bloomin' good time

When Daughter #1 and I went on our brief camping adventure this last week, we took a lot of pictures, because that's how we roll. Thank goodness for digital, I don't think I could have carried enough film.

And because my daughter is a girl, she took a lot of pictures of a lot of flowers. I took pictures of flowers because you can get a lot closer to the flowers on the refuge than you can to the buffalo.

Indian Blanket. I think the first 3700 we saw of these I called them Indian Paintbrush. It's not a paintbrush, it's a blanket. Got it?

A mutant Indian Paintbrush. I think. It's missing some pink.

Prickly pear cactus bloom. The cactus blades are good to eat, if you have the patience to clean one. I was not that hungry this trip.

Here's a view without the bugs in it.

And fields of black-eyed susans. Gorgeous streaks of yellow across the prairie.

And then it was time to pack in the cameras because the sky started to look like this:

And like this:

And folks back home were calling and texting and using words like "hail" and "tornado" and "hurry" and sounding kinda panicky.

So we hurried and we made it home safe and sound, just before the storm hit. But we'll be back, we'll be back.