Sweet Pea of Summer

A perfect summer day in the Laramie River Valley.  Just took about three hours and $40 of gas to find.  But this is the view I wanted and didn't know where it was, so you just gotta keep going until it's found, right?  Earlier in the day, I spotted several clusters of wild irises, an absolute favorite of mine and I have yet to get a single good photograph of one.  

Irises are they're kind of rare along the Front Range of Northern Colorado, which is supposed to be a semi-arid desert.  Our late season snows didn't melt in the usual timing so there is a lot of water saturating the mountains about a month later than usual.  Many large open areas have become veritable wetlands in the late season melt off.

The irises are happy to have the pools of water.  So are the mosquitos.  At the end of the last season, mosquito eggs were laid in the depressions that normally collect water.  They need the freezing temps during their winter dormancy in order to hatch.  When the thaw comes their life begins in the ensuing pools.  Snowpool mosquitos are vicious, they've waited a long time and they emerge in droves!  Clouds of hungry, unapologetic, and ecologically vital blood suckers.  I'm not exaggerating.

When I saw the first patch of irises, I hurried out of the Jeep and squatted on the wet ground with the camera and no sooner turned it on only to be inundated.  The length of my forearm is eleven inches, it was, at the time covered in Deet (a chemical I hate to use).  There were twenty mosquitos on that one forearm.  Photography was no longer a priority.

Driving west I ended up in the Laramie River Valley.  A nice view of the Medicine Bow Mountains and Rawah Wilderness was waiting for me, thankfully sans Mosquitos.  Instead of wild irises, there was an abundance of wild pea.  I'll take it, looks great with the snow covered peaks.  

Usually I don't "arrange" my compositions, but in this case the foreground was a bit sparse.  I spruced it up a bit with the two rocks you see.  It took a short while to find the right ones and get them to help the balance.  If this photography thing doesn't work out, maybe I'll try landscaping next.  I could have a large truck full of rocks ready to show up in front of your house and add a couple next to the petunias.  Piece of cake!

I hope you all find a lot of frivolous fun this weekend.  See you on Tuesday!