![\"firstflowers900\"](\"http:\/\/nsrider.com\/oldBODblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/firstflowers900.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNow, perhaps the Scarlet Hedgehog Cactus is not considered a wildflower, but in my book, it counts, and this is my book.<\/p>\n
This particular cactus was just next to another that was about to burst into twenty to thirty blooms, which I hope to shoot next weekend. \u00a0This was found at the start of my walk at 6,500 ft or so. I have to say that I was so taken by the bright red flowers that I stopped my hike and ended up sitting down in the trail trying to compose a nice close up shot. Next week I hope to get the larger grouping.<\/p>\n
After climbing nearly 2,000 additional feet, I almost missed this next flower, but the \u00a0yellow caught my eye. \u00a0It sits on the top of a solid wall of granite, finding a toehold in a crack in the rock.<\/p>\n
I ended up taking 17 different images of this flower, primarily because in the macro mode I can’t really see how sharp the image is in the view finder. \u00a0I hope that quantity will ultimately produce one or two images of quality.<\/p>\n During the two minutes of exposures, the plant had a visitor that I was able to capture at what I consider the perfect moment.<\/p>\n Here you can see one of our Alien species, visiting a flower during a\u00a0refueling\u00a0mission.<\/p>\n Next, it gets down to business, the business of refueling.<\/p>\n<\/a>The flower is from the mustard family, called Fendler’s Bladderpod. \u00a0It is very very small, about the size of a third of a dime, if that. \u00a0Once again, I found myself on the ground will all thoughts of a quick climb a distant memory.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n