imagination or a headache?

"A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache." ~ Catherine the Great

Today I was inclined to go for the headache route. I've been chilled all day, even indoors, thanks to getting up to a blustery 38-degree morning and heading immediately out to change the irrigation set. Anyone care to guess how cold creek water is at that time of day?!




But the wild lupine and balsam root blooms didn't mind the wind, so I decided not to, either. I even found that the colors were even a little crisper thanks to the muted light and clear air.

 It's amazing how many different shades of purple wild lupine comes in. I found some that were sky-blue and others that were pale pink, with an entire range of purples in between!

 

A mossy wood post and stray wires from an old field fence lie across this bunch of lupine. The fence is definitely in sad disrepair, but its pairing with the purple lupine was too intriguing to ignore! 

 

Isn't balsam root such a sunny flower? It's hard to believe there was such a cold wind when you look at these pictures! The worst part of taking flower pictures in the wind is the constant movement, which sometimes reduces the sharpness, but many of these actually turned out okay.