Bead Knitter Gallery: Mission Accomplished

Caution. Lots of photos. Click on them to embiggen.

I had an awesome Mothers Day. It started with the day being sunny and warm. I lazed around most of the morning drinking coffee and surfing the net. Then Sweet Hubby and Ruth took me out for breakfast. We decided to try a restaurant right in Rathdrum called Country Nook. I had scrambled eggs, corned beef hash (Yum!), and toast with Blackberry jam. The food was very good. My eggs were cooked to perfection.

After that we headed east to the Coeur d'Alene National Forest. I wanted to go north of where we entered the forest in hopes of getting over the ridge and coming out on the Montana side by the Clark Fork river. That's where I've seen Fairy Slippers in the past, so that's where we needed to go if I wanted to see them again. We tried route choice 1 first. Didn't get very far before we were blocked by snow. So we turned around and went route choice 2. We got further, but eventually ended up blocked by snow. As we drove along, I kept my eyes open for pink. We found a whole colony of Fairy Slipper orchids on the east side of the mountains just a short distance from the blocking snow. Needless to say, I got very excited. It made my whole day finding them.

Calypso Bulbosa, the fairy slipper orchid, which has been called the most beautiful terrestrial orchid in North America. There are actually 4 varieties. We happen to have this one.

In addition to the Fairy Slippers, I found some of my mountain favorites to photograph.

Growing among the Slippers were some Pioneer Violets.

Trillium (Trillium Grandiflorum) was the first flower we came across. There are lots of them blooming right now. The live on the lower slopes of the mountains.

On the upper parts of the mountains, especially up on the ridges, I was surprised to find a lot of Glacier Lilies (Erythronium grandiflorum) in bloom.

They were done 4 weeks ago down here in the valley where we live.

Along with them were tons and tons of Western Spring Beautys.

Both pink and white ones living together in beautiful harmony.

There were a lot of Blue Eyed Marys blooming on the hillsides along the roads. They are so tiny. About 3-5 millimeters in width, but the blue is so bright that a patch of them just grabs your eyes.

We saw some beautiful views from up on the ridges. This is a view taken at the north end of Lake Pend Oreille.

After turning around because of snow blockage, Sweet Hubby decided to see if we could get through from where we entered south to the Silver Valley area. The flowers were different in that direction. Lots of wild sweet peas, yellow daisies, and Pipers Anemones all over the place which I chose not to stop and photograph. Eventually we were blocked by snow and could continue no further. Before turning back and heading for home the way we came, we stopped a bit for a rest at that point and walked around and I found this.

~~I have no idea what it they are~~, but they were growing near a stream and some snow.
Update: They are called Idaho Goldthread (Coptis occidentalis).

Extremely delicate and small, I almost missed seeing them. They are in the Ranunculaceae (Buttercup) family and are the first spring flower in upper elevations.

These last two flowers are also unknown. The first one is extremely tiny-2mm. They were growing with the patch of Blue Eyes Mary's of which I took the above photo.

These were growing on the very sunny top of a mountain along with Spring Beautys.

By the time we got out of the mountains, it was well into dinner time, so we took Cable home, then went out for dinner at the Chinese restaurant in Rathdrum, Wha Hing, and I had a very tasty dinner of Sweet and Sour Pork, Almond Chicken, Fried Rice, and Chicken Chow Mein. It was all very delicious.

Speaking of Cable, she had a fabulous time.