On a day that featured bright warm sun at times and cold, wind-driven snow at others, it was great being outside. My accomplishments were minor: I caught a Brown trout and a Rainbow and released both, hiked about 7 miles in total and in between the snow storms snapped two photos that I really like. Taking the risk of boring everyone with more photos of these early wildflowers, here they are:
A Buttercup in the morning’s frost.
The prettiest little Yellowbell I’ve seen yet.
Montana Outdoors 
Don’t worry about ever boring me with your beautiful photographs of the beautiful little flowers. They bring joy to my heart. 😀
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Comment by Sara — March 28, 2008 @ 9:16 pm
Here in Minnesota we take the tiniest hints of spring very seriously – I cannot see enough spring flowers – keep ‘m coming!!
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Comment by Sandy — March 28, 2008 @ 9:53 pm
Thank you, Sara!
They bring joy to me too. Even though there are only a few species blooming already, the ones that are out seem to be larger and brighter than usual. Today it seemed that the buttercups were everywhere. I hope we never lose that bit of child within us that still considers them so special!
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Comment by montucky — March 28, 2008 @ 10:13 pm
Thanks, Sandy!
I feel the same way about the spring flowers. I think you have had a much harder and longer winter than we have.
As I recall now there will be a couple more weeks before the next types of wildflowers start blooming. I will try to be patient!
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Comment by montucky — March 28, 2008 @ 10:28 pm
Love the flower pictures. Your photos are gorgeous – so detailed. Signs of spring are reassuring – yesterday it snowed all day here (Seattle), even though it was 37 degrees. I’ve never seen that before!
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Comment by Sue — March 29, 2008 @ 9:38 am
I love the flower photos! Gives me hope that we’ll be seeing more of them here soon.
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Comment by AK_Adventurer — March 29, 2008 @ 10:08 am
Those yellowbells are completely adorable! I wish I ran into some over here – I doubt it we’re now under six inches of snow and sadly, the plow guy is down sick. 😦 I’m glad you posted these they are just about pretty as it gets.
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Comment by aullori — March 29, 2008 @ 10:19 am
If anyone complains about your photos being boring, you send them to…Wolf. Yeah, Wolf will take care of those chronic complainers. I’d do it myself, but I have to get these dishes done.
Keep those pictures flowing. Birds, beasts, flowers or mountains. I haven’t seen a picture of yours yet that I felt wasn’t well worth my time to view.
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Comment by Pinhole — March 29, 2008 @ 12:36 pm
Sue,
We often get snow at temps above freezing in springtime, but I know you don’t get much snow in Seattle. I lived there about three years and we only had snow on the ground once. We had snow on the ground here this morning too, but the early flowers are hardy little things and I guess it doesn’t bother them.
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Comment by montucky — March 29, 2008 @ 3:24 pm
AK Adventurer,
Yes it’s really nice to see the blossoms again! We haven’t really started to warm up much yet either, but enough for a few flowers. It’s a real “pick-up” for the spirit!
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Comment by montucky — March 29, 2008 @ 3:26 pm
Lori,
Wow, you got a lot of snow! We just had a trace her last night, but I just saw a train coming from your direction and there was a pretty good amount of snow on it!
I’m finally happy with that yellowbell photo. Their color is so subtle they are extremely difficult to photograph, for me at least. Wonderful little flowers though!
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Comment by montucky — March 29, 2008 @ 3:29 pm
Thanks, Pinhole!
Yes, I’ll keep shooting and hopefully the weather will get a little better and more of the flowers will get started. There have been quite a few days like today was, where it’s cloudy and dark, snowed off and on, and it never did get out of the 30’s. That was OK today though because I had 5 hours of super good hands-on training with the fire department on extrication equipment (the “Jaws of life”) and techniques, and the lousy weather made it realistic. Didn’t get to chase any flowers though!
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Comment by montucky — March 29, 2008 @ 3:36 pm
Nothing boring about those flowers! Another 7 miles? Good. Over in another blog, FF&F told me that as fast as you walk, you could have gotten to Jefferson in time for the folk music show last night. That reminded me, that I’ve been doing too much sitting and not enough walking. I need to get back in shape before arriving in Montana in early August.
Malcolm
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Comment by knightofswords — March 30, 2008 @ 10:38 am
You should have enough time before August. I see they have the plows out in Glacier now and should have Going to the Sun ready for you by the time you get there! The new superintendent should be all checked in by then too.
This year I’ve been pretty diligent about keeping in hiking shape. I actually haven’t let up much at all since the first of last year. Right now one of the the biggest advantages I feel from it is that my legs are stronger than they have been in many years when climbing or descending steep areas.
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Comment by montucky — March 30, 2008 @ 4:11 pm
montucky ~ if it’s not white or brown, I’ thrilled to see your flower photos. Yellow ~ perfect.
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Comment by barbara — March 31, 2008 @ 9:16 am
Thanks, Barbara!
I’m looking forward to seeing your photos of all the flowers that are still hiding under all that snow!
Most of Montana south of us got pretty well dumped on last night and we had a little here. The news this morning said the Highway Patrol dispatchers had so many accident calls they didn’t have time to add up the numbers. I slept lightly last night waiting for my pager to go off but it didn’t.
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Comment by montucky — March 31, 2008 @ 9:46 am