A Favorite

This is one of the favorite flowers I photographed yesterday during a wildflower hike organized by the Chemeketans. I was captivated by the beautiful colors of this very small plant, but it wasn’t until I got home and went through a number of flower guide books that I figured out its rather ugly name, Common Dead Nettle. It’s an introduced species, and in all honesty, I guess is considered a weed, but I like it anyway. The hike took place in the Columbia Gorge at the Catherine Creek Recreation Area on the Washington side of the Columbia River.  It’s an outstanding area that I have hiked a lot in past years every spring, so it brought back many great memories.  I took over fifty photos, so it’s going to be awhile before I get everything sorted out, edited, organized and included in Cascade Ramblings.