Making the most of the short summer

My office building is surrounded by buttercups. I love the way the bright yellow flowers make everything seem so cheerful, even the old, falling-down wooden house and the rusting fire hydrant. It was so sunny yesterday that my coworker, Darcel, and I had to spend a little time outside and didn't want to go back inside to sit at our desks. Later, Rich and I tried to take another hike, this time out past a waterfall at the end of the valley. Unfortunately, my on-call cell phone ran out of signal and we could not keep going (not to mention the fact that the trail ended at the water and we would have had to choose another path to continue anyway). My favorite photographer Rich captured this bee enjoying the nectar of the Aleutian lupine, cousin to our Texas bluebonnets.