Buttercups Despite - Missoula, Montana

“Yellow is my favorite, but what is yellow? Handmaiden to white, it is a slight tarnish of pure light. Take away a bit of whites absolute luminosity, and what remains is yellow -- sunlike, golden as a crown, buttercups in a field, marsh marigolds, a finch's wing, a plastic flute.”

- Richard Grossinger

(& yes, this photo was taken earlier in the spring...)

Wayside Flower, Middle of Montana

One of my all-time favourite books & movie is "The Scarlet Pimpernel" by Baroness Orczy. A "scarlet pimpernel" is famously described as "...a humble English wayside flower...", and is the undercover pseudonym of the Baroness's fictional hero of the French Revolution, Sir Percy Blakeney. (The story still inspires some hard-core fans, as you'll see if you click on the text links I've included!)

These humble wayside flowers of Montana are more at a black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta).While I haven't heard that they've inspired any literary superheros, they were favourite characters of my childhood walks to town, smiling with unfailing cheer from the grassy ditches lining our dusty, country road.