We need the tonic of wildness. . .
We can never have enough nature. . .
We need to witness our own limits transgressed,
and some life pasturing freely
where we never wander.
~Henry David Thoreau

The flowers in these photos are not refined nor polished like the ones often planted and sown in garden plots, but in their wildness and in spite of their neglect they possess a kind of rough elegance.  The fact that they are abused by the elements and thrive in poor terrain increases their charms even more.  In their unbridled wildness they refuse to pass into nothingness and continue to attract, please, and delight mortals as well as wildlife. They may “make no claim to beauty;” but nevertheless, elements of beauty are inherently present in their countenance.  And their presence speaks as loudly of their Maker as anything else in Creation.

You crown the year with Your bounty, and Your carts overflow with abundance.  The grasslands of the wilderness overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness.  ~Psalm 65:11-12