Saturday Sedum Watch: Celebrating Black and Gold – Alexandra’s Graduation!

How quickly life changes and moves on to a new chapter.

Last week, I was sad about the dry parched sedums looking straggly and not very vibrant.

This week, after intermittent showers passed through Comfort, a slight stem restoration from the drink of water, along with a greater number of sedums coming into bloom, masked the stress of thirst and cast a stronger yellow color to the sedum site than the week before.

The final chapter to this sedum watch may turn out ok after all!

Wednesday morning, under gray skies and spitting mist, Jim, Jimmy and I started a road trip west to Colorado. We stopped by the ranch as we headed out I-10, so the following sedum photos were taken a few days ago.

The short intermixed blades of grass are still brown,

but the clusters of sedums at their peak are fighting to dominate the scene.

Some sedum stems have turned into thin strands,

barely supporting their bright star-like blooms.

Other strands have given way — their falling stars on the path to their last light.

Dry but deeper soil supports more quenched sedums still green with succulent leaves.

The yellow bloom is the same on both parched and satiated stems — equally beautiful — just a different color contrast.

The same color combinations of the blooming sedums is found on a blooming prickly pear, also nearing the end of its spring flowering show.

As I quickly snapped pictures for this short sedum report, I couldn’t help smiling when I saw the contrast of yellow against the black soil.

For I was heading to a different celebration of black and gold.

Almost 22 years ago, when Alexandra was born, we began the most brilliant chapter of our lives — the season of parenthood. Now, we are on a road trip to celebrate her graduation from the University of Colorado.