Walking the Wall

I couldn’t resist this heading when I thought of it. The moment went something like this:

We were walking along the wall around Xia’anmen. All around were fields of sunflowers, wheat and corn when I noticed a small group of wildflowers at our feet.

Me: “You know, there are so many flowers out now we really should write something about them.”

Brendan: “Yeah.”

Silence.

Me: “Hey, we could put photos up on the blog and call it Wallflowers.”

Brendan rolls his eyes. Flowers schmowers. He gives in and we take off our packs and pull out our cameras.

Wildflowers are relegated to second place in the Gansu Corridor. In the heavily irrigated stretch of land bordered by rugged mountains and deserts, sunflowers, watermelon and corn have, for hundreds of years, pushed the delicate wildflowers to the edges of the fields.

But the distance between the populated, agricultural areas and the desert is sometimes only a matter of feet. It is in this small area that we find the wildflowers, nowhere near as abundant as the crops, but a lot more colourful when you get down on your stomach and look at them.

Of course, not all the flowers we’ve seen are wild, and not all are at field’s edge. We’re not sure, but we think the flowers shown below are harvested for use in dyes.

And because sunflowers are so beautiful, we couldn’t let this photo go by without a showing. Or maybe it’s because the sunflower is the state flower of the mighty state of Kansas, we forget which.

Sorry New South Welshpersons, no waratahs out here