I have been watching the red-hot poker plants by my mailbox for a week or two.  Initially, I thought they were simply not going to bloom this year … another oddity to attribute to the winter and spring we’ve had this year, but about a week ago the flower heads popped up.  They wasted no time in reaching for the sky and showing off the colors that have earned them their name.   The sky today was brilliantly blue.  A single puffy cloud was passing over and it stuck me that it would be a perfect backdrop for the flowers.   I had to crouch down in the ditch to get an angle that would put the flowers in front of the sky/cloud.