Woke up this morning to find freshly fallen snow : (

I love photographing these gorgeous Globe Thistles at any stage. This one was growing at the Reader Rock Garden on 7 August 2013. In Calgary, we have seen them growing wild at one of the natural areas (can't think of the name of the place, as it's not a place we normally go to). Not sure, but I believe this is Echinops ritro.

"Echinops ( /ˈɛkɨnɒps/) is a genus of about 120 species of thistles in the daisy family Asteraceae, commonly known as globe thistles. They are native to Europe east to central Asia and south to the mountains of tropical Africa." From Wikipedia.