As sunset approaches, a horse grazes contentedly at the base of a pecan tree, while across Piney Woods Church Road, a mother cow gives her new calf an evening tongue bath.
Jul 302014
Jul 172014
Here is another photograph I took of the old tulip poplar late this morning, this time with a small brown bird (a.k.a., little brown job) perched on the fence wire. After the thought, I considered how much more splendid this photo would be if I had only used a polarizing filter….
Jul 172014
A friend and Piney Woods Church Road resident reminded me yesterday afternoon that I have taken very few photographs of the road itself, for all my travels upon it. This photograph does not actually remedy that situation, though a few other tulip poplar photos I took this morning do include the road edge. It does add to the small collection of landscape photographs I have taken on my journey, reminders that all wonders are not on the macro scale, hidden under leaves or among the threads of a spider’s web. This aged tulip poplar, scarred by a past lightning strike, greets me every day on my pilgrimage. This post is dedicated to Mark Hirsch, whose work with That Tree helped inspire the Piney Woods Church Road Project.
Jun 212014
Along Piney Woods Church Road, a barbed wire fence holds back the surge of pasture grasses; across the line, the grass is meticulously maintained. I love the flow of light through the pasture in the early morning hours.
Jun 172014
I arrived to Piney Woods Church Road near sunset, after an evening thunderstorm. The lighting was marvelous; for a few minutes, the sun on its descent emerged from the clouds to shine a brilliant yellow-orange low in the sky.
Jun 162014
Late this afternoon I sauntered down Piney Woods Church Road, hoping to obtain a few photos of plant leaves in golden-hour sunlight. I was startled — and delighted — to see young calves out in the pasture with their mothers. According to a neighbor, the calves are probably less than a week old. In this photograph, a new mother nuzzles her young charge.
Jun 092014
After several weeks of practically no flowers apart from the ubiquitous daisy fleabane (and a few out-of-season wisteria blossoms), imagine my delight to encounter a lone daylily (Hemerocallis sp.) blossom in brilliant orange, growing beside a cattle pasture fence post. Originally native to Asia, daylilies have been widely cultivated throughout the United States; the escaped cultivars are a common sight along many roadsides this time of year. The flower head is edible, tasting like slightly sweet lettuce, adding a splash of color to a salad. Since there was only one blossom, though, I contented myself with taking a few photos, leaving it for the admiration of future passersby.
Jun 092014
It was a lovely, somewhat steamy late-spring afternoon, and the bees were busily at work along Piney Woods Church Road, dashing from clover to clover. I watched one highly enthusiastic bumblebee darting from one flower head to the next, with each new landing causing the blossom to flop over onto the ground. I suppose, given the clover’s need to get pollinated, it was worth the weight.
Jun 082014
The wood oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) whose tawny dry stalks I had photographed in January have re-emerged from the ground with broad green blades and seeds just beginning to develop. Along a roadside rich in European “weeds”, wood oats are native to the Southeast, produce edible seeds, and have even been cultivated as a grain.
May 302014
In this humble photograph, a lone tree catkin dangles from a barbed wire fence by silken threads. It is Day 150, and there is so much more of the commonplace yet to be encountered — things like this catkin that I continue to pass over every day, until one day I will glimpse them, as if for the first time.
