The blooms of flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) are long past now, but the trees still bring beauty to my walk. In this image, a lone dogwood leaf glows in the early morning sunlight.
May 042014
May 042014
On the 124th day of my year-long journey, a leaf of an air potato vine (Discorya sp.) is backlit by the morning sun filtering through the trees along Piney Woods Church Road.
May 032014
The leaves of a sourwood sapling glow in the late-afternoon sunlight along Piney Woods Church Road.
May 022014
The late-day light swept across the cattle pasture, illuminating the white clover growing there in abundance. There is such beauty in everyday rural landscapes.
May 022014
With today’s project, I reach a third of the way through a year along Piney Woods Church Road. I continue to feel immense gratitude that there is so much that is wondrous yet to discover on my journey. Lately, I have become entranced with the play of light. Late this afternoon, I set out with my wife and our four small dogs on a walk there, my expectations tempered by a mostly cloudy sky. As we walked, though, the sunlight emerged and lit the woods and pastures ablaze with yellow-gold. In this photo, the leaves of this greenbrier are glowing brightly, as if caught up in a dance of light.
May 012014
Here is a series of rather experimental images from this evening, a few minutes before sunset. I am fascinated by meadow silhouettes; they remind me of my childhood experiments with Solargraphics paper. I recall placing flowers and leaves onto the paper, leaving it out in the sunlight, and creating a silhouette image as a result.
Apr 302014
A couple of days ago, I photographed this plant with tiny yellow flowers (less than half an inch across), flourishing in a ditch along Piney Woods Church Road. I have held off posting it, pending an identification. After poring over several wildflower guides, to no avail, I put the task to my Plant Identification Facebook group. Wow, how helpful everyone was! After several suggestions from others and a bit more research on my own, I am fairly confident that this plant is Southern Ragwort (Packera anonyma), a perennial native herb. Traditionally used by Native Americans to prevent pregnancy and treat heart trouble, the plant contains toxins and therefore should be used medicinally only with extreme caution.
Apr 302014
After overnight rain, I set out down Piney Woods Church Road, noticing how the flow of water was already changing the newly-graded road surface, forming shallow channels where the water flowed, and excavating new potholes (or exhuming old ones?). One particular tulip poplar leaf caught my attention. On its underside were perched several minute water droplets, like temporary worlds. I saw a tiny black form swimming in one of the droplets; I suspect that a microscope would reveal many more.
Apr 292014
Today on my walk along Piney Woods Church Road, I encounter a purple bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) just coming into bloom, nestled in a grassy ditch, as if trying to hide from passersby. I expect it will not last long there; the resident and dear friend who owns that property is not at all fond of them, because the seeds disperse widely and readily, and invariably the plant crops up in his horse pastures. But for this moment, this Eurasian flower adds a lovely splash of color to an otherwise rather barren spot of ground, and I pause to enjoy its prickly form against the surrounding grasses, roadway, and sky.
Apr 282014
A cow watched me warily as I approached along Piney Woods Church Road. Another cow, meanwhile, grazed contentedly in the background.
