Day 91: Waiting for the Leaves

 Backyard Nature, Native Plants, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project  No Responses »
Apr 012014
 

I am embarrassed — quite literally — by the riches of this springtime.  Again and again, I find myself at a loss as to what a blooming roadside weed, shrub, or even tree might be.  Today, along Piney Woods Church Road, I encountered a tree, still devoid of leaves, holding clusters of brightly glowing tiny yellow blooms.  I scanned my tree field guides and hundreds of images on the Internet in vain.  I suspect it is a tree of which I am quite familiar, but one that I have never noticed in blossom before.  Over the years, I have spent many spring days in search of woodland wildflowers, learning their forms and habits.  Yet I have never bothered to learned to identify trees by their blooms.  I suppose I will have to wait for the leaves…..

Addendum:  On April 3rd, I finally figured out what these blossoms are:  sassafras (Sassafras albidum).  Compare the image below to this one.

Waiting for the Leaves

 

Day 90: A Lovely Spring Afternoon

 Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Mar 312014
 

I wasn’t certain what to call today’s photograph, which shows the leaves unfurling on another shrub along Piney Woods Church Road.  I have not been able to identify the plant yet, embarrassingly common though it is along the roadside.  I have a longer list of what it is not, but that doesn’t help much with figuring out a label.  I took this photograph on a lovely spring afternoon, and I think it captures well the grace and vibrancy of this time of year, when the land, dormant for this past long winter, is bursting with new life.

Lovely Spring Afternoon

Humblebee or Dumbledore

 Backyard Nature, Insects, Natural History  No Responses »
Mar 312014
 

I have always been fond of bumblebees.  They have a charming furriness about them, and they are not very aggressive toward humans — certainly compared with paper wasps and yellowjackets.  They have such charming alternative early English names, too — the drumbledrane, the dumbledore, or, the one which Charles Darwin knew them by, the humblebee.  I photographed this one ambling from one henbit bloom to another on a delightfully mild spring afternoon.

Humblebee

Day 89: Fallen Cedar

 Backyard Nature, Geometry and Nature, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project  No Responses »
Mar 302014
 

I have been reading lately about the Miksang way of photography, also known as contemplative photography — an approach inspired by Tibetan Buddhism.  The central premise of Miksang (which means “good eye” in Tibetan) is that photography can emerge out of flashes of pure perception — sudden moments when some aspect of the world around us impinges upon our consciousness in a powerful and immediate way.  When we train ourselves to tune into those experiences, we can use a camera as a way of creating equivalents — visual representations of them.

This is all a long-winded explanation for why I ended up taking this photograph of a single branch of cedar lying in a mud rut along Piney Woods Church Road today.

Fallen Cedar

 

The Bee Fly

 Backyard Nature, Insects  No Responses »
Mar 292014
 

It’s a moth….  It’s a bee….  It’s a fly….

I have to admit that, as flies go, the black-tailed bee fly (Bombylius major) is quite attractive — a hedgehog with wings.  Admittedly, one has to get past its rather long and pointy proboscis.  But that is a tool for sipping nectar, not causing harm.  The flies hover like hummingbirds over flowers, their beating wings generating a high-pitched whining sound.  Bee fly larvae parasitize the larvae of solitary bees and consume their food stores.  The adult bee flies supposedly emerge from their underground bee burrows in early summer; this particular one seems to be a couple of months early.

Bee Fly One

Bee Fly Two

More Images on a Rainy Day

 Backyard Nature, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Mar 282014
 

Here are two more photographs from a rainy day walk along Piney Woods Church Road.  The first is another water droplet beside the road; the second is yet another image of tulip poplar leaves opening.  I can imagine an entire gallery space filled solely with images of tulip poplar buds and leaves in early springtime….

1-DSC08595

Another Tulip Poplar

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