Along Piney Woods Church Road, the earliest to bloom of the red maples have begun producing seeds. These nascent maple keys have not yet developed their final shape, but are merely tiny, oval forms suspended where the flowers used to be.
Mar 222014
Mar 212014
Again, I set out to find new wildflowers, to no avail. The catkins on a couple of trees are nearly in bloom, but not yet. It is still the time of year when henbit and bluet hold sway. So I found some more red and brown leaves, instead. I sat down at the side of the road to photograph a couple of greenbrier leaves; midway through, I looked through the viewfinder toward the space just in front of me, and became entranced by long, thin blades of dry grass, making twirling forms in the breeze. Not exactly springlike, but still beautiful.
Tomorrow I will go in search of last autumn’s leaves. Maybe that way I will find a new flower in bloom along Piney Woods Church Road.
Mar 202014
On this first day of spring, I set out down Piney Woods Church Road in search of an appropriately evocative subject for a portrait. I was hoping for another spring wildflower — purple violets are blooming today in my backyard, and I was expecting I might find one on my stroll. The only flower in bloom along the roadside that I have not documented in this blog is a tiny yellow blossom with a green center that belongs to a weed that prefers wet places and stalwartly resists being brought into focus in my lens, despite several days, wet shoes, and muddy cuffs.
What caught my eye, instead, was a minute red leaf, the size of my pinky fingernail (and I have small hands). It was one leaf of only a few, on a roadside plant I could not identify (mostly because there was so little of it present in the first place). The plant appeared to have been mowed, or cropped by a horse or a deer. The leaf was such a brilliant red color that I felt called upon to photograph it.
There is something delightfully symmetrical about this picture, evoking autumn on the first day of spring. I am reminded of the Chinese yin-yang symbol, in which both dark and light contain within themselves a circle of the other. In this same way, my spring walk contained, as well, a reminder of the autumn to come.
But for now, bring on the wildflowers!
Mar 192014
There is such grace and beauty in the curving form of a single blade of onion grass growing along the roadside. To think that we consider it a common weed, and spray it with chemicals to remove it from our lawns….
Being unable to decide whether I prefer the image in color or black-and-white, I am posting both forms below; I welcome reader comments.
Mar 182014
What can be more Georgia than this: loblolly pines reflected in water tinted red with Georgia red clay?
Mar 172014
Along Piney Woods Church Road, a ditch filled with water after two days of rain reflects trees, barbed wire fencing, and sky. There is so much to stop and notice on the edges of our vision, out of the corners of our eyes…
Mar 162014
After many hours of heavy rainfall, I set out today along Piney Woods Church Road, stopping at ruts, potholes, and ditches to see what I might discover there. I took a number of reflection photos, but my favorite is this one, with its bright splashes of color from the fallen leaves that have collected on the water surface.
Mar 152014
On my late afternoon walk, I discovered the cocoon of a promethea moth (Callosamia promethea), partially encased in a brown leaf and hanging from a shrub along the roadside. Based upon the mass of the cocoon and the absence of any holes in it, I am fairly confident that a moth is waiting inside for the right moment to emerge, later this spring. I wonder if I will be there when it happens?
Mar 142014
Throughout the neighborhood (including across my own front yard), Bradford pear trees are in bloom. Their flowers are a brilliant white, with a perfume, well, something like a cross between slaking concrete and ammonia. They are perhaps best admired from a distance — in this case, along Piney Woods Church Road. Beyond the Bradford pear, a maple tree is in bloom. Spring is only a week away.
Mar 132014
As we approach the middle of March, spring is getting well underway along the roadside where Piney Woods Church Road meets Hutcheson Ferry Road. Now henbits, bluets, hoary bittercresses, and other ruderal wildflowers begin to carpet the margin with dots of color — whites, blues, and purples. There is a sense of celebration in the air.
