Remains of a Mexican hat colony
Click for better clarity and larger size.
Even while spring is beginning to make its presence felt in Austin, as you saw from the last two posts and earlier ones of agarita buds and elbowbush flowers, the dried-out remains of last year’s plants still predominate. Here’s what was left of a colony of Mexican hats, Ratibida columnifera, on an embankment in Great Hills Park on February 5th. Some of you may recall seeing a closeup of one of these seed head remains early last November; it was just a few feet away from where I saw this sight. If you’d like to compare the dry colony to its former fresh and flowering self, you can check out a photograph taken last June a little further down the same embankment on another day of wispy clouds.
© 2013 Steven Schwartzman
Your photo has rhythm…
and blues.
I like it.
Lynda
February 19, 2013 at 6:36 am
Thanks for saying so in that unique way. You really rock… and roll.
Steve Schwartzman
February 19, 2013 at 6:42 am
Très belle photo, j’ai été voir en fleurs et c’est assez spectaculaire.
Bonne soirée Steve
chatou11
February 19, 2013 at 10:29 am
Je suis content que tu aies été voir en fleurs et que ça t’ait plu. Ici, c’est midi et le soleil est glorieux.
Steve Schwartzman
February 19, 2013 at 12:02 pm
I know I’m supposed to be looking at the seed heads, but that sky is gorgeous and jumped out of the photo at me! Wonderful!
Cathy
February 19, 2013 at 10:43 am
Hope it didn’t knock you over when it jumped out. There’s no additional charge, by the way, for spending extra time on the clouds.
Steve Schwartzman
February 19, 2013 at 12:04 pm
This photo is the sky as Cathy has already written in the comment before me. However, the dried stalks and seed heads are pretty standing against a blue sky.
petspeopleandlife
February 19, 2013 at 11:44 am
It was the combination of the scraggly and the wispy that appealed to me, as well as the difference in color between the plants and the sky. (Although the plants were standing, I had to lie down to get them to line up with the clouds.)
Steve Schwartzman
February 19, 2013 at 12:39 pm
it’s as if that row of mexican hats is propelling the clouds up and away! Love this composition!
SmallHouseBigGarden
February 19, 2013 at 2:55 pm
Glad you like it. I kept positioning myself in different ways and this one pleased me the most, with the tallest Mexican hats going up into that blue indentation in the bottom of the clouds.
Steve Schwartzman
February 19, 2013 at 5:14 pm
It’s wonderful how “wintery” this looks. Dried plants often keep the browns, russets and sepias of fall, but this group’s silvery gray is lovely and cool.
shoreacres
February 21, 2013 at 6:55 pm
Technically February 5 is the middle of winter, though we in Texas aren’t fooled by the seasons laid out in a calendar made for Europeans. You’re right that this groups silvery gray makes it stand out from the many shades of brown that predominate in other remains at this time of year.
Steve Schwartzman
February 21, 2013 at 9:21 pm