Clematis and clouds
While wandering—but not lonely as a cloud—in the northeast quadrant of Mopac and US 183 on February 27, 2013, I photographed the latter stage of the familiar vine known colloquially as old man’s beard, Clematis drummondii. It’s appeared in these pages probably a dozen times, but never with as dramatic a skyscape as the one from that day two years ago.
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I’m still away from home (barely). You’re welcome to leave comments, but please understand if I’m a bit late in answering.
© 2015 Steven Schwartzman
Large buttercup
On February 27, 2010, I photographed this large buttercup, Ranunculus macranthus, that was opening at McKinney Falls State Park in southeast Austin.
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I’m away from home. You’re welcome to leave comments, but please understand if I’m slow in responding.
© 2015 Steven Schwartzman
Texas mountain laurel with dense flowers
On February 25th, 2013, I photographed a Texas mountain laurel, Sophora secundiflora, that was blossoming its head off. This is the bush whose flowers some people say smell like grape Kool-Aid.
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I’m still away from home. I welcome your comments, but please understand if I’m slow in responding from the other side of the world.
© 2015 Steven Schwartzman
Male cardinal
Here’s a rather soft and impressiony picture of a male cardinal on February 2, 2009, along Bull Creek in my northwestern part of Austin.
As is often the case with birds, the male is much more colorful than the female, as you can confirm in a photograph from 2013.
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I’m away from home. You’re welcome to leave comments, but please understand if I’m slow in responding.
© 2015 Steven Schwartzman
Add red
To the almost monochrome images of the last two photographs taken during the snowfall of February 23, 2010, add this one that includes the familiar red of a possumhaw’s small fruits. Need I say why another vernacular name for Ilex decidua is winterberry?
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I’m still away from home. You’re welcome to leave comments, but please understand if I’m slow in responding.
© 2015 Steven Schwartzman
A change in scale
After the large live oak tree that you saw last time doused in white during the snowfall of February 23, 2010, here’s a change in scale to a prickly pear cactus spine emerging from the snow on that same afternoon.
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I’m away from home. You’re welcome to leave comments, but please understand if I’m slow in responding.
© 2015 Steven Schwartzman
Snow
Austin doesn’t often get snow, but that’s what happened on February 23, 2010, and I went out to take what pictures I could before the snow melted. Here you see a live oak tree, Quercus fusiformis, as it looked on that afternoon.
Those of you in cold climates probably won’t find anything unusual in this photograph, but one thing that might differentiate this tree from any snow-covered oaks you’re used to is that this one has lots of leaves on it. If you look carefully, you might well see some of them.
The photograph may seem to be in black and white, but I took the picture normally and didn’t reduce or eliminate any color after the fact.
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I’m away from home. You’re welcome to leave comments, but please understand if I’m slow in responding.
© 2015 Steven Schwartzman
