Paloverde pod

Speaking of a paloverde tree, Parkinsonia aculeata, whose green branches and leaves served as an out-of-focus background yesterday for a colorful prairie flameleaf sumac, Rhus lanceolata, here’s a closeup showing the tip of one of the paloverde’s slender, hanging pods. The flameleaf sumac is back to serving as a background, one even more happily out of focus than in the view from two posts ago. Call this minimalism when it comes to composition but maximalism when it comes to color.

As was true for the last two pictures, this hue-topian vision comes from a visit on November 20 to an undeveloped property behind Seton Northwest Hospital, whose name tells you what part of Austin it and I are in. (It’s common for “he and I” or “she and I” to serve as the subject of a clause, but “it and I” is rare. I imagine that’s because “it” is normally non-human while “I” is human, and we don’t expect a member of one of those realms to be coordinated with a member of the other realm.)

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman