More from the Kelly Hamby Nature Trail
The previous post showed you six of the things we saw on October 6th at the Kelly Hamby Nature Trail on the south shore of the peninsula that’s across the bridge from the west end of Galveston Island. Now here are another half-dozen finds.
Trailing fuzzybean, Strophostyles helvola
Drying pod of a trailing fuzzybean, Strophostyles helvola
American oystercatcher, Haematopus palliatus
Purple beach morning glory bud, Ipomoea pes-caprae
Purple beach morning glory flower, Ipomoea pes-caprae
Barnacle shells on a larger shell
While that last picture may not be entirely “natural,” holding the shell up against the clouds seemed like a natural enough thing to do for the sake of a good portrait. Magritte or another Surrealist painter could’ve shown the entire shell floating in the clouds.
© 2019 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
These are a few of my favourite things; birds, flowers, and oddities.
Gallivanta
October 21, 2019 at 5:45 AM
Shades of Rodgers and Hammerstein again. As for the first and last in your trio, I’m something of a rara avis myself.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 6:54 AM
With a comment like this, I don’t doubt it. Gave me a good smile on my way to bed.
Gallivanta
October 21, 2019 at 8:16 AM
Pleasant dreams.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 8:20 AM
Very nice series of images Steve! Enjoyed seeing them!
Reed Andariese
October 21, 2019 at 6:40 AM
As I enjoyed taking them, so we’ve covered both ends of the transaction.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 6:55 AM
I missed the barnacle shell! Too right about the Magritte similarity (which I only just learned about this summer). I’m greatly looking forward to your artistic view of the barnacle covered log. I did the best I could with iPhone, which is arguably not as crisp as a DSLR.
Shannon
October 21, 2019 at 6:44 AM
Cognitive psychologists talk about priming, which is to say predisposing someone toward a certain reaction. Your mention of Magritte apparently primed me to misread the end of the following sentence as a “barnacle-covered dog,” which would indeed have been a surreal sight. More mundanely, I’ll log the log in a future post.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 7:38 AM
By the way, I take it your learning about Magritte this summer may have had something to do with the Menil:
https://www.menil.org/search?query=magritte
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 7:43 AM
It did. Can’t wait to get back there again. Today: Houston Arboretum school field trip. It’s a chore getting into Houston anymore.
Shannon
October 21, 2019 at 10:11 AM
We similarly tend to avoid downtown Austin, which is about 10 miles from where we live.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 10:16 AM
However, in an hour and a half we’ll be headed down there for a book signing.
Steve Schwartzman
October 22, 2019 at 4:15 PM
I showed the barnacle-covered tree stump in the post following this one:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/surrealistic-barnacles-continued/
Steve Schwartzman
October 24, 2019 at 8:31 AM
Absolutely Magritte! One doesn’t have to always be natural.
Michael Scandling
October 21, 2019 at 7:27 AM
Or we could say it’s only natural to stretch the definition of natural. Why, it’s second nature.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 7:44 AM
‘Trailing fuzzybean’–I love that name. Are its beans fuzzy? The pod looks smooth, but who knows what’s inside, right? Great shots, all!
Tina
October 21, 2019 at 8:39 AM
What’s not to love in a name like trailing fuzzybean? According to the Wikipedia article about this species, “The fruit of S. helvola is up to 10 cm long, containing shiny black seeds with hairy coats originating from the inner surface of the pods.”
You’ve seen 12 pictures so far from this place and there’ll be at least a few more.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 9:24 AM
Again it is the morning glory that speaks to me through your photo in the most impressive way, Steve. Perhaps it is its emotional aspect as we are heading into winter in our northern latitudes.
Peter Klopp
October 21, 2019 at 9:27 AM
I hope that for the next half-year up there you’ll find ways to substitute winter glories for morning glories.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 10:09 AM
I’ll try.
Peter Klopp
October 22, 2019 at 9:24 PM
Terrific series of nature close-ups, Steve. I love the morning glory bud.
Jane Lurie
October 21, 2019 at 11:02 AM
That bud fascinated me, something that you as a photographer can especially appreciate.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 11:22 AM
Did you shave that bean because it doesn’t look very fuzzy? The morning-glory bud is lovely and the barnacle shells quite cool.
Steve Gingold
October 21, 2019 at 3:20 PM
It seems the fuzziness is inside the pod. According to Wikipedia: “The fruit of S. helvola is up to 10 cm long, containing shiny black seeds with hairy coats originating from the inner surface of the pods.”
Pictorially speaking, I think the picture with the barnacles is the most interesting, even if arranged. On the natural side, the soon-to-unfurl bud had me taking a bunch of pictures.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 5:19 PM
A great collection of images from the trail, Steve.
Ellen Jennings
October 21, 2019 at 4:49 PM
It was a fruitful outing, with this stop alone providing plenty of good things to photograph. There’s still more to come.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 5:21 PM
Always fun when that happens — I look forward to seeing more of your excursion!
Ellen Jennings
October 21, 2019 at 5:40 PM
Yes, what photographer would turn down such bounty?
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 5:41 PM
I figured out your pattern in the last two posts: plant-plant-bird-plant-plant-shell. Intentional? I suspect as much.
tanjabrittonwriter
October 21, 2019 at 5:42 PM
You’ve made an excellent observation. I purposely spread out the animal pictures, though I wasn’t consciously trying for the kind of regularity that you pointed out. In yesterday’s post you’ll also notice that I alternated between horizontal and vertical photographs, something I frequently do if possible.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 7:02 PM
You might have subconsciously followed a pattern, Steve. Our brain is remarkable in looking for patterns.
tanjabrittonwriter
October 21, 2019 at 7:28 PM
Let’s hear it for patterns! (What else would a math teacher say?)
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 9:03 PM
Some former math teacher recently told me about the super-cool pattern of the Fibonacci sequence! 🙂
tanjabrittonwriter
October 21, 2019 at 10:16 PM
And switching to a different sort pattern, did you know that the English word pattern was taken from Old French patron, so that pattern and patron are historically the same word?
Steve Schwartzman
October 22, 2019 at 7:47 AM
I did not, but I know now!
tanjabrittonwriter
October 22, 2019 at 9:37 PM
It’s interesting to me that all of my photos of the beach morning glories, the beach evening primrose, and the trailing fuzzybean all were taken across the bay at the Brazoria refuge, and not a single one at the actual beach. No doubt it’s the sandy soil that’s the commonality.
The barnacled shell is my favorite of the group. I especially like the way the pattern of the barnacles is echoed by the clouds. ‘A cloud-encrusted sky’ seems particularly appropriate for a beach scene.
shoreacres
October 21, 2019 at 9:32 PM
While the sandy soil is a commonality, it’s still strange that you wouldn’t have taken a single picture of those wildflowers at the beach, especially those with “beach” in their common names.
I’m especially fond of the barnacled shells, too, because of the incongruity of the vertical position as well as the clouds for a backdrop (rather than, say, beach sand). “Cloud-encrusted” it is, and gladly so.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 9:49 PM
When I’ve visited the area previously, those particular flowers haven’t been in bloom. I do have some beach primrose photos from the shore of Palacios Bay, and photos of other beach flowers from the Hamby Nature Trail that weren’t anywhere around when we visited, like this wedgeleaf prairie clover and a little gem called cenicilla (Sesuvium portulacastrum) that deserves to be posted.
shoreacres
October 21, 2019 at 10:04 PM
The virtue of living so close is that you get to see these places throughout the seasons. Conversely, when we visited on our one day, we saw only what was blooming then. If only we could lasso the coast and pull it closer.
I remember the tiny grasshopper on the prairie clover.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2019 at 10:10 PM
Very enjoyable details. Thank you for sharing.
Sagittarius Viking
October 22, 2019 at 12:04 PM
Sure thing. Texas offers up a lot of nature.
Steve Schwartzman
October 22, 2019 at 3:26 PM
[…] a comment on the previous post, Shannon Westveer referenced the photograph showing barnacle shells on a larger shell against a […]
Surrealistic barnacles, continued | Portraits of Wildflowers
October 22, 2019 at 4:15 PM
Gorgeous set of photos!
norasphotos4u
October 22, 2019 at 8:22 PM
Thanks, Nora. I had a good time taking them.
Steve Schwartzman
October 22, 2019 at 8:38 PM
Another fabulous collection Steve 👏
Julie@frogpondfarm
October 27, 2019 at 2:27 AM
I could’ve shown even more.
Steve Schwartzman
October 27, 2019 at 8:50 AM
Go on! 🙂
Julie@frogpondfarm
October 27, 2019 at 6:47 PM
I will, but with pictures taken later in the day at the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge.
Steve Schwartzman
October 27, 2019 at 9:30 PM
It’s always fun to see Oystercatchers! We have them out here too, but they’re darker overall but they still have that big red bill. I like the last photo too – very cool.
bluebrightly
November 3, 2019 at 12:28 PM
That last picture is my favorite in this group, too, partly intrinsically and partly due to its surrealistic associations. I know little about birds, but I recognized the name oystercatcher from our second trip to New Zealand: https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2017/05/20/new-zealand-variable-oystercatchers/
Steve Schwartzman
November 3, 2019 at 3:28 PM
The name “oystercatcher” always makes me snicker. I have a mental image of an oyster skipping down the beach with the bird in hot pursuit…
I’ve noticed that you’ve been making surreal comments lately. Is this a new fascination, or a longstanding one? I do like the last image too although the bird is lovely.
melissabluefineart
November 11, 2019 at 8:28 AM
That last picture prompted me to mention Surrealism, which I became aware of in college. I think I knew about Salvador Dalí even earlier.
Steve Schwartzman
November 11, 2019 at 9:22 AM
It’s funny, isn’t it, the “isms” and “schools” of art?
melissabluefineart
November 12, 2019 at 9:04 AM
Funny in some ways, not so funny if you’re working in an out-of-favor style, e.g. a representational painter during the era when abstract expressionism reigned.
Steve Schwartzman
November 12, 2019 at 9:22 AM
Right you are, and I used to agonize over this quite a bit. Not only that, but people frequently dismiss what I’m doing with, “Oh, I see you like Monet.” So insulting. Of course I like Monet, but it is merely a coincidence that we see the world in the same way. I do not seek to paint like him, as so many people have suggested.
melissabluefineart
November 12, 2019 at 3:53 PM
Well, one thing about getting older, for better or worse, is that we’ve seen so many trends come and go and then come back. Nothing new under the sun, and all that.
Steve Schwartzman
November 12, 2019 at 3:57 PM
Yes, and you suddenly realize how little any of it matters. If I’m happy doing my thing, and I am, I couldn’t care less what people think or what “ism” box they want to put me in.
melissabluefineart
November 12, 2019 at 3:59 PM
Amen.
Steve Schwartzman
November 12, 2019 at 4:02 PM