Dewdrops on yellow and red
On the sunny morning of September 25th we walked around in and near southeast Austin’s Springfield (Neighborhood) Park for the first time in ages. We found that the recent cool-down of overnight temperatures had brought plenty of morning dew. The first picture shows a dewdrop-covered head of Helenium amarum var. amarum, known as yellow bitterweed. I was also happy to find the year of the Mexican hat (Ratibida columnifera) continuing, with some new flowers appearing even this late in the season:
And here’s a related quotation for today: “Manners are the happy ways of doing things…. If they are superficial, so are the dewdrops, which give such a depth to the morning meadow.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Dewdrops always add a lot.
Steve Gingold
September 30, 2020 at 5:08 AM
For once I could match your northern norm for dew.
Steve Schwartzman
September 30, 2020 at 5:34 AM
Fresh and beautiful as the dewdrops you photographed and perfectly matched with RWE quote.
marina kanavaki
September 30, 2020 at 5:14 AM
Let’s mention, after Marina has insightfully had her say, that Herse (Ἑρση) was the Greek goddess of dew.
Steve Schwartzman
September 30, 2020 at 5:46 AM
😉
marina kanavaki
September 30, 2020 at 5:49 AM
💧💧
Steve Schwartzman
September 30, 2020 at 6:02 AM
A certain English governess has nothing on us:
Dewdrops on blossoms and grasses from prairies;
Bright yellow centers and petals so airy;
Drying brown seed heads long past their Spring;
These are a few of my favorite things.
shoreacres
September 30, 2020 at 9:05 AM
The governess had nothing on us indeed. I think Hammerstein would approve. After all, he wrote English words for an updated black American version of Carmen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Jones_(film).
Steve Schwartzman
September 30, 2020 at 2:07 PM
This was completely new to me. How I missed knowing about it, I’m not sure, but that’s quite a list of people involved with the project. It’s an inexpensive rent on Amazon Prime, and I’ve added it to my watch list.
shoreacres
October 2, 2020 at 6:40 AM
Happy viewing. I’m not sure when I first saw Carmen Jones, but it could have been as far back as college. In high school I had the libretto of the original opera and would read along while listening listening to a recording. learned a lot of French that way, and some of the lyrics are still in my head.
Steve Schwartzman
October 2, 2020 at 7:48 AM
Dewdrops on flower petals have always fascinated me. They add beauty of the flower as your photos clearly show today.
Peter Klopp
September 30, 2020 at 9:30 AM
I’ll bet in your colder climate you get a lot more dew than we do in central Texas. For me the heavy dew last week was a relative rarity that I wasn’t about to pass up.
Steve Schwartzman
September 30, 2020 at 2:21 PM
Wonderful photos. Water droplets add so much.
lulu
September 30, 2020 at 9:39 AM
Yes, they do. I was happy when I saw how heavily the dew had settled on some of our wildflowers. I’ll show one more in an upcoming post.
Steve Schwartzman
September 30, 2020 at 2:24 PM
Love the drops!
Tina
September 30, 2020 at 3:35 PM
I photographed a good half-dozen kinds of wildflowers with dewdrops on them that morning. One of the others is forthcoming next week.
Steve Schwartzman
September 30, 2020 at 3:44 PM
Oh how pretty!!
M.B. Henry
September 30, 2020 at 4:44 PM
Agreed. It was an uncommon and therefore welcome opportunity.
Steve Schwartzman
September 30, 2020 at 5:58 PM
Dew adds much to the appeal of flowers.
Eliza Waters
September 30, 2020 at 8:03 PM
So much so that some flower photographers carry a sprayer around with them. I’ve never sone that.
Steve Schwartzman
September 30, 2020 at 9:15 PM
The bedewed and bejeweled blossoms indeed give a depth to the morning meadow and put a smile on the faces of those lucky enough to witness it.
tanjabrittonwriter
September 30, 2020 at 9:36 PM
A smile on the faces and soaked shoes on the feet. The latter was worth it.
Steve Schwartzman
September 30, 2020 at 9:39 PM
The things some of us take into account to get the photo…
tanjabrittonwriter
September 30, 2020 at 10:16 PM
Nature’s kiss of morning passes quickly in the slightest of breezes. It appears you were out and about early enough to catch these beauties at their peak! The Mexican hat just keeps on giving this year, doesn’t it?
Littlesundog
October 1, 2020 at 5:06 AM
Fortunately the dew lasted long enough for me to take some more droplets-on-wildflowers pictures on the way back to the car. I’ll have at least one of those in an upcoming post. And yes, my Year of the Mexican hat has continued.
Steve Schwartzman
October 1, 2020 at 6:55 AM
Glorious Steve … super colours damp with the morning
Julie@frogpondfarm
October 5, 2020 at 12:19 PM
I suspect you have a lot more dew where you are than we do in central Texas.
Steve Schwartzman
October 5, 2020 at 1:18 PM
I’m especially fond of Heleniums, with their scalloped petals, and am seldom out and about in time to see dew, so this is very nice.
melissabluefineart
November 1, 2020 at 10:32 AM
We have several Helenium species here. Like you, I’m not often out super early, in addition to which we seldom get such heavy dew here, so that excursion was a welcome rarity. I photographed dew-covered flowers of half a dozen species that morning. The only other one I showed was:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2020/10/14/dew-covered-rain-lilies/
Steve Schwartzman
November 1, 2020 at 2:09 PM
Delightful, but I can’t say I agree with ol’ Ben on that one.
melissabluefineart
November 6, 2020 at 7:51 AM
Then you can attach whatever lesson you like, if any, to those dew-spangled rain lilies.
Steve Schwartzman
November 6, 2020 at 8:00 AM
That is an interesting point. Over the years I’ve been startled by people attaching meaning to things they see in nature, because as a visual person I don’t at all. I see the beauty, and with my science background I see that meaning, but never do I see anything metaphysical. Do you?
melissabluefineart
November 6, 2020 at 8:20 AM
It seems to be human nature to want to attach meaning to occurrences or to the way things are. I used to think about the world more metaphysically, but not much now.
Steve Schwartzman
November 6, 2020 at 9:16 AM