Return to Lake Somerville State Park
On March 11th we returned to the Birch Creek Unit at Lake Somerville State Park for the first time since we’d visited a year earlier. In contrast to the later dramatic view in yesterday’s post, the clouds had been soft and white. The yellow flowers are Senecio ampullaceus, known as Texas groundsel or Texas ragwort. The others are bluebonnets, Lupinus texensis.
If clouds be dreams, what pleasant slumbers.
© 2023 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
I would love to have dreams of vistas like those!
Lavinia Ross
March 17, 2023 at 6:30 PM
Then may you have those dreams; they’re yours for the making.
Steve Schwartzman
March 17, 2023 at 7:37 PM
You were lucky to have skies like these in your travels.They certainly contribute a good bit of interest: more than the foggy, milky skies I was blessed with.
I remember that tree. It’s as lovely an accent now as it was then. And your second photo brought to mind the Tallgrass Express String Band’s song, “Clean Curve of Hill Against Sky.” I really like the photo; it’s a nice variation on the prairie theme.
shoreacres
March 17, 2023 at 7:22 PM
Fog and milk have their uses, too. I’ve long wished fog came to Austin more often so I could play around with it photographically.
Yes, that lone tree starred in pictures from our first visit a year earlier. This time I caught it leafing out.
Steve Schwartzman
March 17, 2023 at 7:41 PM
If clouds be dreams, what pleasant slumbers indeed.
And if lupines had any say, being blue would connote a different meaning.
tanjabrittonwriter
March 17, 2023 at 9:57 PM
Two big ifs. It occurs to me that hypothesizing with that word could be called an ifference (rather than an inference or a difference).
With all the pretty shades of blue in the world, it’s strange that “blue” should have come to mean ‘depressed.’ The Online Etymology Dictionary notes that “the figurative meaning ‘sad, sorrowful, afflicted with low spirits’ is from c. 1400, perhaps from the ‘livid’ sense and implying a bruised heart or feelings.”
Steve Schwartzman
March 18, 2023 at 7:09 AM
Speculating about the blue-sad connection could also be considered an ifference, don’t you think? Great word, by the way.
tanjabrittonwriter
March 18, 2023 at 4:15 PM
Yes, another ifference. That word just popped into my head while I was answering your comment. Who knows where such things come from?
Steve Schwartzman
March 18, 2023 at 4:48 PM
They come from the labyrinthine troves of a lifetime of stored words and languages. 👍
tanjabrittonwriter
March 18, 2023 at 7:06 PM
That’s a good explanation.
Steve Schwartzman
March 18, 2023 at 10:21 PM
A lake and acres of wildflowers – heavenly!
Ann Mackay
March 18, 2023 at 5:35 AM
It’s not that common to see a bluebonnet colony by a body of water (at least in my experience), so I take advantage of it when I see it.
Steve Schwartzman
March 18, 2023 at 7:11 AM
A lonely tree in a sea of wildflowers, an awe-inspiring composition!
Peter Klopp
March 18, 2023 at 12:27 PM
One thing’s for sure: I wasn’t lonely among all those wildflowers.
Steve Schwartzman
March 18, 2023 at 1:23 PM
It looks like a Superbloom! It’s lovely. I love that lone tree.
circadianreflections
March 19, 2023 at 12:28 PM
We visited this place for the first time a year ago and it looked equally good. That may be par for the course there in March but I’d need more years of data to know.
Steve Schwartzman
March 19, 2023 at 8:04 PM
These are very pretty. I like the almost pastel tones in these images. A place I wish I could visit.
Alessandra Chaves
March 20, 2023 at 7:53 AM
Maybe next spring?
Steve Schwartzman
March 20, 2023 at 8:09 AM
I like your compositions here. The first one offers a sense of place and the second is more mysterious!
denisebushphoto
March 21, 2023 at 2:35 PM
I like your observations, just as I like a sense of mystery.
Steve Schwartzman
March 21, 2023 at 2:44 PM
I love seeing these fields of color. Just not something I’m used to seeing. These two are really nicely composed. I’m not sure if I would have thought to use so much sky in that 2nd image, but I really like it.
Todd Henson
March 21, 2023 at 5:10 PM
Glad to hear it. For a long time I’ve occasionally put my ostensible subject, in this case the second picture’s line of bluebonnets, way off center so that most of the frame gets taken up with other things, in this case soft clouds.
Steve Schwartzman
March 21, 2023 at 5:50 PM
Beautiful slumbers Steve .. more delightful photos!
Julie@frogpondfarm
March 29, 2023 at 3:48 PM
Thanks. It’s continued to be a great wildflower season.
Steve Schwartzman
March 29, 2023 at 4:50 PM