Not equestrian
While driving along the upper reaches of Spicewood Springs Rd. on July 13th I glimpsed some Clematis drummondii that had climbed a fence. That’s a common sight here in the summer, and as I hadn’t yet photographed the species this year, I stopped to take pictures, including the one above.
After a while I noticed that a black car had pulled over near me and a woman was walking toward me. When she got close enough she asked “Can I help you?” Repeated experience has taught me how to interpret that euphemistic question: someone wants to know what possibly nefarious thing I’m up to at the border of their property. Sometimes my answer has been a simple “No.” In this case, not wanting to be too blunt, I said “Not unless you’re a nature photographer,” which made clear what I was doing there. The woman went on to say that children were having horse riding lessons and would soon be coming over to the area near the fence, where my presence might spook the horses. (Probably nothing personal about my appearance: presumably she would have said the same thing to anyone else who was there.) She asked how long I’d continue taking pictures. I said 10 minutes, and she thanked me for being honest. In fact I stayed only a few minutes longer.
While there I also went for a limited-focus approach, thanks to a broad aperture of f/4, in portraying a buffalo gourd flower (Cucurbita foetidissima). You can compare the result to the get-as-much-in-focus-as-possible approach you saw here last week.
© 2023 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
They must be very nervous horses, or riders, if the mere presence of you and your vehicle would spook them. We drive (slowly) past horseriders all the time in the lane around here.
Maybe she thought your intentions were more sinister.
HeyJude
July 20, 2023 at 5:16 AM
I know nothing about horses, so I appreciate knowing what you said about slowly driving past horseriders all the time. Maybe the woman did think I had more sinister intentions, especially with children around.
Steve Schwartzman
July 20, 2023 at 5:55 AM
Or, it may be that the woman’s connected to a children’s equine therapy program. They’re quite common for kids with both physical and emotional issues, and it makes sense that children unaccustomed to riding and controlling horses might not be able to cope with a distracted horse. It’s a little ironic that this Austin area program also is being affected by the number of developers who are buying up land.
shoreacres
July 20, 2023 at 7:29 AM
I checked the location of the Horse Empowered Learning Programs to see if it might be the very place along whose fence I was photographing. It turns out to be in Pflugerville, though I suppose the organization could have kids ride horses in other locations, too.
Speaking of development, Bull Creek Bluff Neighborhood Park, which I posted about last week, is just across the road from where the woman spoke to me. A developer had planned to put a resort there, right at the base of the scenic cliffs, so the city of Austin intervened and bought the property.
Steve Schwartzman
July 20, 2023 at 7:44 AM
It does seem unlikely. We have a livery stable opposite here and the horses are all very well-behaved in traffic. So long as a horse knows what is going on around it and isn’t taken by surprise, there shouldn’t be a problem. But maybe the woman was afraid you might photograph the kids on their horses and the parents would get upset…such changed days from when I started photography and you assumed you could photograph anything!
Ann Mackay
July 22, 2023 at 11:36 AM
Another commenter raised the possibility that the woman was concerned about me photographing the kids. As you say, we live in a different—sometimes very different—world from the one we grew up in.
Steve Schwartzman
July 22, 2023 at 12:53 PM
The buffalo gourd flower’s a perfect example of how cultivated plants (various squashes) and wild plants can resemble one another. Had I found this photo without any context, my first thought would have been “squash blossom,” and of course that evoked a certain kind of silver and turquoise jewelry.
Some contend the Navajo created squash blossom jewelry after seeing pomegranate designs used as decoration by the Spanish, including on the buttons on soldiers’ uniforms, but others believe that the design’s taken from flowers of squash plants. Since buffalo gourd’s common in New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of Colorado, it’s fun to imagine it might have contributed to the iconic jewelry design.
shoreacres
July 20, 2023 at 7:48 AM
For me, knowledge has almost always gone from native plants to cultivated ones, about which I knew essentially nothing before I got interested in what grows naturally in my part of the world. After getting familiar with buffalo gourd flowers 20 years ago, I came to recognize a similarity whenever I happened to see a related cultivated plant.
As squashes comprised one of the three staple indigenous plant foods (maize and beans being the other two), the default for the inspiration behind squash blossom jewelry would seem to be native plants like buffalo gourd. I just looked up the pomegranate and found it’s in a different botanical family from squashes. We’d have to know if squash blossom jewelry or a similar predecessor existed before the Spaniards arrived. And of course sometimes new things mingle with old ones to create artistic hybrids.
Steve Schwartzman
July 20, 2023 at 8:19 AM
The top one reminds me of a Dr. Seuss character’s hair.
circadianreflections
July 20, 2023 at 8:55 AM
Or mine….
Steve Schwartzman
July 20, 2023 at 10:05 AM
LOL! Or mine when I don’t blow dry it. 🤣
circadianreflections
July 20, 2023 at 10:07 AM
That’s a nice shot with the blue sky and fluffy clouds.
Tina
July 20, 2023 at 1:46 PM
I thought the cumulus clouds and blue sky would go well with the Clematis. I’ve rarely used a combined background like that with these vines. Usually I go for a solid blue sky or a dark background.
Steve Schwartzman
July 20, 2023 at 1:54 PM
People are a bit paranoid about someone photographing their property and, also, photographing children. That’s a nice looking sky.
Steve Gingold
July 20, 2023 at 6:58 PM
What you say in your first sentence is generally true. In this case I was always outside the fence and couldn’t even see what was on the other side, so I wasn’t in a position to photograph any children, though the woman might not have realized that.
The combination of clouds and sky was different from my usual kinds of background for this vine.
Steve Schwartzman
July 20, 2023 at 9:06 PM
Even though both photos show nice texture and color, those attributes are quite different in each image.
tanjabrittonwriter
July 20, 2023 at 10:20 PM
Vive la différence! An online search tells me that translates to “Es lebe der Unterschied” in German. The “unter” in “Unterschied” seems to make as little sense as the “under” in “understand.” In any case, the “schied” element in “Unterschied” turns out to be the same as in the English verb “shed,” the basic idea being ‘to separate.’
Steve Schwartzman
July 21, 2023 at 8:47 AM
As we know, language often does not follow rules of logic.
tanjabrittonwriter
July 21, 2023 at 9:27 PM
Tell me about it!
Steve Schwartzman
July 21, 2023 at 9:34 PM
I think I just did. 😊
tanjabrittonwriter
July 21, 2023 at 9:36 PM
See, there’s another English language oddity.
Steve Schwartzman
July 21, 2023 at 9:37 PM
[…] Yesterday’s post showed a view of a Clematis drummondii vine that had climbed a fence along the upper reaches of Spicewood Springs Rd. on July 13th and that looked good to me when viewed with clouds behind it. Now here’s another picture I took there, this time of some tufts against a sky rendered darker than normal by flash and a tiny aperture of f/29. The wisp reaching to the right struck me as quite a graceful curve. A little later I stopped by an entrance to Great Hills Park and portrayed an opening flower of this species. […]
More views of Clematis drummondii | Portraits of Wildflowers
July 21, 2023 at 4:30 AM