Category Archives: Nature Photos

Texas dandelion in sun and shadow

April 30, 2007 jason Leave a comment

With my weekdays now so full and hectic, I look forward with utter abandon to the weekends when I can enjoy a leisurely walk at the lake. If an opportunity arises during the week, I grab it with vehemence, yet too often I simply don’t have time until Saturday or Sunday to enjoy a bit of nature and a healthy dose of unwinding.

So it was yesterday morning when I headed toward the water theater to enjoy an area less common to my ordinary travels. Being there early meant I was able to enjoy a bit of what I miss most about taking such walks daily: the absence of people.

I traveled throughout the area surrounding the Bathhouse Cultural Center and water theater. During my aimless wandering, I photographed a great many of the wildflowers that flourish there. I’ll post more photos at a later date, but today I wanted to share a brilliant yellow resident called the Texas dandelion (Pyrrhopappus carolinianus).

I think its more common cousin (seen at the end of this post) is anything but mundane. On the contrary, I find dandelions magnificent examples of exquisite simplicity. Nevertheless, that flower’s Texas relation offers a very different yet equally attractive visage.

Seen below are two different flowers taken at different times during my walk. The first is colored brightly with sunshine, a lighted paint generously covering all but a tiny section of its beautiful offering. The second came earlier in the day when the sun had not yet lifted its head above the trees, when the world rested gently under blankets of shadow. The lack of illumination did not keep this dazzling flora from giving its best performance.

A Texas dandelion (Pyrrhopappus carolinianus) colored brilliantly with sunshine (193_9324)

A Texas dandelion (Pyrrhopappus carolinianus) softly glowing in shadow (193_9322)

[I must admit the larger versions are magnificent, especially the original sizes which I’ve made available on one of those rare occasions when I felt as though I’d be taking something away from you if I didn’t show you what I myself had seen]

Isopod

April 29, 2007 jason 1 Comment

What do you call them? Pill bug? Sow bug? Doodlebug? Roly-poly? Something else entirely?

No matter what name you use to describe them, they are nothing more extravagant than terrestrial crustaceans called woodlice (or a woodlouse in the singular). Many consider them insects, yet they’re more closely related to shrimp and crab than to any true bug.

The most common isopod of this sort is the kind that rolls into a ball. That is Armadillidium vulgare, or the common pill bug. Depending on where you’re located, you undoubtedly have another name for them.

I see these little critters scurrying about all the time. In fact, I watch every step carefully when I’m on the patio, for it’s not been entirely uncommon for me to accidentally crush one of them because I didn’t see it making its way across the concrete floor. The worst case is when I’m not wearing shoes…

Anyway, here are a few photos of my neighborhood isopods during recent visits, and I’ve included a brief yet fun video at the end showing one scampering away as I chase it with the camera (not that it knew I was chasing it, but it seems that way).

And now the video…

Water theater

April 29, 2007 jason Leave a comment

Behind the Bathhouse Cultural Center on White Rock Lake’s eastern shore lies what some might at first consider the remnants of a failed development project. From the water’s surface rise pipes and concrete pillars of varying sizes.

The White Rock Lake water theater (191_9162)

Despite preliminary impressions, the menagerie of jutting and reaching arms represent an intentional construction. It is the lake’s water theater.

The White Rock Lake water theater (191_9185)

But this is not a performance hall intended for humans. On the contrary, the entire area has been developed to cater specifically to waterfowl, from the theater’s many singular columns to the floating platform resting behind them. Whether preening or resting or trying to woo a potential mate, wildlife in the area have come to utilize the structure just as it was intended.

The White Rock Lake water theater (191_9180)

During my early morning walk today, the water theater provided a nice abstract interest for some photographs. Avian visitors were scarce at that hour, although some were milling about or trying to grab a few more minutes of sleep before starting the day.

The White Rock Lake water theater (191_9194)

From the back veranda of the cultural center and looking down at the lake, you can see the totality of the theater. The individual pipes and pillars form a broad semi-oval facing the shore, while behind them the wooden float bobs lazily. Also noticeable in that photo is downtown Dallas huddling quietly in the background, like a child trying to hide behind hills too small to provide shelter. You can see it just left of center.

[some photos unintentionally contain a few American coots (Fulica americana) and mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos), as well as perhaps other species I didn’t see or didn’t recognize; I wasn’t focused on the wildlife when taking these images, so pardon me for not paying closer attention to those trying to get their faces in a picture or two]

Foliate pastures

April 28, 2007 jason Leave a comment

As I’ve explained before about the cows at the family farm, there are several pastures, some open and some full of trees and brush, and the cows are moved from enclosure to enclosure as the grass grows.

I snapped these photos while I visited there earlier this month.

Facing away from the front of the house, one of the pastures borders a creek and offers lush vegetation in many forms, from thicket to arboreal giants. Although they’re difficult to see in the smaller version seen below, there are a handful of cows downhill from the gate on the left side of the photo. You can see them behind the gate and camouflaged by verdant grass if you look at the larger version.

One of the wooded pastures at the family farm resting behind a hill and fence (182_8298)

And yes, if you must know, I totally had the camera on the wrong settings for that particular shot. That’s why the sky looks bleached and the contrast of the trees looks like too much gamma correction has been applied.

Get over it.

The next two photos are on the opposite side of the house facing away from its back porch. There is another pasture there full of East Texas’ second growth and scrub.

In this first image, you can see Mom in the lower-left corner as she offers a bit of affection to one of the calves. That baby’s mother, having had her fill of attention and people in general, can be seen walking away at center.

Mom petting a calf while its mother walks along the fence in a wooded pasture at the family farm (183_8315)

As soon as the juvenile bovine realized its mother was leaving and it had to choose between some petting and maternal protection—and food—it promptly dashed to the elder cow’s side and followed her to the other end of the pasture.

A calf and its mother walking along the fence of a wooded pasture at the family farm (183_8316)

Even Mom’s stunningly powerful charms weren’t enough to overcome the family link between mother and child. But then again, Mom certainly understands that premise and the strength of such bonds.

Samhain

April 26, 2007 jason Leave a comment

Samhain, also called Samhuinn, means “end of the warm season.” It also represents the inspiration for my second book—or second and third books, as I’m growing increasingly convinced it will take me two novels to tell the full story of Ayimat Caddi, the timeless and omnipotent Still Watcher who is a true god amongst ignorant heathen, and Sergejs Girhipovs, the immortal human who represents the closest nature has ever come to creating a real vampire, something quite unlike Dracula or any other manifestation of the word yet equally identifiable with the premise inherent in all of them.

Samhain began on November 1. It marked the combined celebration of the Celtic New Year’s Day and Feast of the Dead. As holidays went, Samhain was equally respected and feared, for it was the only time of the year when the veil between corporeal reality and the Otherworld could most easily be penetrated. Like cotton gauze stretched too thin, the barrier separating these two very different realities became permeable at the end of the warm season.

The Celts used the festival of fire to celebrate the event. That pagan party eventually was stolen by the Christians and relabeled All Soul’s Eve. As luck would have it, the Christians weren’t able to maintain control of yet another holiday wrongfully taken from others, so it became Hallowe’en, a secular holiday.

But I digress.

The end of the warm season, or Samhain, is what my second published work will be about. It also will encompass a battle between two powerful and ageless beings, one a god and the other a devil, neither of whom can be blamed for what they’ve become. But don’t for an instant think you can guess how that will work or what shape these two creatures will take. And I’ll reiterate what I’ve said before: End of the Warm Season is about a tree.