A song whispers on cool air with the perfume of a thousand blossoms. Lavender and gold and crimson and white intertwine with a rainbow infinitely diverse. They paint meadow and field in the colors of spring.
Each petal reaches, each rising star shines grand and new. These bright lives climb from realms I have never traveled but which are known to me. And they seek the sky with faces upturned.
Just as the slowly opened rise from earthen slumber, so too does an army of faithful who find in the coming warmth a dance that steps only to the music of flowers.
It is a love story, this song, one of powerful longings and intimate embraces. It likewise is a chorus of endings, an operatic aria that each voice must sing only in its season.
The kaleidoscope of winter’s gray falls before the advance of these voices now filling the heavens, and russet is washed away by waves of verdant song.
With each new voice, a cacophony of dancers shakes the ground with spirited waltzes and lively tangos, for every singer demands a select audience, a diverse group of listeners who perform at the behest of their favorite soloist.
I find the silence of this song deafening, the loudest music I will never hear.
For now comes the time of the slowly opened and those who must needs be with them. In all my years I have never tired of this presentation. And in all my years, I watch for their voices and listen for the dance it portends.
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Photos (all from White Rock Lake):
[1] A spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata) on an unidentified bloom. The compound flower remains a mystery to me. But I’m not the only Texan wondering what this plant is (e.g., here). Introduced? So easy to identify that it’s left out of all the guides we have access to? It’s a unique plant and a unique blossom, so it’s not like I’m mistaking it for something else. Well, I’ve said before that flowers vex me more than any other kind of life. Hence this one goes on the diabolical challenge pile for later identification. (And it’s probably something so evident and so common that I’ll kick myself for not recognizing it.) [Update: I have since identified the flower as rough gumweed (Grindelia scabra).]
[2] A black and gold bumble bee (Bombus auricomus) licking dew from the blossom of purple bindweed (a.k.a. cotton morning glory; Ipomoea trichocarpa). I’d watched the bee flit from bloom to bloom where it slipped inside for a sip of nectar and a spot of pollen. It then paused on this flower for a few minutes. Only when I approached did I realize it was licking tiny droplets of dew from the flower.
[3] Syrphid flies (a.k.a. hover flies; Toxomerus marginatus) mating atop a common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale).
[4] Western honey bee (a.k.a. European honey bee; Apis mellifera) visiting white clover (Trifolium repens).
[5] Gulf fritillary (a.k.a. passion butterfly; Agraulis vanillae) with its tongue hanging out as it approaches western ironweed (a.k.a. Baldwin’s ironweed; Verbesina baldwinii).
[6] The same Gulf fritillary (a.k.a. passion butterfly; Agraulis vanillae) feeding hungrily after landing on the western ironweed (a.k.a. Baldwin’s ironweed; Verbesina baldwinii).
[7] A large milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) standing atop green antelopehorn (a.k.a. green milkweed, spider milkweed or antelope-horn milkweed; Asclepias viridis).
