Showy evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa)
Firewheel (a.k.a Indian blanket or blanket flower; Gaillardia pulchella)
Seedbox (Ludwigia alternifolia)
Purple horsemint (a.k.a. lemon beebalm, horsemint, lemon-mint or plains horsemint; Monarda citriodora)
Wild carrot (a.k.a. bishop’s lace or Queen Anne’s lace; Daucus carota)
Berlandier’s yellow flax (Linum berlandieri)
Downy phlox (a.k.a. prairie phlox or fragrant phlox; Phlox pilosa)
Texas greeneyes (Berlandiera betonicifolia)
The morning brought with it a sense of dread, a feeling of inescapable doom cloaked in pangs of agony. And it went downhill from there.
Some ghoulish specter visited me during the night and deposited a sour stomach where my docile tummy had been the day before.
Stress, I think, or at least nerves and stress and fatigue exacerbating what should have been a minor upset stomach. Though I do feel I’m getting a good ab workout…
Rushing slowly from minute to minute as the day zooms effortlessly by me in a race to bring the weekend to my doorstep, a weekend for being on call and lacking any rest or ability to relax looms just beyond the horizon of night, just over that midnight hill up ahead.
How I deplore being sick, and only slightly less than I deplore my job. Pulling me under until I can no longer breathe, this employment embodies the scourge of plagues and the death of hope.
But I dare not dwell on it, not today at least. If I’m to feel better, I must be calm and tranquil.
— — — — — — — — — —
Photos:
[1] Seedbox (Ludwigia alternifolia)
[2] Female muscovy duck (Cairina moschata)
[3] Male regal jumping spider (Phidippus regius)
[4] Dark-form female eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)
[5] Abandoned spider web from unidentified orb weaver
[6] Male northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
[7] Red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans)
[8] Fallen leaf reduced to the lace outline of its veins