Monarch On Cowpen Daisy

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) clinging to a Cowpen Daisy (Verbesina encelioides).

Somehow I missed them for two years. Not the Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) which I could find all over the 17 acres, but that single spot of Cowpen Daisies (Verbesina encelioides) right on the fence to our neighbor. Venturing out in mid-October they were still in full bloom with clusters of late migrating Monarchs clinging to the blooms like cars in line to fill up at a Buckee's gas station next to the highway, destination Mexico.

After a first cold front most of the Monarchs were gone, other butterflies and bugs using the daisy as a late nurturing place. By early November the plants had wilted, dried out and the flowers have become clusters of white seeds. I collected the seeds, planted them and I'm trying to grow them so I can build some more "gas stations" for the migrating butterflies this coming year. I will post some more pictures of Monarchs and other butterflies and bugs visiting this interesting plant in another blog, but now I gotta go water the ones I planted.

Sources: amu communications photo, wikipedia

Sunflower Glowing In The Sunset

This is the only sunflower that started to grow from one of these strips that are supposed to produce a whole 10 feet of sunflowers in a row. Well, one is better than none and the other day my wife told me to take a picture of the flower in the evening, as the flower will be completely formed.

I waited right before the sun would set behind the cedar bushes, a couple of first shots, I did not use my flash and obviously got pictures with a relative dark silhouette of the sunflower. So to get more details from the flower I started using the flash, slightly diverted from the white brim of my cowboy hat, to not make the extra light not too harsh on the flower.

In post-processing, I had to enhance some of the darks and whites, basically playing with the contrast, till I had the picture I wanted. I also had to increase some of the blue tones in the sky a bit, to get a bit more life into the sky as well.

I then proceeded to make a BW version of the picture, with different contrast settings to make the monochrome tones work. Thanks to the solar flares, I think that picture works as well.

What do you think? Leave me a comment!

Young Pine Cone

There are at least three dozen different pines all over the United States. Not exactly sure what I found here on the side of an urban road, but the growth of young pine cone fascinated me. Also with the import of foreign species for landscaping purposes I'm not even sure if it would be a domestic US pine or if the "shrubbery" is actually from Asia or from Mexico. As far as I can tell the bundle of needles is two hold together by the sheath.
Not being a biologist I also have no clue, if these are female or male parts. Maybe somebody of the readers could share some insight.

Hogwart? Hemlock? - Tansy Ragwort (maybe)

Seeing the shot, taking the shot, editing the shot - that's one thing! But actually trying to write something to go with it, is a completely other realm. I often spend more time trying to figure out what I shot and what I do tell about it, to make the blogpost more interesting, than in the Lightroom or on Photoshop.

With today's search engines, yes plural is correct - google is not almighty and I often find myself wondering back to the nascent of search about 6 years bg (before google). There was a thing called yahoo, well it still dabbles around, even though by now part of (tele)communications company Verizon.

Point in case - searching for "Ranch Weed Texas" on big mama didn't even bring me close. Hogwart, Hemlock, different wild carrot species showed up. All the pictures showed flowers as well, simply ignoring my quest that I took the shot in mid-winter, in January.  So long story short, after roaming a gazillion pages and photos, it was finally yahoo that suggested to me that this could be a Tansy - a Tansy Ragwort.

Yeah how the stems run to the flowers and form the little clusters is way different from Hogwart and Hemlock and it could well be Tansy Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris), So if I find it again in spring, early summer (it's somewhere in the northwestern end of the property) and I get yellow flowers on it, then I may know more. But it would also mean that I would search it with a shovel and get rid of it - as they are considered invasive and toxic to livestock. And it wouldn't matter that the decaying beauty made for quite a gorgeous photo. Don't you agree?

Sources: google, yahoo, equusmagazine.com

Don't Pick The Prickly Pear With The Paw...

Withering prickly pear fruit in Winter. As the cacti (Opuntia) are quite abundant on the ranch, this year I will try to make some PP jam, maybe a bitch even spicier with an added jalapeno to it.

Does anybody have a good recipe to share?

And yes I remember this form the Jungle Book

Don't pick your prickly pear with your paw
When you pick a pear use your claw

Red Soil And Sweet Gum Tree

Oh land and soil,
red soil and sweet gum tree,
So scant of grass,
so profligate of pines

Jean Toomer


Writer and poet Jean Toomer described the sweet-gum tree in his poem "Song of the Son" in his more natural environment. In the meantime the tree, also called Alligator-Wood has become an ornamental tree even outside of his habitat, largely because of it's fiery red shining leaves during automn.

The picture depicts a cluster of sweetgum tree seedpods or fruits, by now (it's January) dried out and lying around in big batches. If you're an airhead, you may actually slip on them and fall.

Sources: Wikipedia, Modern American Poetry (via english.illinois.edu), Seeds in the front yard

Curled Up - Emerging Sago Palm Leaves

Wrongly named Sago Palm (there is actually a palm with that name), this belongs to Sago Palm Fern family and originally hails from Southern Japan. By now it's a widely distributed ornamental shrub all over the world, in mostly tropic (even though it doesn't exist in the rain-forest) and sub-tropic climates.

Its Latin name, Cycas revoluta refers actually to its leaves, as revoluta means curled back - as you can well see on the picture above. They are pretty cold resistance, in case they freeze and all the leaves turn yellow, just cut them back to the pineapple looking and stinging "trunk" and give them some month to recuperate and start anew.

A client of mine had some "older" sagos, where actually a male and female species started to develop - with a big cone on the male one and a leaf in the middle of the female one that carried the sporangia, the seeds being as big or even bigger than and as hard as a chestnut. Do not try to consume the leaves or the seeds, they are quite toxic and can lead to death.

Sources: Several Wikipedia sites, http://www.bambus-lexikon.de/

Large Cocklebur - How Velcro Came From Nature

The origins of the large Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium) are unknown, but it is suspected that they originally hailed from Central and South America, even though they were first mentioned in European literature. But they are known to have been used by the Zuni, Native Americans for medicinal purposes. This even though the plant is toxic and can actually kill a cow.

The burs in the picture are so large, about an inch (~ 2.5 cm) that at first, I didn't make the connection with the familiar to me smaller "Klette" I grew up with in the Alpine regions of Europe. As I shot this on January 1st (winter), there weren't any leaves to help me identifying the plant either. I finally found a picture with similar burs that led me to desertusa.com where I was able to give them the proper name.

I also learned that they belong to the sunflower family Asteraceae. The species I found was about three feet tall, right in the middle of their normal size. Around here (Central Texas) they are considered a weed and a pest, as they not only can harm an animal with its toxins, but also mechanically if they should swallow whole burs. They also use the furs of animals to spread itself.

That function of hook and loop was later adopted, when Swiss electrical engineer George De Mestral  came up with the Velcro idea, after taking his dogs on a mountain hike in Switzerland. After a ten year search to find the right materials, he patented the fastener as Velcro (a combination of the French words velours (velvet) and crochet (hook.)

Sources: Wikipedia, desertusa.com, http://keys.lucidcentral.org/, thetandd.com

Pincushion Cactus In Bloom

Originally hailing from Mexico (Hidalgo, Oaxaca and Puebla), Globe or Pincushion cacti are a favorite succulent to be grown by gardeners.

Be sure to plant the cactus into a porous fast draining soil (with small pebbles) and give the cylindrical plant enough direct or indirect sunshine. To put them into a North facing window will not give them enough exposure of sunlight. If fertilizing use one rich in potassium and phosphorus, but low in nitrogen, as with almost all cacti. Repot every 2 to 3 years and enjoy their May, April bloom.

They got their name from Latin mammilla, "nipple", referring to the tubercles that make the distinctive features of the genus.

Sources: Wikipedia, CactiGuide.com,

Three Roses In The Garden

Strolling through the garden, these three roses were smiling at me, so I tried to capture them contre-jour (against the light).

A shot like that would normally ask for your aperture to be small (high in numbers > f/16), to enhance the "grainy, dreamy" feel of it, I also pushed my "film" sensibility to iso 800 - therefore I needed a really fast speed (1/1000). I also want to make sure, that you overexpose the picture by at least one f-stop, to make sure you don't have the three roses as black silhouettes My final f-stop (aperture) was f 5.6, strong enough to still produce and show some of the spider's web. I also tried to use the so called diagonal method (DM) as a composition guide line, rather than just play around with the rule of thirds.

Tell me what you think.

Tulip and The Story of Shirin & Farhad

Not liking the current rainy fall weather at all, I was looking for some more positive energy and decided to edit a picture of a simple tulip I have taken in March.

Tulips are named originally after the Persian word for turban, dulband. After the Islamic revolution in Iran, the sun and lion in the middle of their flag got replaced by a stylized monogram not only showing a tulip, but also meaning that there is no god but God. The region (from Turkey to the Hindu Kush) is the origin of this flower before she was introduced to the West, and where we now associate spring and the Netherlands with the bloom of it.
There are many versions of the traditional story of "Shirin & Farhad," but one version puts the princess and the mason together at the same place, where they independently commit suicide; Farhad after falsely being told that Shirin has died, and Shirin after finding Farhad dead. And the legend says that where the blood has been flowing, a single tulip grows every year. And I guess, that is one reason, while tulips are considered a sign of re-birth.

The story of Shirin and Farhad as told by Johnathan Richman, worth listening to, even though in his story the tulip is missing.



Sources: YouTube, Wikipedia (Flag of Iran, Shirin & Farhad), Museum of Islamic Arts mia.org

Tip Toeing (Thru) The Tulips

A Dutchman came to Texas and missed his tulips so much, that he decided to grow his own and start the Texas Tulip Farm. Situated in North Texas near Pilot Point (about an hour north of the DFW area) if offers an amazing sight of a huge variety of the flowers not native to the Lonestar State.

During blooming season, late February to end of March, try to make it out on a weekday if you can. Saturday and Sundays can be quite populated and you may have to wait in line to park and get in. They charge $ 2.50 a head to get and then you can stroll for hours between the different beds.

It's also a great opportunity to take family pictures, put please don't put your children in the middle of the tulip beds and therefore crushing the flowers. Actually this is not an amusement park and children should be kept on a "leash." Also don't show up in your stilettos, it's a farm, so the ground is uneven, wear rugged pants so you can actually kneel down in the dirt if you want to take close up shots.

You can take (cut, or hand pick) tulips home, but at a rather steep price. To make your tulips last, pick them while they are still closed, they will last much longer at home and  will give you enjoyment for a couple of weeks.

This was the first year we went there and I know I want to go back next spring, tip toeing not thru but next to the tulips.

Sources: texas-tulips.com
This shot and others are available for publication through photo agency, Dispatch Press Images, DPI. It is also featured in my ClickASnap portfolio and in my Niume photo sphere blog.

Gulf Fritillary on Pride of Barbados

Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae) on blooming Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima)

The large grey patches under the wing of the butterfly distinguish it as a Gulf Fritillary, even though it looks very similar to a Monarch. Mostly present in the Southeastern US, reaching as far west as Texas. It is a beautiful sight to see. Caesalpinia pulcherrima or Pride of Barbados with it's common name, attracts a lot of humming birds and butterflies. Other names for this stunning bloomer include Mexican or red Bird of Paradise, flamboyant-de-jardin. Origin is unknown, but it's pretty draught resistant, actually can grow wild. If the plant freezes in winter, try to cap it back as early as February, when it starts to get warmer.

This shot is also featured in my ClickASnap portfolio, and as a blog in Niume

Hesperaloe parviflora Study I

Hesperaloe parviflora, the latin name what is casually called Texas Red Yucca, even though it does not belong into the Yucca family, but into the Aloe family.


It's a very showy native (Texas and some parts of Mexico) succulent, in April/May/June (according to how temperatures are, where you live) it starts to have long tall spikes of these pinkish flowers. The further north you are the longer they bloom, and can actually bloom during the whole summer. In the more southern regions of the Lonestar state, the blooms are normally gone by June, developing into first green se.ed pods, who then harden, turn brown and start spreading small little black seeds.

The plant is xeric, which means very drought resistant and can even take some "very rare" snow, it will just bloom a little bit later after experiencing a really cold winter with freezing temperatures. Hummingbirds & butterflies love the plant.

This shot is also featured in my ClickASnap portfolio, and as a blog in Niume

Beauty In Decay

I have always looked upon decay as being just as wonderful and rich an expression of life as growth. Henry Miller

Couple of years ago, while taking care of yard, I ran across these decaying Canna leaves. The subtlety in color, texture and the state were in, blew my mind. As death is always portrayed as a heavy burden, look at the lightness of being and leaving. Nature taunting us with abstract art.

Some people may not agree with me and that's absolutely fine, but their is beauty in death and decay.

Bluebonnets - Spring In Texas

Spring in Texas 

After a good freeze and enough rain, bluebonnets can be found all over Central Texas - love this flower and yes it is the National Flower of the State of Texas. Shot this at a friend's house, glad he had a small windmill in the background too. 

Lupinus texensis

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