Photography

  • Creative,  Hiking,  Outdoors,  Photography,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    Big Thicket Pitcher Plant Trail

    On our way home from Beaumont we stopped by the Pitcher Plant Trail in the Turkey Creek Unit of the Big Thicket. We showed up just after sunrise, Chris was a bit miffed we didn’t get there a few minutes prior, but I think it worked out anyway. We’d been to this trail before last November but the pitcher plants weren’t blooming or looking too swift. Now they were blooming and looking great! It’s only about an hour from Beaumont so I’m sure we’ll end up there again during our next two months in Beaumont. I tried the white background thing again but it wasn’t that great, however I got…

  • Botanic Gardens,  Gardening,  Photography,  Wildscape Photo

    Shangri-La Botanic Gardens: Orange, Tx

    Great white egrets nesting Itea virginica and white ginger flower Bunny, something I don’t know, beaver dam, and green heron Pond covered in small and giant salvinia, an invasive exotic Banded water snake, Nerodia fasciata The same day we went to the Beaumont Botanic Gardens we drove over to Shangri-La Botanic Gardens to see what they had in store. This was an affordable garden, $6 entry for a regular garden tour and then $10 for a garden tour and a boat tour down a bayou to a few of their education centers and maybe to see a beaver dam or two! We opted for the $10 and arrived there when…

  • Botanic Gardens,  Gardening,  Photography,  Wildscape Photo

    Beaumont Botanical Gardens

    On our Sunday off a week ago in Beaumont we took a trip to a few botanic gardens. One of them is a free to the public garden, the Beaumont Botanic Garden. We arrived too early to see the conservatory but we did a tour of the garden. I think the rose garden was the most stunning but they did have some other beautiful parts in the garden. Several people were taking graduation photos. We’re off for at least a week as we switch projects down in the Big Thicket but when we return we’ll drop by the conservatory and see what’s blooming in there.

  • Outdoors,  Photography,  Wildflowers,  Wildscape Photo

    Texas Wildflowers: Trifolium incarnatum, crimson clover

    I was drawn to this flower while photographing the white bluebonnets and was sad to read that they were not native wildflowers. These European natives are now used for roadside stabilization and as a forage crop for cattle but have taken over some areas and tend to shove natives out of the way. Too bad it isn’t a native because it sure is pretty! –FAO factsheet Other wildflower series: Indian paintbrush Texas bluebonnets

  • Creative,  Outdoors,  Photography,  Texas,  Travel & Places,  Wildscape Photo

    Texas Wildflowers: Lupinus texensis, the Texas bluebonnet

    The second in a series on wildflowers: Texas bluebonnets are the ubiquitous sign that spring has sprung in Texas. Well, there area few other signs, but when you are driving down the highway and see the flowers blooming, you know it’s time to start digging in the dirt and pulling out the shorts—maybe! The bluebonnet is one of five state flowers. That is, all five lupine species are considered the state flower! Texas bluebonnet story. A few years ago I grew some in a container in Florida. They did pretty good for the climate and some day I’d love to grow them again. Of course there are the beautiful fields…

  • Creative,  Outdoors,  Photography,  Texas,  Travel & Places,  Wildscape Photo

    Texas Wildflowers: Castilleja indivisa, Texas/Indian paintbrush

    The first in a series on Texas wildflowers. The commonly known Indian Paintbrush is almost as famous as it’s wildflower friend the Texas Bluebonnet. The bright red of the paintbrush is usually in a field alongside of its more popular friend. The red and blue are a symbol that spring has definitely arrived in Texas! This native annual can be grown from seed in your own yard if you so wanted. The red of the plant is actually not the flower but bracts surrounding the smaller, less conspicuous flower. In the field we photographed we found a magenta variety in the mix… *later edit*: I actually think this might be…

  • Creative,  Outdoors,  Photography,  Texas,  Travel & Places,  Wildscape Photo

    Corallorhiza wisteriana, spring coralroot orchid

    After finding the flowering plant of spring coralroot orchid at Texoma a week ago Chris and I wanted to find more to get better photos. I asked the folks at Tandy Hills if they’d seen any there but they answered with a negative. My next step was to ask the Fort Worth Nature Center and I got a positive answer. We weren’t quite sure where we might find them other than near the river area and in shaded leaf litter so we set off for the Riverbottom trail. We walked for twenty minutes or so and then Chris spotted some that already had seed pods. *drat*. We kept walking and…

  • Creative,  Family,  Gardening,  Photography

    Moosie’s Garden & Dad’s Yard

    My mom usually handles the flower beds and my dad is the yard guy. He’s the one who keeps it green, mows it regularly and had my brother and I, in the 100* summers of Texas, moving the sprinkler for spot to spot while we were at home. There’s nothing like running barefoot through the St. Augustine. Now the name Moosie formed for my mom back in high school. Somehow “mom” morphed to “moo moo” and then to Moosie. 🙂 Initially she thought she might use Moosie as her grandma name but she didn’t stick with it and went with Mimi. I’ve been weeding and planting and we’ve got the…