I caught this red-banded leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea) resting on a sweetgum leaf along Piney Woods Church Road this afternoon. Although common, they are quite small (less than half an inch in length), and easily overlooked (unless they have become a plague in one’s garden). Because they feed on the sap of plants, they are generally considered agricultural pests. I still find them fascinating, with their almost alien shape and brilliant coloration.
On my way back toward Rico Road, my attention was caught by a couple of blades of grass in a recently planted future horse pasture along Piney Woods Church Road. One blade was curved above another, shorter one. I was entranced by their flowing forms in the golden light of one half-hour before sunset.
After taking some photographs of the tulip poplar blooms today, I stopped at the home of dear friends to chat over a beer. I missed the sunset, but on my way home, I stopped to take a post-sunset photograph of an old barn against the horizon.
The late-day light swept across the cattle pasture, illuminating the white clover growing there in abundance. There is such beauty in everyday rural landscapes.
Today on my walk along Piney Woods Church Road, I encounter a purple bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) just coming into bloom, nestled in a grassy ditch, as if trying to hide from passersby. I expect it will not last long there; the resident and dear friend who owns that property is not at all fond of them, because the seeds disperse widely and readily, and invariably the plant crops up in his horse pastures. But for this moment, this Eurasian flower adds a lovely splash of color to an otherwise rather barren spot of ground, and I pause to enjoy its prickly form against the surrounding grasses, roadway, and sky.
A cow watched me warily as I approached along Piney Woods Church Road. Another cow, meanwhile, grazed contentedly in the background.
On a cold and soggy day, I walked the length of Piney Woods Church Road, I could see and feel the elemental presences of wind and rain joining me on my journey. Gusts of wind tugged on horsehair snagged on a barbed wire fence; raindrops feel on roadbed leaves, newly fallen in the morning wind.
I’m on my way again, returning home down Piney Woods Church Road. I pause to appreciate the shadow of a pasture gate on the gravel roadway surface. Only later, going back through the images to select one for today, do I notice the cow grazing in the background. There are always more things to discover, all around us.
For once, I have nothing more to add. I am positively tongue-tied.
On a gray, slightly foggy morning, I arrived at Piney Woods Church Road with the particular intent of photographing a daffodil bud that I had seen (for the first time this year) the previous day. I quickly got down to work, shooting the leaves and flower bud from various angles, taking over 30 different pictures. At last, satisfied that there would be something of value to show for my efforts, I stood up and looked into the field beyond the roadside barbed-wire fence. A dozen feet away from me were two more daffodils, already flowering! The pasture also contained over a dozen cows, one of which was obligingly grazing beyond where the daffodils grew. The result is this image, a cow dining among the daffodils. (Since the cows avoid eating daffodils, the plants have been flourishing here for many years.)
