Visuals From My World
Photographs of plants and plant life
This daisy fleabane was blooming along a hiking trail in Shenandoah National Park at the end of May.
Knowing “bane” loosely means something that is hated by or makes something’s existence more difficult, I thought fleabane was an interesting name for a wildflower so I looked it up. Folklore has it these plants can be dried and used to keep fleas away. That explains the name.
The bees in Shenandoah National Park were busy pollinating blackberry blossoms growing along the Dark Hollow Falls trail when I was last there.
On the way to Dark Hollow Falls, in Shenandoah National Park, I noticed this tiny “island” of wildflowers and moss growing in the stream.
If you click on the image you can see a much larger version of it.
The water lilies were in full bloom at the Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts (VMFA) on Mother’s Day.
From the other side this sycamore looks solid and nearly invincible. When walking around it you quickly discover there’s a gap at least 5 feet in length, exposing the inside of the tree.
On a bright, warm winter day I found myself in the company of white giants reaching for the deep blue sky. It was about 60 degrees fahrenheit but the naked sycamores and the hard light reminded me not to get used to the weather.
It’s been a very busy summer and I haven’t spent as much time with my camera as I would have liked so I’m pulling out some photos from last year that I never got around to publishing.
This Black Eyed Susan was growing in a forest meadow alongside wild daisies. It looked sort of like the odd man out, surrounded by white flowers. I took a few photos of the lone blooming Black Eyed Susan surrounded by Daisies but I preferred this more closely cropped image of the flower.
A crow watches the field below from a barren tree in the Big Meadow area of Shenandoah National Park.
This pine stands alone near the top of a hill, in a meadow at Shenandoah National Park.
This tree stood along a trail I was hiking one morning. I thought the vivid, rusty bark contrasting with the greens of the moss and pines made this an interesting study of color and texture. The early morning shade provided the perfect soft, even light to produce the deeply saturated colors just as I remember seeing them.