Cow-Slobbers & May (apple) Frog

It has been a pretty darn nice Spring so far this year. We have had, and are still having some nice weather. The cool mornings have been wonderful to take long morning walks in. And with that, I probably just jinxed the rest of this year. So, blame me if you want.

I continued my variety of subjects this past month. I always have a “kinda-sorta” project in mind, but find myself varying from side to side on it. In case you haven’t noticed, I tend to photograph things that interest me. And I will be the first to say, I have a lot of interests. I mean, I’m not scattered with them, they all will tend toward the pure nature, flora, and fauna side. I have written before about my love of plants that comes from my Mother. I see myself drifting into more abstract type of visual interests as well. That is the purpose behind the new gallery “Attentive Earth” I introduced last month.

There have been plenty of blooming life happening this past month. More than a person has time to photograph for sure. Here’s a bit of information that you will find not at all interesting, ha. I spend more time on photos after I take the picture than I do exploring and making the photograph. It is rather bothersome too. When all I want to do is play around exploring and finding new and interesting things in nature, much of my time is spent doing what I’m doing right now which is, making them available. Don’t get me wrong, I feel very fortunate to be able to do so. I just wish it didn’t take up so much time.

Theories pass. The frog remains.
~Jean Rostand (French Scientist)

There are areas I come across in my travels throughout the Kansas landscapes that if you aren’t paying attention you will miss. Seems many of these are within viewing distance of a main highway, so a person is probably driving highway speeds and shouldn’t be looking around much other than the road ahead.

We all notice other things though. The trees along the road, houses and fields we past by. That was the case along a stretch of Hwy 50 in Chase County.

Passing by this field of growing wheat was a road that went down to a barn and outbuilding.

The color of the new wheat, the road, partly cloudy skies, and then the barn, all said one thing to me. I need to photograph this, like now. That can be easier said than done. It’s not like you can just stop on the highway, get out and roam around taking pictures. Luckily, since the field road was right there the entrance gate had a place to pull into big enough to safely park. This usually means driving by it at least once, turning around and going back. Over the years I have just come to except this is how things are.

The results of this is hopefully a photograph. Worth it? Must be, I am still doing it.

The famous quote “What’s in a name?” from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is often interpreted as a statement about the arbitrary nature of names and labels. In this context, Juliet expresses that a name is merely a label and doesn’t define the essential qualities of a person or thing.

Names are a funny thing. People have funny names, animals have funny names, and plants have some of the most wacky names of all.

Would you like to have a vase full of “cow-slobbers” sitting on your kitchen table? ” Would your friend see it and say, “What pretty cow-slobbers you have there.” Personally, I think that would be awesome! What a great friend! But to be a little less on the cringy side, we can call them by their more “acceptable” name, Spiderworts. Still, a somewhat questionable name for a plant.

To give this much more credibility I will quote from the Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses website. This is a great site to learn all about Kansas wildflowers and grasses. I also have the book, “Wildflowers & Grasses of Kansas” a field guide, which happens to be signed by the author Mike Haddock. I was fortunate to get to hear Mike give a talk on these subjects during a docent training program at Konza Prairie Biological Station in 2009. Mike has developed a tremendous resource, doing us all a great service with the wealth of information.

A few more photos from this past month. The fun never ends…