Bumblebee gathering nectar from Passion Flower gets his back dusted with pollen from down-facing anthers. I wonder how the pollen then gets transferred to the towering stigma?
I found the “anther” on another site: the stigma-bearing styles bend down at some point and receive pollen that was previously deposited on bee’s backs by the anthers. Here’s an excellent website on the subject: http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html
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Photo taken at: White Rock Lake Bike & Hiking Trail
AKA painful after-church entertainment for me and my cousins in the 1970s. The small church we attended had a vacant field by the parking lot. It was full of these pesky things. We’d pick them and then chase each other and throw them at each other. OUCH!
CLICK HERE for an excellent description of the tree, its leaves, and its fruit. I read that the orange part is edible (but I value life, so not sure I’ll try it).
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Photo taken at: White Rock Lake Bike & Hiking Trail
Ever seen a Question Mark? Now you have. That’s the name of this butterfly. This one showed up in my moss garden just after I had watched a cardinal, cedar waxwing, and black capped chickadee perching on the rim of the birdbath facing each other and taking turns splashing in the water. After they left, the great architect Christopher Wren dropped by for a visit. I’m so thankful for this view of God’s creativity from my office window.
The passion flower never ceases to amaze me. From a Texas A&M horticulture website: “Roman Catholic priests of the late 1500’s named it for the Passion (suffering and death) of Jesus Christ. They believed that several parts of the plant, including the petals, rays, and sepals, symbolized features of the Passion.”
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Photo taken at: White Rock Lake Bike & Hiking Trail
I am not your missing cat, Rascal. Look all over the neighborhood, under every bush, in every conceivable place in the house. Eventually Mom will find him in the corner of the garage. I’ll still be here.
Just got home from having coffee with my boss of 22+ years: Mike Stoker. He’s back in the DFW area. If you need help from a brilliant database guy, Mike is your man. Frankly, there’s little that Mike doesn’t Excel at (thanks, auto-correct for making that pun!).
Back in May, 2015 I was trying to devise a coroplast kayak. The initial design involved making a paper model. Jonathan (15 at the time) obliged me by serving as a model for the kayaker. Not sure his broom-paddle would have been very effective…. I never built the kayak. Jonathan has grown up.
See this interesting writeup about the flower (excerpt: “First discovered in 1935 on Mr. Gift’s farm in Pennsylvania, Penngift Crownvetch (Coronilla Varia L. Penngift) is valuable as food for livestock, erosion control , and nitrogen feeding of the soil. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has planted it along roads throughout the state. Penngift Crownvetch produces attractive rose, white, or pinkish-white flowers from June to September.”)
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Photo taken at: White Rock Lake Bike & Hiking Trail
My sister said she’d “love to see the Mexican that wore that hat.”
I showed her three examples:
Pancho Florido Famous Mexican painter and wife of Diego Rivera: Florida Kahlo perhaps you recall the most famous person born in Mexico, ALSO WEARING A MEXICAN HAT!
As I walked along the shore of White Rock Lake, this runner and her dog kept pulling ahead of me, only to fall behind again whenever they got to a tree. Each time, the lady would stop running and stand there patiently while the little dog sniffed around and looked intently up in the branches.
“What’s so important,” I asked myself, “that this lady is willing to break up her run?”
Finally, I drew even with them again and said, “Please forgive my curiosity. Why do you stop at every tree?”
She smiled and said, “Oreo is hunting squirrels. She also hunts for snakes, and sometimes she even finds them!”
Approvingly, I answered, “And you honor Oreo’s wishes! May I take your picture? People seem to like it when I share my delightful discoveries at the lake.”
“Sure,” she said. “I’m Molly.”
“God bless you, Molly. I’m Brad.”
A Retrospective on this Story
When I shared this on Facebook, I wrote
“Please forgive my curiosity…” That’s the opening of many a delightful discovery. READ or LISTEN to this story. You’ll see that I sometimes understand runners more than dogs, and achievement more than honor.
I’d love to get to the point where I can recognize and quickly acknowledge/articulate God’s image reflected in those I meet (and those I’ve known for a long time). When the event described above was happening, I sensed there was something special in the way Molly was treating her little dog. We talked a little more and I found out that Molly has not been a “dog person” most of her life. But recently she adopted this spunky little one-eyed dog who Molly says is “almost perfect, except that she sometimes nips me.” The word that immediately came to mind is “honor.” Taking time to let a little dog fulfill its purpose in life — to hunt! — seems like a good picture of what we’re called to do for people:
Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
I encountered this beauty when I had picked up supper at Torchy’s. I’m told it’s an MGA, ca 1962. The light was just right, but it had awful surroundings. The picture above is the best I could do editing with Snapseed and Photoshop Express on my smartphone. If it were really important, I’d take it onto my desktop computer and isolate the car with Photoshop. Below is the original image.
A friend asked, “What did you take the picture with?”
I told him, “This, like almost all of my photos these days, was taken with my smartphone (Google Nexus 6P, using the “A Better Camera” app). My phone doesn’t really focus reliably at closer distances, so I put it on manual focus and shoot several shots as I move in and out of the distance I know to be approximately correct. Once I get home, I pick the sharpest and edit, usually with Snapseed. I’m thinking of buying a reversing ring and using one of my old Nikkor prime lenses on my DSLR to achieve better macro shots. Mainly, though, I’m just shooting while walking, so I don’t want to burden myself with lots of equipment!”
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Photo taken at: White Rock Lake Bike & Hiking Trail
Upon inspecting this photo at home, I realized that line 2/5 up from the water is the level reached by water after recent heavy rains. Several places around the lake, the hiking/biking trail was covered by flotsam.
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Photo taken at: White Rock Lake Bike & Hiking Trail
Someday, I’ll get a better lens for wildlife. Until then, please just excuse my blurry images. This was taken near the Northeast shore of White Rock Lake on May 7, 2019
On a balmy day, in the month of May, around White Rock Lake I was walking. Suddenly this hawk came flying right at me. I think it must not have noticed me until just before it turned sideways, flared, and pounced on the lizard that was sunning on a Pecan tree just 15 feet from where I stood. I may have distracted Mamma Hawk just enough to foil its attempt to grab food for chicks in the nest that I have been watching. Sorry, Mrs. Hawk.
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Photo taken at: White Rock Lake Bike & Hiking Trail
