A Trace of light rationing

Another flower shot from my walk along the Trace in Mandeville one Saturday recently.  Even in the bright afternoon sun, sunlight is a precious commodity along the shadowy lane that weaves from Mandeville to Abita Springs.

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A Trace of beauty

I stopped for a moment along the Trace in Mandeville and notice a simple white flower in the sea of green trees, vines and bushes. I think I often miss little treasures like this.

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Party in the pollen

Somebody had an Easter party on this Easter lily.  Who could it bee?

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I can't tell you what captured my fancy about this.... this... well, this weed.  It had found a shaft of sunlight in a dark corner of a cool bayou bend and was soaking it up. It had a bit of loneliness to it, as well a bit of pioneering spirit.  But, mostly it just seemed content to be out of the dark, gathering strength from the light.

Resplendency

The Azaleas are resplendent this year.  I have been drawn particularly to the white ones.  They are eye popping.  This shot in downtown Beaumont, looking toward the Tyrrel Library, was actually a couple of days late.  A few days before this shot, you could barely see the green leaves of the Azaleas.
--steve buser

Flower fest fills the air

The passions of Spring -- the eagerness of motion, the torque that twists us and transports us away from the cold,  motionlessness of winter.   This day lily greets the morning with a flailing zeal: a sister ready to blossom through her bloom.  Each flower has its own story of life and amour. In Spring, their exhilaration builds to a choir of  color singing  a story of vital longing.
--steve buser

Wasp -- diving down for nectar

This flower didn't make it easy for this wasp to get his noon-time nectar.  He had to climb down through the grove of stamen to find his treasure.  He spent about a minute or two wandering in the tops of the grove, then slowly worked his way around and down to a tasty meal.  All the while, he was doing the flower's work for it -- getting pollen all over his body.

wasp, flowers

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Bee and wasp -- fighting it out in pistil dual

Our protagonist on the right, the bee.  Was enjoying his romp in the pollen on this afternoon where I just happened to be shooting a picture of this flower.   It was only seconds later that our antagonist, the wasp on the right, flitted into this pollen patch.  Both the bee (on the right)  and the wasp (on the left), kept their distance and didn't seem too distracted with having to share their nectar neighborhood.  But soon, the bee got jealous and buzzed a little to close to the wasp's side. 

That's when the pistil fight commenced --each making menacing passes at each others' stamens.   The wasp's jabs were obvious more threatening and the bee eventually backed off -- remembering that discretion is the better part of valor. He zoomed off to another flower in the neighborhood where he quickly took back up the task of pollen powdering in pursuit of nectar.

--steve buser

bee, wasp, flower

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What a lily..

This water lily was at the City of Gonzalez Jambalaya Park.   We went there today to take our grandchildren to the Splash Pad.  This lilly was in the fish pond in front of the splash area.  I applied a watercolor filter to the shot to give a painting effect.

O, yeah,  the kids had a great time dashing and getting splashed.

-- steve buser

Water lily, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

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They don't want to leave!

Seems even flowers have that same problem -- they just can't get the little ones to leave their nest.  This was a magnolia flower I ran upon while out walking the dog.
--steve buser

Magnolia flower, New Orleans, Louisiana

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Bee bums

You know what I am going to say before I even say it. Don't you? Sure, you do.

Seems like if you invite bees and butterflies into your flower, they would take a little pride and keep the place clean. I mean after all, just cleaning the pollen they spilled on this Easter Lilly would go a long way toward keeping the flower respectable looking.

You know, I am glad we got that off our chest. Thank you.

--steve buser

pollen, bees, butterflies, lillies
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Early bloomer

This flower was sitting beside the St. Tammany Trace in Mandeville. THey only open in the morning. and then close up like the one in the back in the heat of the day.
--steve buser

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Bee ready

Probiscus at the ready, this bee prepares to dig in for a delicious syrupy nectar delight.
--steve buser

bee, probiscus, flowers, Mandeville, Louisiana, nectar
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Piping pretty

The filaments of this flower look like pipelines to me. Maybe I've been into economic development too long. Notice the full pollen coatings on the anthers. Apparently there are some lazy bees around here.
--steve buser

flower, filament, anthers, pollen, New Orleans, Louisiana
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Louisiana Iris

The Louisiana Iris (Iris fulva) from the Mandeville Nature Center.

--steve buser

Louisian Iris, Iris fulva, flowers, Mandeville, Louisiana

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Cardinal rule of fine dining

If you were a beautiful Cardinal would you feast on worms and insects?   I think not.   You'd probably do like this fellow and has tasty, succulent morsels of sun-baked baby elm buds.  The birds are apparently into fine-dining at the Mandeville Nature Center  (across the lake from New Orleans).

--steve buser

Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis, eating, Mandeville, birds, nature center, Louisiana

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Nectar for the bees, pollen for the flowers

The azaleas are out in force in New Orleans providing nectar for the bees, hoping some of their pollen gets stuck them and delivered to another address. This flowers pollen pack is about all gone.

--steve buser

azaleas, pollen, flowers, New Orleans, Louisiana

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The path less taken

Early this week I was driving home from Texas after having slept through Tropical Storm Edouard running its blender over Beaumont. I didn't realize that the back side of the storm was probably the most intense. Deciding that discretion is the better part of valor I pulled over to ride it out at the Louisiana Welcome Center just across the state line.

In between squalls, I decided to see what the the nature board walk there is all about. It wanders through the Black Cypress-Tupelo Gum swamp to a look out over Lake Bienvenue. It's a short, well-maintained board-walk trail packed with lots of eye candy. I was shocked when a small alligator splashed into the water below me. A Great Egret was playing hide and seek with me. There were cypress knees by the hundreds. All kinds of flying things were scooting about.

One of the things that focused by attention was a group of Swamp Lilies. This was the best of the group. You can see the water drops still sitting on the petals from the last squall that past through.

I packed things up as soon as the drizzle stoppped and headed home to New Orleans.

--steve buser

To bee or not to bee

The story the other day said that even though bees are dying out all across the country, a few states, Louisiana one of them, are not having that problem. Nobody knows why. Sweet.

-- steve buser

Bright and shining day

It's a bright day. Sun is shining, no clouds in the sky. It will be hot. But a perfect day for a barbeque. The fish are jumping and well, the cotton may not be high just yet, but it's getting that way.

--steve buser