Another Neighborhood Walk
June 6, 2021
About a week ago I suited up in my various pieces of tick-proof gear and headed toward Wildflower Hill. Here’s some of what I saw on my perambulation.
1 Wildflower Hill is covered in dame’s rocket (Hesperis matronalis). I find these flowers beautiful and thought they were benign. Lynn Wohlers (bluebrightly.com) educated me. Alas, they are considered invasive across the U.S.
2 Dame’s rocket is often confused with phlox, which is in a different plant family. The visual give-away is that dame’s rocket blossoms have four petals, and phlox blossoms have five.
3 While the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center says nothing about the invasive nature of the American native white water lily (Nymphaea odorata), other sites do. The problem can be serious in our western states. Do you wonder what those bits in the water and on the lily pads are? The white fluff is seeds from cottonwood trees (Populus deltoides), and the brown things are fruits of a nearby river birch (Betula nigra) at Island Pond. I’m happy to say that neither tree is considered invasive.
4 Water lilies, sedges, and willows—here along Rock Pond—have such different leaf forms. To the right of the water lilies is common spikerush (Eleocharis palustris), and above the sedge is either brittle willow (Salix fragilis) or black willow (Salix nigra), says my resident botanist. Let’s hope it is black willow; brittle willow is invasive.
5 Here’s a fuller view of the Rock Pond willows.
6 The Buttonbush Vernal Pool kept me for a long time. I just couldn’t tear myself away from the wind’s ripples on the water.
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Romancing Reality 
Very very beautiful water photos!
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June 6, 2021 at 4:13 AM
Thank you, Jag. I love having all these ponds and the vernal pool nearby.
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June 7, 2021 at 5:31 PM
Well, Linda, you leave me standing on the flower names – LOL! but that’s not hard to do!!! Except for cauliflower, which I’m well up with … 😉 … especially when its found swimming in thick, tasty gravy …
Love the Water Lily bloom, and the abstract looks at the water too. 🙂
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June 6, 2021 at 4:40 AM
Don’t be intimidated, Adrian. I had to look up all of them for the links after first asking my husband what most of them were. I actually know very little about plants—except how lovely they look. Roasted cauliflower with garlic and/or smoky paprika would be my choice. Yum. Thanks, as always, for commenting.
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June 7, 2021 at 5:32 PM
Brilliant set of water reflections; love’m all! See you, Linda!
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June 6, 2021 at 5:38 AM
Thanks, Harrie. I certainly live in the right place to photograph water reflections.
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June 7, 2021 at 5:32 PM
Wind is a nuisance when we want close-ups of plants, but I’m with you on the fascination of wind-rippled reflections on the surface of ponds and streams.
It seems that unlike dame’s rocket, which is alien to the United States altogether, the white water lily originated in the eastern states, got cultivated in the west, escaped cultivation, and is now aggressive outside its original native range.
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June 6, 2021 at 7:00 AM
I agree about the wind, Steve. It can be your friend or your enemy.
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June 7, 2021 at 5:33 PM
The nature abstracts are fun and engaging. I find one of the nice things about water abstracts is that you can turn them right, left, or upside down and they still work.
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June 6, 2021 at 10:53 AM
I’m with you, Joe. And as long as the shutter speed is fast enough, you almost can’t miss with water abstracts. Thanks for writing.
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June 7, 2021 at 5:33 PM
Those wind ripples are beautiful, Linda. I can understand how you just couldn’t stop yourself. Everchanging and mesmerizing.
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June 6, 2021 at 3:19 PM
Thank you, Steve. Yes, on a partly sunny day, the clouds are coming and going, and on a windy day, the wind is disturbing the water this way and that, and with my lens zooming in and out, the permutations are endless—and I’m tempted to hit them all. 😉
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June 7, 2021 at 5:34 PM
Beautiful photographs.
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June 7, 2021 at 3:44 AM
Thanks, Jessica. I know how much you love to photograph ripples, too.
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June 7, 2021 at 5:35 PM
Fantastic. Thank you!!
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June 8, 2021 at 9:37 AM
Thank you, Tom, and you’re welcome.
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June 8, 2021 at 5:05 PM
It looks like you really enjoyed the water reflections. They’re a dream to look at, really lovely. But it’s good to have context too, for which I appreciate #4 and #5 very much. The wide angle in #4 is very nice, it really takes in the scene in an interesting way. I was surprised to see that you have Cottonwood fluff raining down on the water, too – I love that June snow. Or May snow, whatever! We watched little Mallard ducklings walk across water lily leaves and eat those tiny seeds one afternoon at a preserve – it was amazing. #13 is my hands-down favorite here, and #14, and #1. 😉 Thanks for the mention – true confession: in my head I say “phlox” when I see Dame’s rocket plants. 😉
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June 9, 2021 at 3:33 PM
Yeahhh, well, see, that’s not context. Number 4 is Island Pond, and #5 is Rock Pond. The reflections were at Buttonbush Vernal Pool. We are replete with small bodies of water around here. But you’re right about my enjoying the water reflections! Those ducklings must have been a wonderful sight. Good to know your favorites. When I saw the dame’s rockets walking down the hill, I was sure I had come upon something photogenic that I could capture. But not only was it difficult to get the exposure right in the camera, but it also took way more time than I expected to work up the photo in Lightroom. Don’t understand why. But at least I was satisfied in the end. I favor the close-up and more abstract photos of the reflections myself. Will have to go back for more in the fall.
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June 9, 2021 at 8:42 PM
I really like the water reflections; each one is unique. I like their progression from distant, wider view to close-up. Nice collection, Linda.
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June 11, 2021 at 8:56 PM
Thanks, Mic. I was standing on a footbridge over the pool, so I could shoot straight down over the railing to get some of these photographs. The progression was fun to arrange for the blog post.
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June 15, 2021 at 9:58 PM