Day 6, Flowers in pink, purple, and wine.

“People who discourse pleasantly and accurately about the birds and flowers and external nature generally are not invariably good observers. In their walks do they see anything they did not come out to see? Is there any spontaneous or unpremeditated seeing? Do they make discoveries? Any bird or creature may be hunted down, any nest discovered, if you lay siege to it; but to find what you are not looking for, to catch the shy winks and gestures on every side, to see all the by-play going on around you, missing no significant note or movement, penetrating every screen with your eye-beams — that is to be an observer; that is to have “an eye practiced like a blind man’s touch,” — a touch that can distinguish a white horse from a black, — a detective eye that reads the faintest signs.” John Burroughs, The Art of Seeing Things.

“To learn something new, take the path that you took yesterday.” John Burroughs.

My inbox is filling with email from friends, sharing they are more aware, seeing more, making fun observations. 

I love it. 

I love that your stories are about seeing more where you’ve already seen — in your own backyard, while walking around the block, at a family getaway place… on the path you took yesterday.

During this time of distancing, we are all learning anew. And I wonder about our paths. How much will they veer? We can’t necessarily lay siege to most of what we seek right now, so we are all sort of living unpremeditated. 

And I love catching the shy winks in nature and finding what I was not looking for. 

A nature path is an outstanding teacher.

Perhaps some lessons will translate for our times.

Let’s keep looking. 

The Day 6 bouquet is delivering seven more flowers blooming at the ranch. Yes, it includes pink— and shades of lilac and wine.

When you look at the picture below, you probably see a Texas Hill Country ridge and the hills beyond. 

When I look at the picture below, I see rocks, because in spring I am anxious for the grasses to return and cover the barren rocky land of winter. 

Neither of us probably see this…

But Golden-eye phlox, Phlox roemeriana, is what fills the entire ridge, when you look closer.

It is the quintessential experience of catching spontaneous shy winks. 

And the by-play of a thousand phlox dancing in the wind while an ever changing canvas of clouds drifts by is gratifying eye practice.

It’s an easy workout to observe phlox for they are enchanting.

This one deserves a closer look.

Tattered on the edges and still captivating.

I can think of so many captions…

Need a little friend?

This one makes me smile.

Another field filler is Pink Evening Primrose, Oenothera speciosa. This flower is shell pink with dark pink veins.

While it can sprawl in large, dense colonies, at The Lost Madrone Ranch it only grows in small patches in several spots. 

On a hilltop previously harvested for caliche, it grows in limestone where the soil has not yet restored. 

Even having a large flower, Primrose can be hard to find against this stage.

The patch here looks like primrose growing at the beach.

A few weeks ago when working in the yard, my neighbor walked by and proudly pronounced it was the day his young grandson discovered his shadow. How delightful. Wouldn’t it be fun to know the day you first learned about your shadow? This picture reminds me of his sweet story.

Another small patch of pink evening primrose grows in the grass down in the gorge.

When closed, the buds expose how delicate the petals are, looking like shriveled tissue paper and making me long for fiesta decorations.

 

Primrose is widely found, so it’s classified as a common flower. 

Looks exceptional to me.

In any condition.

Thistle is not just thistle.

There are many species, native and not, invasive or not. 

This is Texas thistle, Cirsium texanum, and it is a non-invasive native thistle that is an excellent source of nectar and blooms through the summer.

One way to identify this plant is that Texas thistle has no bracts at the base of the flower. 

Once you get beyond thinking all thistle is a bad invasive weed, it is easy to appreciate the striking detail and attractive bloom of a Texas thistle.

Wild Garlic, Allium Drummondii, grows across the ranch in all the fields. It grows to under a foot with clusters of star-shaped flowers. 

 

Wild Garlic can be light pink, almost white, and shades of purple.

Most at the ranch are pink.

Others take on a purple tone.

Can you find the small brown and white bug on this Wild Garlic?

A second later he flew to the left. What a difference a little move can make.

The darkest color Wild Garlic I have seen was just blooming, opening to a rich purple.

Mesmerizing.

Many varieties of vines grow on the ranch and I plan to do a future story on them. For now, here is a sweet one that is prolific, Deer Pea Vetch, Vicia ludoviciana. 

This thin vine with tiny flowers climbs over grasses and bushes alike.

When you find it on a bush it looks like a tangled mess. 

The flower color in these pictures are lilac-like, but many I see read pink.

Another flower in the “sweet” category is Annual Pennyroyal, Hedeoma acinoides.

This plant is small and found growing along slopes and rock cliff edges. When I find it in the gorges, the leaves are full and a deep green. 

The flower bud looks hot pink, but when the flower blooms it is a light pink to lavender-pink. 

The leaves can brown and the plants thin when growing along the exposed limestone outcroppings on the hilltops.

On my walks early during the stay at home orders, I did not go out to see anything in particular, but my eye kept seeing “trapped.”  This is one example.

An Annual Pennyroyal trapped by a spiders web.

And to end the Day 6 Bouquet with a toast, this flower, the color of wine, is Pincushion Daisy, Gaillardia suavis. 

Pincushion daisies grow along the road in the caliche, and I must look hard to see them because they are so airy.

The flower is a small globe covered in tiny disk flowers and it sits on top of a thin bare stalk that can be 2 feet tall. 

You can see the individual flowers in this close up shot that was posted on the Day 1 bouquet story.

And yes, while in one era it looked like a pincushion, today it looks like the Coronavirus.

Pincushion Daisies are reddish-brown or burgundy, with tints of orange.

The small ray flowers at the base of the flower are not always present so when you look at a group of these growing, they look like floating gumballs. 

The flowers are fragrant, and guess who visits?

As the flowers wither, I think they are just as pretty. 

Magical. 

Tomorrow is Bouquet day 7. 

I hope you will make time to Take Comfort.