Pictures Waiting To Be Taken

This past weekend, I went in search of Spider Lilies to photograph and was cruising down the streets of some of my favorite neighborhoods in Vicksburg, when I found a little cluster of lilies on a vacant lot.  As I slowed down, I was disappointed to find that they had already faded and turned brown on the edges. 

A few minutes later, I passed by an old house where a splash of color caught my attention and I turned around and went back to get a closer look.   At first glance, I thought it was Lantana, but quickly realized that it wasn't.  

I'm not sure what these beautiful little flowers are, but they more than made up for my being too late to capture the Spider Lilies at their peak. [Update:  My gardener blogging friends informed me that they are Four O'Clocks ... aren't they a sweet old-fashioned looking flower.]

Another "picture-waiting-to-be-taken" that caught my eye was this garden that is way past ready to be "put to bed," as my beloved grandfather used to say.  

  

Framed by the old picket fence, its dried cornstalks reminded me of the ghosts of "past-their-prime scarecrows," beckoning me to stop.

The garden is behind one of the old antebellum houses of Vicksburg, which is said to be haunted, and I definitely wouldn't want to come across those cornstalks on Halloween.  I can just imagine them creeping closer and closer to that fence.

About the time I snapped that last picture, two rather unfriendly dogs inside the fence came racing by, announcing my presence to the neighborhood, so I decided I had enough pictures of the garden.

I thought I might find some spider lilies near the Vicksburg National Cemetery, but there were none to be seen.  As I passed by the Port of Vicksburg, I spotted this riverboat in dry dock.  I took these pictures with my long lens from about a mile away, high up on Fort Hill Road.  

I believe it's the former Harrah's casino riverboat which was recently sold for scrap.  Isn't that a sad fate for such a pretty boat!  You'd think someone could have come up with a better use for it. 

I haven't given up on finding some Spider Lilies, but even if I don't, I'm sure I'll discover some more "pictures-waiting-to-be-taken" ... wherever my travels take me.