Glory Amongst the Fencerows

The title of my last post was "Pictures Waiting to be Taken," and yesterday morning, while searching for Spider Lilies to photograph, I found lots of "pictures waiting to be taken" along the rural back roads of Hinds County, Mississippi.  Actually, some of them weren't on back roads ... they were on the South Frontage Road of I-20, near Edwards ... in plain sight of the hundreds of travelers who use the frontage road daily, on their way to and from work.  I'd be willing to bet that very few of those travelers have noticed God's glory amongst the fencerows, but I did ... and I'm so glad I stopped to get a closer look. The white wildflower vines trailed gracefully along the fence, and reminded me of little white morning glories.   As you can see in the first picture, there was a lot of tall grass between the road and fence, plus a shallow ditch, and I was sorry I didn't have my "grass-wading boots" with me. However, the next best thing to boots is a long lens, and whenever I'm on a photo shoot, I have one handy.  The following pictures were all taken with the long lens from a spot about three feet off the road. It was truly my lucky day as far as picture-making goes ... because I soon discovered that I wasn't the only one enjoying those glorious wildflowers along the fencerows.  There were several butterflies darting to and fro amongst the blooms, and I managed to capture a few pictures of them as they flitted from flower to flower, in their never-ending search for the bloom with the best nectar ...     This black swallowtail was a little more camera-shy than the yellow swallowtail ...    Isn't God's camouflage amazing!  You can barely see him nestled in the vines. I like the way his wings are positioned in the next picture ... And this is my favorite picture of him ... caught in mid-air!  As if the wildflowers and butterflies weren't enough, I found some lagniappe at my feet, literally ... Those are "Balloon Vines" ...  If you would like to know more about Balloon Vines, you can go back in time to a post I wrote a few years ago featuring Balloon Vines, by clicking the links below.  I found them to be very interesting plants, and the pods have unique little heart-shaped seeds inside them.  Balloon Vines Heart Seeds Just a few yards up the road from the butterflies another picture was beckoning to me, and there was no way I could pass by these beautiful yellow wildflowers ... I found a place to turn around and went back to get a closer look ...   I googled images of yellow wildflowers and was surprised to find these listed under "Poisonous Plants of the South." They are called Showy Crotalaria, and are extremely toxic to chickens, horses, cattle, and swine that might consume the green plant, hay contaminated with crotalaria, or dried seed in harvested grain.  Sheep, goats, mules, and dogs can also be affected to a lesser degree.  I'm not sure if it has adverse effects on humans, but I'm glad I didn't decide to dissect one to look at its seeds, as I sometimes do. Even though poisonous, the flowers were a beautiful sight scattered along the roadside.       Here are a few more "lagniappe" pictures I captured along my journey ... Champion Hill Road Hinds County, Mississippi This next "picture waiting to be taken" stopped me in my tracks ... or rather, on the railroad tracks. I didn't "hear a train a'comin,'" so I stopped on the tracks to capture this beautiful scene. This little guy was in a yard in Edwards, Mississippi ... and I couldn't resist stopping by for a visit. The soybean fields were decked out in their Fall colors, ready for harvest time ... which will be soon. I hope you enjoyed seeing God's glory in these "pictures waiting to be taken." I have one more fencerow I want to share, but since this post is rather lengthy, I'll leave it for next time.  I hope you will join me.

Who Plants a Seed

This is a follow up to a story I wrote last fall about a fascinating vine I discovered growing on a fence on a frontage road beside I-20, between Edwards and Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Upon researching the vine, I found that it is called Balloon Vine, because the fruit resembles little balloons. They remind me of little Chinese lanterns ...

If you would like to read the posts from last fall before you read this last chapter, you can click on the following links:

Balloon Vines
Heart Seeds

As I mentioned in the "Heart Seeds" post, the seeds of the balloon vines are black and have markings on them resembling white hearts.

I was delighted when I discovered the little seeds, and saved some to plant with our granddaughter Avery Grace.

I also kept an unusual seed from some Carolina Moonseed vines that I photographed last December.

This is the little "moonseed" I kept ...

If you'd like, you can read about them here: December Lagniappe: Vines and Berries.

This past Saturday, the weather was absolutely perfect here in Mississippi, and my husband and I took Avery out to our land so we could plant our seeds. We let her pick out the spot and she chose a place near our "fairy tree," which you can see in the background of the next picture (I can't wait to tell you about our plans for the fairy tree this Spring).

Here are some of the seeds we planted. The wind was blowing, and she had to put her gloves on so they wouldn't blow away while I took this picture.

We've planted Morning Glory seeds a couple of times, and Avery has learned to be gentle when planting seeds ...

She wanted to water them, but we told her God would water them for us (and sure enough, He sent us a nice gentle rain yesterday).

Next, we put some sticks around the seedbed so we would know where we planted them.

To every thing there is a season, including a time to plant. Granted, January is probably not the ideal time to plant seeds, but since we have been waiting since September, we took advantage of the pretty weather and went ahead and planted ours.

Who knows ... perhaps this Spring we will discover some little green leaves poking their way through the dirt. And in the meantime, we will watch and wait ... and Avery will learn a little lesson about "having faith."

Heart Seeds

As promised, this is the "rest of the story" about an amazing vine called "Balloon Vine," which I featured in yesterday's post.

If you would like to read the story from the beginning before reading the end, you can click on the above link.

I visited that fence row again yesterday on a "mission" to gather some seeds from the balloon-like fruit hanging from the vine.

I held my breath as I opened the first pod, and couldn't help but smile when I saw three little black seeds nestled inside. I removed them and was further delighted to see the white heart-shaped designs on them where they had been attached to the pod.

To think that I just happened to drive by that fence row last week and stopped to take pictures of the unusual vines growing on it, never realizing what was tucked away inside those paper-thin little "balloons." I'm so glad I researched the vine to find out what it was, or I'd have never known about its "secret treasure."

While I was there yesterday, I also captured some of the tiny flowers gracing the ends of the delicate tendrils ...

And last, but not least, here is a little more lagniappe I captured while I was there, as if "heart seeds," exquisite little flowers, and "paper balloons" weren't enough ...

God's glory is all around us, but it's His hidden handiwork, most of which we probably never see, that is truly awe-inspiring. I feel blessed to have gotten a glimpse of it on a beautiful September morning, in the form of those little "heart seeds" nestled inside the "paper balloons" of the vine growing on that fence row near Edwards, Mississippi — Thank you, Lord.

P.S.— I plan to share this story with our granddaughter Avery Grace, and let her help me plant the seeds on our newly purchased land where we're planning to build a house. Perhaps I'll be able to share pictures of "our" balloon vines someday.