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.

A Visit to a Soybean Field

The "official State of Mississippi website" — ms.gov — lists agriculture as Mississippi's number one industry, with soybeans and cotton ranking #3 and #4, respectively, on the top ten list of agricultural crops (after #1 Poultry/Eggs, and #2 Forestry). According to the records of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mississippi had 460,000 acres planted in cotton this year, which should produce near-record yields, and the USDA estimated the state’s 2.1 million acres of soybeans is also on track to break the state yield record. A couple of weeks ago, I visited a few of those acres planted in cotton near Vicksburg, and captured over two hundred pictures of the fields and cotton bolls. I featured a few of those pictures in a post called "A Cotton Patch Adventure," and if you haven't read it, I invite you to click on the link and read that post before you read this one. Today, I am sharing some pictures of the soybean fields I passed while on my search for "a perfect cotton patch." Although less picturesque than our "Mississippi snow," I found the soybeans to be quite interesting. As I said, not as pretty as a cotton field ... But let's take a closer look ... I can usually find beauty in just about everything I photograph (except, perhaps, the earthworms and snakes!), and I think the soybean pods have a beauty all their own, especially when looked at individually ... I wanted to see what the actual beans look like, and didn't think the farmer would mind if I broke off a stalk to take home. And surprise, surprise ... here is what I found inside ... Beans!

Off the Beaten Path: Between Vicksburg and Natchez

I would like to thank our gracious hostess Sally at Smiling Sally for taking the time to host our Blue Mondays. Be sure to visit Sally to see her patriotic "Proud to be American" post. For my Blue Monday contribution, I would like to share some photos I took over the weekend (a couple of them have some blue, other than the sky, in them). Natchez, Mississippi is only about an hour's drive from where we live in Vicksburg, and this past weekend, my husband and I went to Natchez to spend some time with his brother and his wife who drove up from New Orleans. Instead of traveling down Highway 61 South, or the Natchez Trace, which is the way we usually go, we decided to get off "the beaten path," and drive down the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River, on US Highway 65. This took us through the heart of the Louisiana Delta, where the road cut through dusty fields of corn, soybeans, and cotton, stretching as far as the eye could see ... Cotton Soybeans I think the Delta farmlands are their prettiest this time of year. The plants are thick and green and lush, and the cotton fields were dotted with little white blooms. I grew up in Northeast Louisiana, and have been around cotton fields all my life, but I had never seen a cotton bloom up close. Well, needless to say, as soon as I saw the blooms, I asked my husband to stop and let me get some pictures. Being the sweet, patient man that he is, he pulled over and I grabbed my camera and jumped out into the 98-degree heat of the Louisiana Delta. It was hot and dusty, and I wasn't dressed to be out wandering in cotton fields, but I didn't mind when I saw how beautiful the blooms were. I think they were worth getting a little hot and dusty for (you can click on the photos to enlarge them, if you'd like)... And speaking of hot and dusty, this is a picture of the parched earth in which those beautiful plants are thriving ... It looks like it's going to be a long, hot summer for the farmers trying to keep their fields irrigated. I always try to stop and photograph the three crosses on highways when I see them, and I love these standing amongst the soybeans and corn. Click on the picture and you can see three small metal crosses attached to the big ones, which I've never seen before ... I don't think I've ever seen a mailbox as big as this one either. The street sign reads, appropriately, "Mail Box Road" ... We took a little detour through the town of Newellton, Louisiana, and was rewarded with a little lagniappe in the form of this charming little house in the country ... I love its little picket fence and beautiful flower beds, and was delighted when I saw the BLUE bottle tree in the front yard. But this little house had even more lagniappe in store for us. Just look at what was in the side yard! Is that not the cutest little outhouse you've ever seen ... complete with a little BLUE chair to sit in while you "wait your turn." And look at the corn field that comes right up to the back yard ... I just love people's sense of humor and imagination when it comes to yard art, don't you! You just never know what you're going to find when you venture "off the beaten path," and I'm never disappointed. I always seem to find lagniappe wherever I go.