Splendor in the Grass

After spending several days without Internet service, I can't tell you how nice it is to be back online. We changed service providers and our upload and download times are so much faster — I feel as if I have a new computer! Today I would like to share some lagniappe pictures from a photo shoot I made last week featuring Queen Anne's Lace and Thistle (if you missed that post and would like to read it, you can click on the link). As I drove the back roads looking for Queen Anne's Lace, I noticed a ditch overgrown with tall grass. What's so unusual about that, you ask? Well, almost hidden from sight, tangled in and amongst the grass, were clumps of one of my favorite wildflowers — Spiderwort! The delicate, brightly-colored, bluish-purple flowers beckoned to me to get a closer look. I didn't particularly want to wade through the tall grass, so I used my zoom lens to get most of the following close ups. I think the unopened buds are as interesting as the blooms. I noticed this little clump of flowers across the road from the ditch ... And was delighted to capture a bee enjoying the flowers, too! You can click on the picture if you'd like to get a closer look. I'm so glad I didn't miss seeing these lovely little Spiderworts (such an "unlovely" name for such a pretty flower!). They reminded me of the words from William Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality, that Natalie Wood read in the movie, "Splendor in the Grass" ... Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass and glory in the flower. Perhaps when I look back at these pictures someday, they will bring back the memory of that pleasant April morning I spent capturing a little bit of God's glory in those beautiful little wildflowers hiding in the grass.

A Beautiful Flower with an Ugly Name

I love wildflowers, and one of my all-time favorites is a beautiful little exotic-looking blue flower that has a very "un-beautiful," if not downright ugly, name ~~ Spiderwort. The name Spiderwort is presumed to come from the way the flowers hang like spiders from a web off the main stem, and "wort" is the Old English name for "plant."

During a drive down some country roads last week, I found a clump of Spiderworts growing in a ditch beside the road and stopped to capture them with my camera.

In this picture, you can see how its purple
center resembles a spider's tangled web ...

If you would like to see some pictures I captured of other wildflowers while on my "country roads adventure," you can click on the links below.

Honeysuckle and Wild Roses
Roadside Daisies
Buttercups Blowin' in the Wind

Also be sure and click on the "lagniappe" picture at the bottom of this post to see what I found nestled amongst a patch of pretty little lavender wildflowers.

Lagniappe