Tales of summer won

It was just a simple flower on the side of the road.  But the more I looked at it, it appeared to have a summer's worth of tales written on it.  Close encounters with bees, wasps, butterflies and who know what.  Maybe even some swashbuckling over who would get the first sip of nectar.  Not that it was ever part of the brawl.  It just provided the ring so that it could have a front row seat to a summer of feasting.  On the side, it was a ancient mating ritual for the flower -- one it never revealed to its nectar-toting stinger-swingers.  They flew away with the nectar of the gods. The flower's dream had just begun.

flower

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A step down

Stepping down the steps at Riverfront Park in Beaumont, TX, into the Neches River.

Neches River, Beaumont, Texas

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Birds of different feather

The girls were just out shopping, a lady Cardinal and White Winged Dove.

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Fossil friend daubed in creative coats of color

This was at the Dinosaur Day at the Energy Museum in Downtown Beaumont this weekend.  Kids were having fun giving their ideas on what they days of yore looked like. In this case, you might just say it turned out to be a Dino of a different color.

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White Winged-Dove, studying her options

This White-winged Dove looked to be pregnant.  She worked her way out on the hanger for the bird feeder, trying to see if there was a better way to get to the birds seed.  She didn't find that better way. The ledge on the feeder was made for smaller birds.  To eat, she had to keep flapping her wings, holding on with one leg.  It seemed awkward, but the bird seed must have taster better than creepy crawly things.

White-winged dove, Beaumont, Texas, bird

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Glass-hugging tree frog

This fellow had chosen one of our windows for a day of relaxation. He was clinging there when I spotted him and stayed put while I ran and got my camera. I wasn't very comfortable with what I shot. There wasn't enough room to get above him, and the lighting was surprisingly dim for outside.  So I ran in to check my shots on the computer a couple times before I decided this was about as good as I was going to get.   Next time, I will ask the tree frog to move out into the light.

tree frog, nature

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Reminiscing the past summer's pastimes

Pardon my passing musings on the passing of summer's pastimes.
Were that it were crawfish season year round.

Crawfish, Beaumont, Texas

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The moon unveiled, slightly

Under the inspection of a camera lens, the moon reveals a glimpse of her hidden secret.

moon, Beaumont, Texas

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Freez-frame, in frozen light

Emerging after a massive cannonball in the backyard pool, the diver shakes the water from his hair with the pool light as a backdrop.
(I took this shot from a video shot on my Kodak PlaySport hand-held video camera)

Pool, Splash, Beaumont, Texas

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Thunderous march

Marching toward us, belching, moaning, rumbling, this crowd front brought its light show and showers last night.

Beaumont, Texas Weather

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Night fall

Night fell slowly over Lamar University as I was leaving for home.

Sundown, Beaumont, Texas

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Catching the early morning plane

Yawn.   That's all.  Yawn.

flying, Texas, sunrise

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Pollen Party!!!

Okay, somebody had a pollen party in this flower and didn't clean up after themselves.
This was on the way back from Austin this summer.

flowers, Texas

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Life's cruel

We have quite a few lizards hanging around outside the house.   I mean literally hanging.  This reptilian villain was up in the cover of a solar light waiting until the moth came along.  Despite the fact that the moth was bigger than the lizard, the scaly one seemed to have the upper hand  (maybe that should be "the upper teeth") .  All of the flapping and shaking that the prey could muster was doing him no good. He did get away for a few seconds though.  My dog came by to see what I was shooting pictures of and the lizard decided he liked his skin better -- he dropped down into the garden to hide.

Lizard, moth, survival

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Houston Aquarium -- the Wow Factor

Sophie and Sullivan at the Aquarium in Houston. 
The wonderment of youth.  Wow.

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Lamar University - football is back!

Football is back!  
The Lamar Cardinals took the first home opener in the retrofitted Provost-Umphrey stadium last night. 
The Cards defeated the Weber International team in the first football at Lamar Stadium in 20 years.
The fans were ready for the moment and poured onto the field a in a display of pure enjoyment.
Notice the guy on the Southland Conference sign near the center of the picture.  He is getting ready to do a cartwheel  -- one of about four people I saw doing one as they poured onto the field.

Football, Lamar University

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Is Summer Gone?

Is summer gone?  
The days of summer, in quick succession, rise up in sparkling flight,
glisten momentarily in the sun
and then sparkle only in our memory.
Next summer I will swim more, laugh more, hug more,
and find pleasure in the soaking warmth of every day.
--steve buser

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Ibis finds perfect nesting spot.

Just a few changes and this will be a great place to raise baby ibises.   This white Ibis mom had the perfect site picked out for a nest when I visiting the Trinity River Waterfowl Sanctuary on the I-10 just east of Houston this Spring.
--steve buser

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Hang in there, babe, bee

A bee hangs from a flower as it gets it's first sip of morning nectar. Notice the water drop of dew hanging just over his head.
--steve buser

Rocking Mocking Bird

I remember that I still have a tell to tale about the junior Mourning Dove. In the meanwhile, though, this young Mocking Bird has started chirping -- more like squeaking,  really-- every time that mom slows down on the steady stream of worms she's been ferrying in.   He needs to get big quick because the nest is sitting on the leaf of a palm tree.  The windy weather we've been having has probably given him a queasy feeling quite often.
--steve buser

I hope I can fly

The grandkids were in town this weekend.  Need I say more? Sullivan gets a little wobbly on the slide after his shoe sticks and flies off.
--steve buser

Couriers careen through concrete canyon

This was the scene a few weeks back at the Houston Marathon.  The runners, whom normally look larger than life as they slap past, seem dwarfed here.  This concrete canyon was near the finish line.
--steve buser

Morning (Mourning) dove goes roque

A

A morning full of drama at our house.  This junior morning dove was wandering slowly around the day lilies.  I am pretty sure she came from a nest in the bush at the corner of the house in the backyard.  A pair of pretty amorous mourning doves always fly out of that bush when I come round the house. 


I suspect they were not aware of this little gal getting her walking shoes on and venturing out on her own.

Stay tune for more of the Mourning Dove drama.


--steve buser

Spring brandishes fuschias, citrons

You can change the addage -- this year, it's April showers bring April flowers.  After a long, cold winter, the flowers seem even more eager than ever to volcano into an exclamation of color.


--steve buser

Tiger Swallowtail butterfly survivor

This Tiger Swallowtail looks to have had a close call fending off a hungry predator, perhaps a bird.  His beautiful tail is tatters.  Nonetheless lives on in his flower-hopping life. It's a cruel world out there, and it's a beautiful, happy world.  Juxtaposed.
--steve buser

Bee busy

When your job is to drink nectar all day, how bad can life bee?
Bees do this to me a lot.  I was taking a picture of the flower, but the bee decided that he couldn't wait. These azaleas are a tough task for the bee.  He has to climb down inside the flower to get his meal -- it makes all that pollen shake all over him.
--steve buser

Spinning wheel, spinning round

If this gives you a sense of vertigo, it was meant to. You slide around the track going totaly topsy-turvy and the top and multiple G's at the bottom.  If that wasn't fun enough, you stop at the very top and do the whole fun things backwards.   You get to pay for this privilege.  I think I am still spinning from watching it long enough to get a in-focus shot.
The South Texas State Fair.   But then, you probably have an event with that spins this much fun in your neighborhood, too.
--steve buser

South Texas State Fair, Texas, Beaumont

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Fair days, fun days

Linda and I were at the South Texas State Fair this weekend in Beaumont.  I observed that a lot of the fun seemed to be the spinning, twisting, grinding, yelling, 10+ G's, that I used to enjoy when it would not put my body into a week of intense pain.  Those were the days.  Or, I guess I should say THESE are the days, just not for me.
--steve buser

State Fair, Beaumont, Texas

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Green Heron practices hunting skills

It a small lake at the Aboretum in Austin.  I suppose that the competition makes  a bird like this green heron have to travel some days to find food. Nonetheless, he was patient, practicing all of his hunting skills -- the bank-side waiting, the shallow water-wading, the stealthy, slumped low warrior, the tree branch sniper and more.
--steve buser

Green Heron, Austin, Texas

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Roseate Spoonbill -- grooming time

In a crowded neighborhood like the one this Roseate Spoonbill lives in (Shangra La, Orange, TX) once you have the kids down for a nap, it's time to stay quiet.  Many like to do self grooming during the kids's name time.  If your a Spoonbill, that's a little harder than it sounds.
--steve buser

Roseate Spoonbill, Texas

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Pines busy preparing for the summer

More evidence of Spring.   The pine trees are budding -- getting ready for mating and this year's crop of pine cones.
-- Steve Buser

Pine tree, pine cone

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Flower springs out

Digging in God's rich soil this weekend.  Linda looked over and pointed it out.  The first flower after what has been a brutal winter.  It came suddenly springing out this week.


Other signs -- waves of ducks flying high over head -- yesterday they were spaced out about 15 minutes apart.


Robins -- a pack of them flitting through the woods scavenging -- on the road out of our subdivision.


Sprigs, starting to appear.  Shoots, shooting up.


Spring.
--steve buser

Spring, flowers

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Ring billed gull -- whispering wind

I fly, held up by the wind.  Feeling it's gentleness. Sensitive to the minute differences above and below my wings. It whispers to me.  The sky is my domain.
A ring-bill gull at the river front in Port Neches
--steve buser

Ring Billed Gull, Port Neches, Texas

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Egret: instant fish dinner

Splash.  It was sudden and explosive.  In less that the blink of the eye, the egret sliced the dark soupy waters with his beak and neck to grab some unsuspecting fish.  

Hunting time, was suddenly meal time.
--steve buser

Egret, Birds

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Shoot for the star

Linda and I had the grandchildren this weekend.  This was the drop-off-- we met our daughter Vicky in Jennings, LA,  to pass the grandkids over.  Sullivan took the time to show his climbing skills at the park on the Interstate.

He was about halfway down when I decided to take a shot.   Always the kind of drama that he is,  and letting no good opportunity for showmanship go,  he climbed back to the top and told "okay,  now shoot."

The climbing piece resembles a derrick.  Makes sense, sense it is the Oil and Gas Park, in the town that since 1901 has claimed the moniker of "Cradle of Louisiana Oil."
--steve buser

Jennings, Louisiana, kids

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Silent sentry

 

This Cooper's Hawk flew across the yard and took up sentry on a fence post in the back yard this morning.  I don't think he had the best of intentions.  I am sure he was attracted by the large number of sparrows that have been coming around the bird feeder. This morning, he was out of luck -- they had finished off the bird seed the night before.  The sparrows, that beautiful blue jay and that handsome pair of cardinals that always come around were searching for food elsewhere.  
The drama continues.

--steve buser

Cooper's Hawk, Beaumont, Texas, birds

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Washing the sky's belly: GUSHER!

Three actors that portray the workers at the original Spindletop gusher watch the modern re-creation blow into the sky.  Of course, today at the Beaumont Gladys City Museum, it is water washing the sky's belly.  The original spewed oil that was as valuable as it was messy.
--steve buser

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Boom the moon

I will confess that the moon you see is superimposed.  The moon in this shot was way over exposed, so I borrowed one from another shot of mine. 


Still, the juxtaposing, you have to admit, brings up lots of antithesis -- the whisperless quiet of the moon; the fireworks booming through the smoking, sulphur-smelling sky.  The moon, peaceful, tranquil.  The firework, exploding, like the fireball of a supernova.   The steady, steely brightness of the moon.  The short-lived, damn-the-torpedoes life of the firework.

The firmament tolerates a variety of behaviors.
--steve buser

Fireworks, Moon, Texas

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Houston : a bigger bang

I guess maybe I just needed some excitement today, because I was drawn to this picture from awhile back in Houston.  We were sitting out on the street by our son, Charlie's place and these big boomers were shaking out bones.   It was a hot July night, but we didn't wan to miss any of the excitement.
--steve buser

Fireworks, Houston

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Clever critter

This is one of the cleverest, wiliest little guys you have ever met. He added a lot of excitement to our visit to t the CampJunction in Beaumont.
--steve buser

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Sundown -- the passing nature over to the night.

It is that time of the night when the sun has slipped beyond the horizon, but still leaves its magical visage hanging in the waves of darkness that seep into the clouds, stealing their substance.  There are no sharp lines anymore, they exist only only in the firmness of the light. Now, the horizon is just a water coloring smearing upon itself. Soon the sun share no soul with the color-drained heavens. Reds will drift in the night sky as greyish ghosts, forgetting for one dreamy night their water-giving nature.
--steve buser

Sunset

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