I returned to see what was happening with the milkweed pods I posted for Wordless Wednesday last week. That WW photo had been taken on September 27th. I originally planned to check them out again before now, but you know, the days just seem to blend in together…and time passed.
However late afternoon on Saturday, it was clouded over and the light was flat. I remembered the milkweeds…which usually photograph well in that kind of light. Cabin fever had risen (again), so I grabbed my camera and escaped out the back door (Exit Stage Right! as Snagglepuss used to say).
I followed a path through the woods to where the milkweed pods had been. Since it is now November, the landscape is basically brown…various shades of brown. It was difficult at first to find them amongst the gone-by plant life.
Luckily, wisps of white perched on top of nearby tall grasses gave away their location. I spotted tall stems with puffy hats. That’s what a strong breeze will do with milkweed “floss.”
And there I found the pods in all their glory.
I braved potential ticks in waiting and crunched through a thick ground cover of leaves and brush.

I was not disappointed.
I also took a special liking to the following image. As the saying goes…it resonated with me…

Just excellent!
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Thank you! It was such fun too 🙂
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Nice photos! I remember breaking these plants to let the milk out. Snagglepuss! Fun memories and my spell check is OK with his name.
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Thank you! Glad you like them. (that’s funny about spell check!).
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So ethereal, and so lovely!
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Thank you! Ethereal is how it felt. 🙂
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So beautiful!
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Thank you. I’m glad I got there before they all blew away!
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Yes! Welcome.
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Stunning photos of this lovely thing. ❤
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Thank you, Martha. I was almost spellbound…actually I was spellbound. I have many more that I hope to post at some point. ❤️
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I love that plant. Such a strange and lovely thing.
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It really is. It’s like each pod has its own personality once it opens up. I know that sounds weird…
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Not to me. I used to go “visit” shooting stars in the chaparral in California. I knew where patches of them showed up in February. They are summer flowers here in CO. I was homesick for CO and those little things were a bit of home. Over the years I saw them as being unique individuals and all of a kind. I thought that was a beautiful statement about all of us sentient beings through time. They were shaped by their world and their generation just like we are. In a drought year, there were fewer. In wet years when seasonal (and very small) waterfalls flowed a longer time, they were (obviously) lots more of them and larger flowers.
I know this sounds dumb but I wasn’t going to let them, “… blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”
I learned so much from chasing the shooting stars in those 6000 acres of chaparral.
https://poets.org/poem/elegy-written-country-churchyard
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Wow, Martha, that is an amazing poem. Thank you for sharing it – I hadn’t read it before.
It doesn’t sound dumb at all – I get it too. Among other things, I go back to “visit” a crooked tree in the woods to see how it’s doing. And the milkweed. Shooting stars? Now that would be something to visit over and over. ❤️
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Maybe you’ll enjoy this. I have a crooked tree, too. ❤
https://marthakennedy.blog/2018/09/30/mitigating%E2%80%8B-factors/
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I love your crooked tree and its story. ❤️ I’ve only known mine for a couple of years. Last week it was looking weary. But last year it was sturdy and proud…
https://oneletterup.com/2019/11/06/wordless-wednesday-45/
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They have a lot of competition and I think when they’re not straight, it might be even more difficult. Your tree is beautiful. I love its undaunted individuality. ❤
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A survivor and okay with looking different. ❤️ Thank you. It’s one of my favorite discoveries – at the beginning of the path into the woods. I stop for a moment next to it on my walks. I hope it makes it through another winter.
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Me too. Strangely enough, I think our loving them helps them grow.
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I hope so! 🙂
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