Slowing Down
Header Image: Leavenworth’s Tickseed (Coreopsis leavenworthii)
It is hot.
It is humid.
It is summer.
It is Florida, a sub-tropical location.
We tend to arise early in order to be at our destination near sunrise. After a couple of hours, we return home.
It is hot.
Our pace during the summer is slower than in cooler months. This has advantages. Take our walk last week, for example. We spent about an hour-and-a-half along the trail but only traveled about a half-mile. Every few steps seemed to reveal something interesting. A bit of color in the distance required investigating beyond the marked trail. The rainy season has provided a wonderful diversity of life in the forest!
My resident math expert advises that if I would quit talking we could all realize a savings of over 30,000 words. Who am I to argue with arithmetic (not to mention SWMBO)?
(Yes, there are a lot of pictures. Not sorry.)
Along the path, we met a Fun-gi who introduced us to a few of his friends.
It is hot. Find a place that’s comfortable to walk and go early. Whether you stroll, saunter or (do as we do in the Deep South) sashay – slow down. You might be amazed at what you find!
Enjoy your search for a natural place and come back for a visit!
Our Natural Places 
Oh how I love Swallowtails! Last year we had an eruption of them, this year has really been a letdown. I must say I do like the piping on that Hairstreak. Can relate to your “hot” comment – my runs are getting quite toasty and it doesn’t help that I lost some heat conditioning from the accident. From your great series here, sometimes the shortest walks are the most productive.
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We continue to hope your recovery is rapid, but do try to take it easy until you’re completely healed. Don’t want to have to start over at this point. Or at any point.
We’ve had localized eruptions of various butterfly species all summer. Fun to chase ’em!
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Your experience is proof that, the more we look, the more we see. It’s remarkable how much more we see when we slow down. As always, your images are full of wonderful colors and details.
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Thanks for the very nice comments. I can’t take credit for having some epiphany about slowing down to observe nature.
Alas, time has taken its toll on my physical abilities. “Speed” when walking is no longer part of my vocabulary.
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If you sped by all these wonderful creatures, you and the rest of us would miss out, so I hope you aren’t too sad about the loss of speed.
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Lots of pictures, lots of pleasure seeing them, Wally. There were several Genus relatives of ours in there and several not at all familiar to me. I’ve only seen a few robber flies this season and most disappeared with me raising my camera. I am an early riser but that’s by choice and not necessity. You folks in the south are being brutalized by the heat. Here’s hoping that lets up soon.
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Thanks very much, Steve.
As Shoreacres pointed out, we seem to share a great many plants in the same Genus. The details provide delicious diversity.
Robbers are skittish in the best of times. I’m just thankful they don’t seem to like my bare arms and neck as much as their deer and yellow fly cousins.
Here in the South, we are brutalized each year by heat and humidity. Seriously, our regularly scheduled rainstorms and summertime temperatures seem “normal” to me. But, then again, I have been accused of being anything BUT “normal”.
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Ha! Yeah, me too, Wally. In 2018 I had a serious illness and my doctor remarked that it might take a year until I was “normal”. I said it would be a new experience.
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I saw many of these wildflowers this past week and need to study your IDs! I always forget the dayflower! But they are so pretty and dainty. I hiked 3 times last week….this week I’m not sure what I’ll be able to do. I think it will be hotter and dryer! Love your photos as always! Keep those fans flying!
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Thank you very much, Diane!
It’s hot, but the blooms seem to love it, so outside we go.
Makes us appreciate coming back inside all the more!
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Loved your image of the Bella moth – we really do have to look carefully to see all the detail in creation. I laughed out loud at “It’s the fungus in seats of governmental power that has us terrified”. Yep. But an educated populace is the best defense, and you are definitely doing your part to stretch my brain, so Thank You! Best wishes to Gini for full and speedy recovery!
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Thanks, Sam. Nice job spotting the Bella. Once again, I was focused on the flowers and if it hadn’t moved I’d probably have missed it.
Forests and trees come to mind.
Educating our children is our only hope. As it has always been. I think now, though, they are subject to much more potential for misinformation than we ever were.
Gini sends her thanks for your well-wishes.
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It’s always fun to spot species that we share among your photos, but this post is filled with examples of ‘same genus, different species.’ For Hypoxia, we have hirsuta. We have several species of Clematis, but no baldwinii. Your Rose Rush is our Lygodesmia texana, or Skeleton Plant. And so on. What we don’t have is rain. The sunflowers are holding on, and there surely are others. I need to force myself “out,” despite the heat.
I’m glad to hear Gini’s easing back into good health; give her my best. I’ve been experiencing a somewhat analogous situation. In early May, sudden onset symptoms suggested serious liver disease. By June, the symptoms were gone, but there weren’t any answers. Eventually, the cause was pinpointed: an allergic reaction to an antibiotic called Augmentin; I was given the drug after my neighbor’s dog bit my leg in April. Now I’m perfectly healthy again, although I’m not sure how many cases of dog-bite-causes-liver-disease are in the medical literature! That makes me laugh.
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You’re right about similarity in species. I reckon since we’re both in the “southeast coastal plain” we’re bound to have a lot of familiar plants. Some the same, some “almost”.
Gini’s doing okay and should be out tramping soon. Dog bites and liver disease! Who knew?
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I gather, from Phil Slade’s comment, that all is not well with Gini, Wally. I hope that it’s nothing serious, and soon rectified. I shall now be worrying.
I have really enjoyed the floral aspects of this post, as well as the fabulous supporting cast. I am amazed by your botanical expertise. I’m hopeless at flower ID and have been using an AI ID tool called Plant.net. It’s been letting me down lately and, more often than not, coming back and telling me ‘not a flower’ – maybe it’s inadequate photography on my part.
Best wishes to you both, especially to Gini – – – – Richard
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Gini says, “Don’t worry, be happy.”
Wait, that may be a song title.
In any event, she thanks you for your concern. She had a few bad skin cells removed from her forehead last week and all is well. An apparent allergic reaction to the anesthetic has her a bit under the weather, but today has been much better so once we find a hat of sufficient size, we’ll be back out in field and forest in no time.
We’ve been amazed at how our rainy season has resulted in an explosion of flowers! I’m sure it happens every year, but we seem to have been in the right places at the right times lately to enjoy it all. The blooms attract all sorts of insects which are a challenge to photograph and identify.
Again, thank you for the well-wishes!
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So sorry to hear of Gini’s small problem so please pass on my regards & get well soon message together with Sue’s advice to keep taking the medicine just before bedtime each evening. My own problem lately is that my skin is showing rust marks from all the rain and that my joints creak through water ingress and lack of sunshine. If only I could find some of this widespread global boiling, I’m sure things would improve.
Meanwhile your expertise in naming those flowers, weeds and fabulous insects is very impressive. despite there being no birds today. Best not to spend time messing with those fungis you meet on your travels. They may look innocent but a wrong move could lead lead to all sorts of trouble for you.
You must excuse me now. There is a chicken to prepare for the oven, spuds to bash and veggies to trim. Not mention choosing a bottle of wine for our evening of pleasure. Yes, it rained again today but Sunday looks better for a spot of camera work.
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Gini says thank you and Sue very much for the well-wishes.
I seem to have creaking joints and my skin could use a good pressing to smooth out these wrinkles so I think you may have leapt to an erroneous conclusion that lack of sunshine is the culprit. We have no such lack around these parts.
It is not that global boiling is not available in your area, it is obviously your inability to recognize it that is the reason your lot is not improving.
Hey, we included a young crow, so we should still qualify under international blogging rules as a “bird blog”!
We are not scared of the fungus in the forest. It’s the fungus in seats of governmental power that has us terrified.
Our condolences to the innocent chicken headed for the oven. Hopefully, you gave it enough of that wine ahead of time so that it won’t care that the room is getting quite hot.
From the depths of Paradise, we both wish you both a grand new week!
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A paucity of words, but a plethora of photogenia (natural, of course)
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Thank you, Ken.
I’ll continue to try for a balance of words and images, which will, no doubt, be more pleasing if tilted in the direction of the latter.
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Oh that Hairstreak! What a thing of beauty! I’ve even planted some Goldenrod just in hope…..
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I’d like to take credit for stalking that beauty, but there I was trying to focus on the Goldenrod and “poof” it just materialized!
If only they were all that cooperative!
Thanks for visiting, Brian.
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Fabulous series for a hot day!!
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It was a bit like wandering through our own personal greenhouse. And that’s not a bad thing!
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I’m amazed at all you found! And yes, it has been hot around here. It’ll be nice when it eventually cools off a bit.
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Thanks, Ed.
Don’t hurry the summer along! If we don’t suffer enough now we won’t enjoy those crisp cool mornings headed our way!
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Thank you both for the beauty and heart balm you share.
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Happy we’re able to do so, EC.
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The early bird once again gets the worm, assuming the worm is pictures. That sure is a lot from a single outing.
Our English word sashay is a metathesis of French chassé, ‘a ballet movement consisting of one or more quick gliding steps with the same foot always leading.’
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We did feel a bit like early birds chasing worms. Stopping to check out each bloom for its uniqueness then flitting to another where we repeated the process.
Yep. That’s us. Ballet movements among the pines.
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You are correct, an abundance of very nice photos. No need to ever apologize for the quantity of good photos. Ever.
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Thanks, Brad.
Appreciate the “good photos” remark.
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Thanks for bringing such beautiful subjects to us. I agree with your advice: slow down and check well around you…
Happy weekend!
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You’re welcome!
We’ll try to do it again. But we’re slow at it since it’s summer!
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😄😄😄
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