Purple Sage

Images have been known to enlarge when clicked.

We had the most wonderful rain and when we get enough rain, the Purple Sage goes berserk and we have fields of magenta blooming all over the place. We had company over the weekend and I wasn't able to get out and shoot the Purple Sage blossoms when they were at their most vibrant, but I didn't miss them entirely. It was only tonight that I was able to get out and shoot them. It was Friday when I would have gotten the best shots.

The Purple Sage is blooming like crazy in Brackettville!

I'm told the blossoms can be picked and steeped to make a tea that will help with chest colds.

Hubby informs me that this isn't a sickly deer, merely an older one. He says they live longer on Fort Clark Springsbecause they are so well fed up there--Fort Clark retirees love buying corn for the deer.

I like this shot of the blooming Purple Sage
a lot, I also don't like it. I could not improve this shot with clever cropping or any of the tricks I usually employ. I wish I'd noticed the clouds when I was shooting so I could have incorporated them better and more artfully. I wish I hadn't cut this picture in half with the horizon, but I was rushing to try and catch that butterfly.

As you may know, shooting with a digital on a bright and shiny day is sort of like shooting blind. You can't see the screen. Makes focusing very interesting.

Unless you live here in Brackettville, you have no idea what a shock it is to see blossoms and grasses like this in the middle of September. Normally the ground behind this Sage would be a field of rocks and caliche. Normally this Sage would have disappeared into the background with no blossoms on it to catch the eye. I had to stop more than once to make sure I was still on the road and/or to see where the road was! I was also starting to fear that I would start a grass fire driving over such high grasses today, a fine thing that would be... wife of a fireman starting a fire on his mother's property. But it's humid and all the grasses are GREEN. I saw more grasses, spiders, and crickets today than I have ever seen before. For this time of year, I was stunned by the green and the blossoms that were everywhere. I couldn't even get to the creek for the grasses and bramble. It was hot and humid as hell, but it was beautiful.