Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Old man in the ground

I love vining plants! I especially love vining plants which have beautiful flowers, like Clematis, Morning Glories, and so many others. Plants in the cucumber family are climbing plants too, and send out wonderful tendrils to hold onto anything within range. There are many wild cucumber plants growing wild on our property, so I took the opportunity to take lots of pictures of the part I love best about vines: the tendrils! Here is my first picture to show, and I hope you these swirling tendrils too!

One of the things I love about macro lenses is the surprise when you see the image on your computer. Last year I took pictures of these flowers and was amazed to see how fuzzy the blossoms are! If you look at the flowers from any distance, they appear perfectly smooth! I think they are delicate beauties and finding them on our property made me so happy! This species of wild cucumber grows from Canada to California along the coast and produces small, oval, bitter-tasting cucumbers covered with prickles. The leaves were eaten by Native Americans, though they are bitter too. The flowers are female or male with distinguishing characteristics and both genders can appear on the same plant! If you would like to know more about Western Wild Cucumber, Wiki has a great page here: Western Wild Cucumber (Manroot)

Last night we had a thunder storm, followed by much-needed rain. I slept with the window open, drinking in the wonderful fragrance of wet earth and plants! This morning I went out and took pictures of droplets clinging to everything, and then I remembered the wild cucumber flowers! These are so beautiful and at a macro level, the smooth petals reveal themselves to be quite fuzzy! I wanted to see what a blossom would look like with raindrops on it, and I was not disappointed! The fuzzy surface you see here is covered with tiny droplets of water and creates a wonderful texture! Below is a picture of a dry blossom so you can see the fuzzy surface! :) Eckhart Tolle (born Ulrich Leonard Tolle on February 16, 1948) is a German citizen and resident of Canada, best known as the author of the The Power of Now and A New Earth, which were published originally in English. In 2011, he was listed by the Watkins Review as the most spiritually influential person in the world. In 2008, a New York Times writer called Tolle "the most popular spiritual author in the United States." Wikipedia: Eckhart Tolle