March timeses on

… or something like that. It’s end-of-month abstract time, is what I’m saying.

great blue heron Ardea herodias taking off in bad light
Our abstract here is a great blue heron (Ardea herodias) that I’d waited until the light was bad so the shutter would drag, and captured it on takeoff – this was all carefully planned to appear like impressionist brush strokes, y’ see. Really.

And another, because I got two that I liked in March. Well, felt appropriate for the purpose, anyway. I wouldn’t describe myself as ecstatic, per se.

tiny lily pad surrounded by bubbles and pollen
During the productive botanical garden trip, I saw this tiny lily pad in a raised pond, surrounded by bubbles and sporting its own centerpiece of a water drop encapsulating pine pollen. I can’t say if it was the pollen that kept the bubbles intact up against the leaf, or if there was something else in the water affecting the viscosity, but I don’t need to understand it to take pichers of it (good thing, too.) It’s impossible to avoid having pollen in photos this time of year, so I embrace it. Cursingly, of course, kind of a reluctant embrace of a hated relative, carefully timed to be the minimum to prevent offense, teeth bared in an obviously-fake smile that no one dares call out, but embracing nonetheless.

BREAKING NEWS: We have a third, late entry for the end of the month, taken just hours earlier.

budding leaves of bald cypress Taxodium distichum
I’m fond of the bald cypress trees (Taxodium distichum) that can be found around the nearby pond in places, and noticed that they were now starting to leaf out. Picking one verdant branch to shoot along, I liked the horizontal pattern, the short depth, and the sweeping curve, so it slides in at the last minute.