Louisiana Iris

Ann Chowning

Louisiana Iris begin blooming late march for about 30 - 40 days if you have several colors, as each color blooms at a slightly different time.

Colors range from many hundreds of imaginative combinations and shades of each - a violet red, purple, violet, blue, white, yellow, a very dark almost black purple. They look especially, mysteriously beautiful in the low light levels of early morning or late evenings and rainy days.

They grow well in pots, especially big ones and tubs as some varieties multiply quickly. Plant them in humus rich, well composted well drained soil of the shrub border garden, or in 1 to 6 inches of fresh water along ponds, ditches, and marshes.

It will come to me

 Make sure the "roots only" are in the soil, and the rhizome is at ground level, where it can breath. This probably will require staking the plant cut back to about half. As the spring becomes summer, plants go dormant, become a little shabby at times in the heat, so don't worry it's not dying, it will get green again in fall and winter, here in the south.

Eolian

Her Highness

Louisiana Iris perform their best in natural lowlands where a slowing of water velocity causes nutrient rich silts to settle along with the winters shed leaves, the organic matter from fields and pastures in upper regions.

This is the native environment of one of the last of the fresh water plants before the water flow meets the salt of the  Ocean.

These are some older favorites I've grown for most of my life, a couple of which I collected from the marshes in South Louisiana while fishing. I can only load four images it seems, so I'll post several times.

Black Gamecock

Salmon Fishing Alaska, Sermon of the Salmon

Alaska is on a scale most people can not comprehend, an unimaginably huge and awesome landscape, where the fragility of life can be plainly seen, and the seriousness of a dangerous beauty, felt into the marrow of one's bones.

Be stupid here cousin, and it will kill you_ like yesterday.

Spend time here, and the knowledge of these uncommonly big vistas will live fresh in your mind all the days of your life, a special appreciation and admiration will be  burned into your heart. Alaska will make you feel alive and understand how thin and raveled is the thread of life.

This friendly stranger taught me how to rig for Silver Salmon, which is the preferred catch by the local people and most fishermen on upper Kenai Peninsula in the fall, and I caught a nice one in no time flat. There are so many, one just has to run in to your hook.

It was a surprising and explosive ten seconds. It almost spooled me. I had no idea a fish so big could swim so fast or pull so hard in water half as deep as the fish itself. I didn't know that snagging was the only legal method to fish some species and others must be caught by mouth. I just thought I was a fisherman.

However, upon seeing Salmon in such great numbers and witnessing their great sacrifice, I lost all interest in catching any more than one. I realized that the wondrous sight of them was what I was there for. It's purely amazing.

Imagine the thousands of Rivers and thousands of miles of Selfless Salmon like these, all on a mission to perpetuate the circle of life, none to cheat, not one to lie. To whom might they preach?.

Most of the salmon in these images are Chinook Salmon in their spawning season (The red and pink fish) which are out of season during this trip, but there are Silver Salmon and really big Rainbow Trout swimming with these Chinook, only their color really blends in well with the color of the rocks, so they're harder to see.

The Alaska Salmon spawn is a sight to behold, a lesson of a lifetime no man should live a day without, lest he be incomplete. From the deck of a ship, 80 feet above the ocean or so, in very clear water, I've seen masses of Salmon, as deep as I could see. Far into the distance there was Salmon thick enough to walk on.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up cousin.

I've looked for God all my days, and believe I will see His face. I study the earth and the hearts of men, read the finest words of so many scholars and Holy Men of history, but they can most definitely not minister the way the Salmon do. They cannot sing it, they cannot act it out in such a beautiful way, and this wonder is accomplished in silence, by the sight of it.

 Only the Mountains, the Stars, and the Salmon can do this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_run

Mission San Xavier Del Bac, Tuscon AZ

 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_San_Xavier_del_Bac

Formosa Azalea

Eden is a bird only there for a second,
to be remembered and anticipated.  

What is time in an eternity ?





A garden where I walked.

7 Angels, 7 Lessons

1. Loneliness is the deadliest disease.















2. Dishonor is forever, too harsh a sentence, in which the accused and Judge are both convicted and put to death.











 3.  There is an evil in every little thing, so long as a man knows of it.











4. Some sit in the front of their church because they believe they are better than others. One who sits in the last pew, searches hearts.









5. He understood the odds were stacked against him, his chances slim, so he disavowed the hurtful ways of his father, and refined himself. He pursued basic truths proven by the finest minds of History, and his heart became true.

6. The greatest comfort in modern medicine is kind encouragement.

7. Paradise must be planted from a seed.





Camellias of my Garden
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camellia

Understand What You See, Care About What You Do

What do you see ?

Art defines the line between the man and the animal. It is evidence of undeniable wonder in a sometimes ordinary task. Once performed, it is timeless.

Wise men stumble to describe what simple souls can shape with the love in their hands. Language, Religion, politics, color of skin have no influence over it.

This is a Holy Lesson as good as any, universally understood, one that most preachers know nothing of.










You must care cousin, in the place you are given. Be good at what you do. Put beautiful things all around you. Paradise is not a time, it's an infinitude, and you have to build it, it's not free.

Life and Love

The unfairness of life needs no reason,
just keep on living and look for love.

Takes long to learn
what's especially pleasing,
is not in the man but in the season,

The breath_ the_ glance_
the sparkle fleeting.

Should no one make the love,
and you not give,
then what becomes it,
so perfect and lonely_
in no heart to live.


 

Place Where The Rivers Meet

Young Man,

Question the least of things,
understand what is true,

that all things false are forgotten,
what you believe, be it unfounded,
was never.

What is a man?
So then make yourself.



Northwest Territories, Yukon

One Fine Greenhouse

It is truly representative of a humble spirit in earnest question,

a worthy prayer scribed in completeness with admiration to a Most High Order.

This is the role of men.



Greenhouse at Shangri La Garden  Orange, TX

A note for #1

Cousin, be aware of  the darkness into which men are born, that each man by his own account must overcome singly, a state of denial / spirit of disbelief / ignorance determined to stay / emptiness / untruth that exists in every man in every faith.


Image of Arenal Volcano, La Fortuna Church     San Carlos, Costa Rica

Firebush / Hamelia patens

Firebush is a first-class tropical plant / butterfly and hummingbird attractant. Though it freezes to the ground most winters, in late spring when temps warm it returns faithfully to its flawless form, not one brown leaf, not one spent flower. 

It grows to 7 feet high and slightly less wide naturally, and I don't trim it at all until frost, when I cut it to the ground and leave the trimmings to insulate the roots during winter. It has survived 15 degrees for 2 consecutive long nights here in zone 8b south Louisiana just fine.

 It loves full sun and drip irrigation, but I have one in a dry spot that does almost as well. In fall leaves develop red specks to complement its special color. It looks particularly well next to Musa Thia Black banana you might see in the distance.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamelia_patens 

Musa Siam Ruby Banana Tree

I purchased 4 tissue cultures of this plant a year ago, kept them through the winter in a window in my house along with other small ornamental bananas, where I learned Siam Ruby is a bit more fussy.

In March I planted 3 plants in different environments in my garden, and one in a container inside my shade house.

So far it is my opinion that they are cold sensitive, do not like the low humidity inside a house, leaves are tattered easily in the wind, and stalks are weak. The plant in the shade house under drip irrigation fares best, and is a joy to grow.

The tissue cultures in this batch were not consistent in color as some are a bit more green in coloring than others. I prefer this one that is almost entirely red.

 Plant yours out of the wind or harsh sun. It loves ideal conditions, where it grows to 8 feet high and 5 feet wide in one summer. In the spring I will let you know how it fares zone 8b temperatures in the ground.

OK, spring 2015 is here and Siam Ruby is coming out of the ground like a winner. It survived a colder than average winter in zone 8b.

Hummingbird Moths

 White Lined Sphinx Moth

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyles_lineata










Pink Spotted Hawk Moth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrius_cingulata










Hummingbird moths do look to be near the size of hummingbirds, and resemble them remarkably while hovering above there favorite food, but on silent wings that do not hum.

Even their wings appear to be made of feathers. A special gift here in my zone 8b South Louisiana yard in late summer and fall, they feed near or after sunset, and are highly attracted to  White Hedychium (butterfly) Ginger.

The humming bird moth insists, that no one's garden is left without_  beauty in alluring complexity_  the man need not look for splendor, but paradise will seek the man.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedychium_coronarium

White House Ruin / Canyon de Chelly, AZ

Young Man,

Hidden messages/freedom live in travel, sufferings, mistakes, learning, experimentation, endeavors. They comprise the definition of each unit of distance by event, occurrence, location, inspiration_ a measure far more meaningful than ticks of a clock/time, a value/opportunity wasted without action.

The whole of understanding resides in earnest question, afforded by this great unknown/vastly underestimated allowance/distance/chance we know.

The value of our best work/art/gift is limited to this exact degree of understanding/action. The spirit/intellect/person is formed/shaped/harvested/encouraged by the beauty of nature and deliberate acts of teachers who kindle interest in the devotion of hands on learning/doing/discovery by action/sweat/sacrifice/blood.

In conversations of men, abrupt off topic terms/subjects/links ( of which White House Ruin is one ) and off topic phrases ( facts unfamiliar to men  ) are uncomfortable, superficially denied, foolishly criticized, considered disconnections in the simple means of human communications ( complacency )...

 However in nature our greatest teacher, contrasts are commonplace,  undeniable, and accepted _  where these visual off topic terms/subjects become shortcuts through doldrums of information useless to the moment  ( travel through space is relative to mans acquisition of knowledge, the universe is equal to the mind, the man is equal to his lessons learned/travel/action ).

People for the sake of being on topic create a waist of word time, ( on topic being what feels good ) a modern day replacement for a repeated chant/repeated chorus of a song/obsolete form of courtesy,  which can be ridiculously slow and limit a learning process detrimental to the survival of a people. It must be amended. It's ballsy and borderline arrogant I know, but necessary for our descendents.

In the future, when two human beings address one another to exchange information, we must make it possible that more is conveyed in less time, and this can only be possible with a greater knowledge base, a greater respect and admiration of absolute truth. This will be the universal language of peace, and must be spoken sufficiently fluent to provide the connectedness we desperately need to become a type 1 civilization. We can not survive ourselves without it.

Looking into the night sky, the testimony of such vast possibilities overwhelmingly suggests highly intelligent neighbors who speak this language. Numbers among us must assume this responsibility on behalf of the whole of Earth's People/all things Good and Beautiful.  

White House Ruin is one classic example of a vanished culture (Anasazi). These talented architects disappeared without a successful written language, or descendents to tell their story. It is a lesson plainly visible in many places in the Desert Southwestern U. S. from which we must learn, or chance to follow.

White House Ruin Is one of several Indian Ruins within Canyon de Chelly National Monument Arizona, one of the most beautiful of all the canyons I've visited. The canyon has been the home of The Navajo People for some 300 years. One of Whom is my good friend Adam Teller of Antelope House who took me to these sites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canyon_de_Chelly_National_Monument