On the topic of the sun from last week, what a great morning this was. I went up Mt. Norwottuck at 5:30 in the morning with my dad when I was visited about a year ago. Getting up this early necessitated a substantial nap that messed up some evening plans, but no matter. The morning hike up in the dark involved no snow or slipping on leaves, and only involved getting lost once or twice!

I brought out the colors and shadow a bit more than usual here, but I like it. The sun truly engulfs everything else. I like this version better than many similar photos of mine that try to ignore the sun, blooming out the entire sky in the process. Maybe I'll start really cropping things too in the future but not today.

On the general topic of flowers and wildflowers, here are a couple of later in the year wildflowers that I took along an evening neighborhood walk. Earlier in the month and when it is milder they often stick around through June. That summer if I recall correctly, I was even able to see a couple of end of season bluebonnets, the absolutely superior Texas flower! Although they all mean a lot to me. Just don't walk through or too close to any of them because you will get bitten.

My next post is planned to be from later the same evening when I was playing around with car light trails. The dark surroundings made for a fun shot but required deliberately hiding from cars in the middle of the night lest I make visible illuminations while also being fairly close on the road to get the right angle. In hindsight this was a potentially questionable idea. The middle of a somewhat rural road also meant waiting a long time between attempts, but on the upside I'm unlikely to freeze in Texas June.

Daffodils are still a new flower to me, having seen them for the first time during my first spring away at school. They were planted all around where I was living at the time, inconspicuous clusters of tall grass-like leaves before all shooting up in bloom within a matter of days starting in late February. Even when I had been around the country prior I had not run into daffodils, being either in summer, much too late and hot for them, or during winter break, while it is still getting colder.

Although not quite the same, they remind me of the springtime wildflowers that I miss. Especially the marker-bright yellow varieties. Closest in Texas to the yellow are probably the short and small yellow flowers with an orange center and what I think is southern sneezeweed with a spherical seeded center like a sunflower. I tried going more in depth but I'm definitely mixing up multiple species I thought were all variations of the same.

This was at a little lake in the middle of Cork, down a route with an unbelievable number of pubs advertising both the expected beer and the occasional unexpected event. I saw one poster for a hair braiding workshop (along with a pint). In better weather and season, I believe it would have been properly picturesque. But I still got to see a new bird! Hanging out with ducks, geese, and swans, were Eurasian Coots!

Unsurprisingly, Dallas looks the best from the air when you can hardly see any of it. Which is not particularly complementary but is in fact accurate coming from a completely unbiased source, myself. This was the beginning of my return back to Cork from a brief stint in San Antonio to go to Sarah's Bat Mitzvah. Luckily I've since slept 15+ hours and can post this now!