Water-Willow in Time of Drought

"Water Willow"

Dante Gabrie Rossetti (1871)

     So, sometimes a lovely little painting just doesn't cut it.  Honesty trumps snobbery and pretension.  I do enjoy, however, the boat in the background.  Boats are good.

     But this afternoon I returned after several days' absence to The Creek to hose down the orchard and blackberry vines.  In the mean time, that gorgeous and abundantly growing plant along the southern edge of the pond and beside much of the upper section of creek had  bloomed (see blog entry on reasons for depression).  Without warning and without waiting for me to pull up a stone seat to watch, sweet white and purple blossoms on slender four-inch spikes had bloomed all across the deep green swatch of Justicia americana.

Justicia americana (L.) Vahl

American water-willow, Water-willow

Acanthaceae (Acanthus Family)

[photo credit: UT's Native Plant Database  http://www.wildflower.org]

     

     Here is a less than spectacular image (Android phone standing in) of water-willow growing on the southern end of The Pond.

     Before we completely demolished the double-wide trailer up the slope from the pond, we dug up two old rose bushes under its front door and transplanted them over beside the orchard and berries.  Now they're thriving nicely, to the great satisfaction of the leaf-cutter bee.  Below is an example of her handiwork I saw and photographed today:

     Of the family Megachilidae, this very small bee that resembles more a housefly, seems to prefer rose leaves as the material with which it will line a buried hole and into which it will lay eggs.  I first watched this insect ten years ago.  Seems I had never noticed cuttings out of leaves like this before, but now I see them everywhere.