For the past week he's been telling me about short trips he and his wife have been taking into a nearby swamp. He's offered several times to take me there on a lunchtime photo tour, and today was the day.
Oh!My!God! The beauty! And the wildness!
This particular patch of swampland is less than a 15-minute drive from the office, but it's on back roads no one driving by would ever notice. It's the kind of place that's familiar to hunters in this area, but the rest of us usually see places like this only in the slick pages of coffee-table books.
I'll stick with scenery today, and save the wildlife photos for later in the week.
Be sure to click on the photos to enlarge them.
Velvet, They say you can't go home... But I can! I just have to visit your gorgeous pictures to feel like I'm standing in the middle of childhood, fishing pole over one shoulder and bucket of worms in the other hand. Thanks for the trip, dahlin'! Holly
ReplyDeleteThat's just amazing! Is that Spanish moss hanging from those trees? and what on earth is that white stuff on the water and the black things sticking up? What does it all smell like? Details, girl! I want details!!
ReplyDeleteHolly, welcome home!
ReplyDelete*******
Janet, yes, the stuff hanging down is Spanish moss. LOTS of Spanish moss. The stuff on the water is some type of algae. It looked like a shiny green color to me, but the sun was directly overhead, and apparently the stuff is reflective. It shows up as white in every photo it's in.
The things sticking up out of the water are cypress knees, which you can read about here.
That cypress swamp is the bomb, as far as I'm concerned. Just trying to show how hip I can be.
ReplyDeleteAnnie, you weren't fooling us. We've known you're hip for a while now.
ReplyDeleteThat water in the swamp always makes me think of big snakes. Those cypress knees are so different from what we have near the water in the highlands. I doubt many Scots settled in La.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking us along on the tour!
truth is velvet, swamps has always said snakes, alligators and bugs to me. there is no way i would get near that place.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!!
ReplyDeleteSo THAT'S what those are! Cypress knees. It looks like a swamp I visited in Captiva. It was part of a nature preserve - complete with gators staring at me from a little too-close-for-comfort distance! Maybe we'll see those in your wildlife photos, later this week ;-)
ReplyDeleteGlad your boss is doing better. Thanks for sharing these great photos! Still trying to "catch up."
I was so hoping for a peak at a crock or two. Darn. No crocks but the pics are quite stunning.
ReplyDeleteAustin
Sister-Three, I was almost ready to agree with your premise that not many Scots settled in Louisiana--and then I remembered where I took these photos: McElroy Swamp.
ReplyDeletePatsy, I didn't see any snakes or even any bugs, although I'm sure both are there. But gators? Oh, yeah!
D.I., it's a beautiful place indeed.
Sunflower, it's great to see you back.
Austin, just hold on. The crocs are coming.
How lovely - how GREEN! We still have snow and ice on the ground here. Your pictures are a breath of spring to come (hopefully) sans the alligators, I hope!
ReplyDeleteI learned something today! Cypress knees, what a fun name. I thought they were stalagmites. (or is it stalactites?)
ReplyDeleteDr. Kate, the green is moving slowly in your direction. The gators, on the other hand, will eventually be turned into suitcases or sauce piquant.
ReplyDeleteJanet, I'm glad you learned about cypress knees, and now I'll teach you how I learned in elementary school to tell the difference between stalagmites and stalactites: "When the mites go up, the 'tights' go down." It's never failed me yet.