A Cold Arctic Finger... brings a lovely speckled rain-sodden leaf.

What a sea change it's been in the weather. Only yesterday, a balmy 70 degrees, and today, 40 degrees, and the prospect of SNOW (IN HOUSTON!) on Friday. This morning a tempest tore through town, with 50 mph winds and rain. It was intense; it reminded me of Ike. I love weather like this though - finally, a true raw winter day in Houston (they are so few and far between). On my walk through the neighborhood to Rice this morning, I found this enormous sycamore leaf (it's larger than my splayed out hand) right on the sidewalk. I almost passed over it, but stopped back because something caught my eye - the lovely mottled patterns on the leaf. It's as if this leaf decided to change its colors a few times, but couldn't decide (I don't blame it; with it being summery one day then freezing the next down here). Some parts of it even show a fuller autumn spectrum with red and orange peeking through. It's a beautiful leaf, so I took it with me and dried it out a bit because it was so rain-soaked, then stuck inside a big book to press it.

A Lot of Flowers

Some photos taken recently:





The coolest sunflower ever - it's like a sunflower mum. Spotted in a garden at the Mondavi Institute at UC Davis.


I think this is a species of Delonix, saw this along the River Walk in San Antonio.


Brugmansia, trumpet flower.


Malvaviscus drummondii, which is everywhere down here. Almost got a photo of a green anole on this plant but by the time I noticed it and tried to get a picture of it it flicked away. Sigh!