Serendipity.
Isn’t that a great word? Almost as good as propinquity. But I digress.
I say serendipity because a couple days ago I was thinking about wildflowers and how much I’d like to discover some wood lily in my travels. My parents had one growing in the front yard when I was a kid, and when I first took up photography I actually photographed it (maybe I should try and find the shot…it’s on some kind of slide film). I hadn’t seen any since though and you know I spend a lot of time in the woods. Here’s where the serendipity part comes in. Yesterday I had something to do in the afternoon, but really wanted to get out into the forest. That usually means I hit the Musquash and so I did. At a major trail intersection I decided to go up to another intersection and then make up my mind which loop to take. When I turned from the map and took a step down my chosen route; there it was – a wood lily! I practically did a backflip and if anyone heard me they’d have thought I went crazy with all my oohing and ahhing. Can’t blame me though. They’re gorgeous and very dramatic. See?
Unfortunately, I didn’t have my tripod with me and hand to handhold all of these shots. The breeze cooperated now and again and I think I did ok. This next shot is almost exactly like the one I remember taking in the yard when I was like, 17 or something.
The camera had a bit of a hard time rendering the exact color of these lambent beauties. They’re not a yellow-y orange, but a reddish orange…quite a cool color spectrum-wise. So it was the HSL panel to the rescue again. They didn’t need much adjusting though.
According to my wildflower identification book, these are a native species and not particularly rare. I guess I just don’t go where they are since this is my first sighting since the 80s. It was so great to find them…and in the Musquash, too. Early wildflowers are not so present in my surrogate backyard, but it seems high-summer flowers are and I’m so glad I can go and see these gorgeous beauties every year now.
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