Hoot Owl Karma is, if nothing else, a celebration of the joy of simply being outside, experiencing the wonders of the natural world, no matter how small the niche or how dramatically altered by human activity...
And in the busy-ness of everyday life, we quite often find ourselves experiencing the out-of-doors framed by an automobile windshield along one of our local highways and byways.
For the observant traveler, wonders abound.
A black rat snake crosses the blacktop on its morning rounds, then ascends a small cherry tree in a farmhouse yard.
An audience of fleabane offers a standing ovation, upturned faces like so many miniature star-gazing daisies.
Rat snake continues its rounds, perchance to dine on a breakfast of eggs.
May is a fabulous time to be out and about, as wildflowers, both native and introduced, put their best faces forward in the bright spring sunshine. It doesn't take much imagination to appreciate the common name of this patch of Oenothera sp. - Sundrops.
A stalwart along area roadsides this time of year, sundrops are in full bloom by mid-afternoon, while many others in its family, the evening primroses, don't open until dusk is nigh.
Ragwort is among the earlier blooming asters, soon to be joined in summer by all manner of larger, showier "sunflowers." But in the Carolina May, it's one of the few yellow asters to be found along the way.
This mass of golden sundrops is beginning to crinkle, their brief hour upon the wayside stage nearly at an end.
Not to worry, traveler, there are thousands more waiting in the wings, determined that their moment on the morrow will be just as glorious.
As this May day moves closer to night, the birds are abroad as well, foraging in the shade for what morsels the freshly plowed earth might yield.
A mourning dove takes flight as the wild turkeys approach, wanderers themselves, long banished from this their native land, but re-established and thriving again, yet another wonder by the way in the midst of May.
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