Weekly Photo Challenge – Layers / Travel Theme – Short
“Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”
Carl Sandburg
This week Sara has challenged us to illustrate “layers”, while Ailsa has asked us to represent “short”. Having now settled back into life here in coastal South Carolina, I’ve chosen our lovely autumn sweetgrass to address both challenges. Building layer upon layer, its delicate stems meld together to form a lush, if short-lived, burst of bushy color.
PERFECT PINKISH PURPLE
“She would want to recall him in the air, between layers of cloud.”
Colum McCann
Sweetgrass, or Muhlenbergia filipes by its formal name, is a dainty, willowy plant that arrives in mid-to-late September and lasts into early November. While our northern friends enjoy the lush reds, golds and browns of fall, here in South Carolina we take pleasure in the arrival of the purple and pink sweetgrass as it bends and curves in the breeze. Occasionally we too get a short burst of fall color, against which the sweetgrass is especially vivid.
COASTAL CAROLINA COLOR
“Wake and dream, blinking, while layers within layers, none better, none worse, unravel and knit up before us.”
Jay Woodman
Sweetgrass is difficult to photograph because the slightest breeze will move it quite dramatically – so a creative photographer might choose something a bit more abstract to show its beauty 🙂
SWEETGRASS ABSTRACT
“Layer by layer, art strips life bare.”
Robert Musil
Best of all, the fall color here on Kiawah does NOT mean snow and ice are on the way! Our beautiful, sunny autumn days will lead us to winter weather which, while chilly and often brisk, is still milder than most, and is thankfully blessedly short.
Travels and Trifles 
Pingback: Seasonal Scenery – Weekly Photo Challenge | Travels and Trifles
This is so beautiful ..Tina..:-)
Thanks Sriram! Sadly it’s all back to brown by now but fortunately our recent ice storm didn’t kill it!
This Muhlenbergia filipes had me going for a minute because I suddenly thought there’s another species as pretty as Muhlenbergia capillaris. From what I’ve found online, though, botanists now classify M. filipes as a variety of M. capillaris. By coincidence, the week before your post I was photographing some pink muhly in Arkansas:
http://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2013/11/30/pink-muhly-from-a-little-farther-back/
It’s so much fun to play with, photographically, and I see from Wikipedia that the filipes variety has historical significance in coastal South Carolina.
Thanks Steven, yes it’s a big favorite down here and so gorgeous in the fall when it blooms. Thanks for stopping by!
Sent from my iPad
So very beautiful ! I really love the abstract and the close-up, it’s lovely 🙂
Thanks so much Jocelyne. Appreciate your visit as it led me to your blog, which is beautiful!
Oh thank you Tina, you’re so kind 🙂
Great color, very subtle but makes for such beautiful and unique sight…thanks for sharing (and informing and inspiring!).
Thanks Randall. A bit difficult to be inspired in the backyard after a month of travel but always good to be home 🙂
Sent from my iPad
Soft, ethereal and beautiful colours. The last one in particular is stunning.
Thank you Mark – the real thing is quite beautiful but very difficult to capture – ethereal is the perfect word for it. Appreciate your visit and comment!
Lovely photographs, Tina. Both abstract and close-up shots are beautiful in their own way.
Thanks Uday – sweetgrass is so ephemeral it makes the challenge that much more interesting 🙂 Appreciate your visit and comment.
Hello. Beautiful sweet grass images and I never knew the term Muhlenbergia whatever it was. You do your research! Nice post.
Thanks Jane – something to come back to when you’re missing Up Over 🙂 A simple visit to wikipedia for the plant name 🙂
Oh isn’t that lovely … such a haziness of warmth flowing through the grasses Tina … I’m thinking soft mohair wool in your ‘Sweetgrass abstract’ image …
Thanks PT–love your mohair analogy, it’s perfect!
snuggly 🙂
Wonderful shots, Tina. So lyrical …
Many thanks Svetlana!
Like the way you captured the subtlety and softness of hue.. lovely photos Tina.
Thanks so much! The sweetgrass is muted, soft and spectacular in person 🙂
Pingback: Layers of nature | Processing the life
Beautiful images Tina. The Lowcountry is a special place for me. Do you have many sweetgrass baskets?
Thanks Ron! I have just a few because the prices have so gone through the roof they are virtually unaffordable. Have you seen the museum-quality pieces at the airport? They’re glorious!!
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Layers | Through the Eye of Bastet
Wonderful. I especially like the softness of the closeups.
Many thanks Rabirius! The photos may be soft, the sweetgrass is a bit prickly 🙂
Sorry i missed your b.day! HAppy Birthday and a good thanksgiving as well luv lee & allan
Thanks Cuz!
Pingback: weekly-photo-challenge-layers #photography #poetry | Moondustwriter's Blog
love the color and texture in these photos 🙂
Thanks KZ – a reflection of natural beauty 🙂
Thanks! The color and texture is truly that of the glorious plant :-), I’m just the messenger LOL
Sweetgrass, I can’t get enough of it! Beautiful photos.
Me either Linda, thanks!
I saw sweetgrass in South Carolina and was completely captivated! So beautiful and you’ve shared it beautifully. Love that first one!
Many thanks LB, it really is very special to us down here!
I think one day I would love to see the purple and pink sweetgrass of South Carolina. Thank you for sharing your autumn season. I enjoyed your photos. Also, love the subtitle of your blog – “expressing thought through photography” – how beautifully put! Kind regards.
Thanks OO, I hope some day you do! Appreciate your visit and comment.
Thoughtful quotes and beautiful images. Thanks.
Thanks Jane!!
I love that the “creative photographer” captured such a nice abstract. Lovely images, as usual. 😉
:-), Thanks Jeff!
something new for me – have never seen sweetgrass before. thanks for sharing.
Thanks Kris – I’d never seen it until I moved down here and it’s really something! Hope someday you get to see it first-hand. Thanks for your visit!
Very well captured photos – which ‘catch’ the nature in its sensitive mood… 🙂
Thanks Drake – the life of the sweetgrass is short but very lovely!
I love these! Grasses are such terrific subjects, though I know what you mean about the breeze. But you solved that one!
🙂 Thanks BB!! Somehow it seems the breeze NEVER stops!
Loving the sweetgrass photos… so soft and somewhat mystical. Great captures, Tina!
Thanks Andrea! Mystical is a good word for them!
Love the abstract photo. Wonderful soft colors
Thanks Nora – the sweetgrass is always moving so an abstract is a matter of necessity!
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Layers | Memory Catcher
Wow Tina…your sweetgrass is gorgeous and you have captured it beautifully!
Many thanks Sue – it really is beautiful in person. Very hard to capture in a photograph 😦
I LOVE these…and I think that u have captured them perfectly!! I have just learned something new
about the beautiful sweetgrass…THANK U!!! I also ADORE the opening quote that u chose by Carl S….really quite brilliant!!!
Thanks April! The sweetgrass was so lush this year I couldn’t resist it! And Carl, of course, brilliant!
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Layers (Water, Roads and Lines) | What's (in) the picture?
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Layers | Pilot Fish
Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Layers | Pilot Fish
Looks like little candy mists.
Loved it. 🙂
You’re right, it really does look like candy mist, or like cotton candy, that spun sugar we loved as kids at the fairs! Appreciate your visit and comment!
Yes, candy floss! I love candy floss.
Beautiful colours and textures in your photos….pink grass is really pretty to look at 🙂
Thanks Seonaid! Who would have thought there really IS pink/purple grass?! We had a professional photographer in to do a lecture/shoot last and he was amazed by it, had never seen it even though he’s from the next state. It’s quite the sight in full bloom.
Such lovely images, especially the first one. Pure magic!
Thanks Lisa – It has such a short season so we really treasure it while it’s blooming!
Patty Duke, I just like here autobiography. She did finally forgive herself in the book. Lovely layered post, Tina.
Thank you Phillippa. Yes, she had some life, didn’t she?!
A Brilliant Madness.
Beautiful! Love the Sweetgrass abstract… 🙂
Many thanks Sue! I’m a sucker for a good abstract, aren’t you?!
Indeed – but I don’t seem to create them very often! 🙂
Superb!
Merci beaucoup!
The grass is so beautiful. Lovely photographs.
Thanks Colline – it’s so graceful and delicate, we just love it when it blooms.
Exceptional post. That pink grass deserves autumnal credit. Love the quotes, too!
Thanks so much Alexandria! We all know fall is here when the sweetgrass blooms, and it helps us feel a bit less sad that summer has ended!
Beautiful colour!!!!! So delicate!!!!
Many thanks Ilargia – its so lovely in person, especially when it dances in the breeze. Appreciate your visit and comment.
Lovely layers – I like grasses and this is very ‘sweet’ such a soft colour and delicate form. Great quotes too Tina 🙂
Jude xx
Thanks Jude! The sweetgrass is indeed delicate but although its color may be soft it’s quite prickly to the touch – as are many other beautiful things!!
Beautiful pictures 🙂
Many thanks Gaurab!
Beautiful. I love our South Carolina paradise!
Thanks Pam! Me too 🙂
Beautiful photos. Thanks for the info, too!
Thanks Rusha – the grasses are so pretty in person I just couldn’t resist them the other day as I went by!