Sunday Stills: Signs of Fall

Living so close to Mexico as I do, we won't be seeing too many signs of fall until October or even November. Mostly we are feeling the signs of fall. After an abnormally hot summer, with three entire months of temperatures between 103-110, having 80 degrees at noon feels rather pleasant!

So instead, I will show you some signs of September color where I live. Your life has probably been touched by this stuff, and you never knew about it. This is the time of year that the female Cochineal insect (Dactylopius coccus) lays a white fluffy substance containing larvae on the pads of our Prickly Pear  Cactus (Opuntia sp.).

When this white fluff is collected...

...and crushed...

...it produces a natural red dye that is more stable than synthetic colors. The Cochineal is native to South America and Mexico (and obviously this part of Texas which once belonged to Mexico). Cochineal dye was used by the Aztecs and Mayas, and once was the second largest commodity after silver exported from Mexico. The Navajos still use it to dye wool red for their rugs.

After the Spanish conquest, it was exported to Europe, and even was so valuable as to be quoted regularly on the London and Amsterdam Commodities Exchange.

England, wanting to control their own source for the coloring, transplanted it from Brazil to Australia in 1787. Can you guess the use for which the British wanted it?

That's right...there would have been no Red Coats without this little insect and its white fluff.

Chances are very high that you've worn and consumed this insect in your daily life! It is currently used in both the food and cosmetic industry. You'll see it listed as carminic acid, red color E120, and carmine. It's found in alcohol and soft drinks, meats, cheeses, pastries, jams, lipstick, blush, face powder, eyeshadow, hair coloring, oil paint, water colors just to name a few.

Each year people consume an estimated 1-2 drops with their food. This could be of concern if you are vegetarian, vegan, Jewish, or Muslim. Don't like the idea of consuming crushed insect larvae? A new U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation will require all foods and cosmetics containing cochineal to declare it on their ingredient labels as of January 5, 2011. Still, with cochineal red being one of the safest colorants, I kind of doubt there will be much information letting people know its source.

For some classic signs of fall, visit Sunday Stills!

Color Carnival: Yarn

Here's some fun yarn I caught on sale this week, just enough to knit a psychedelic shawl! Be sure to check out the colorful world of photography at Color Carnival.

Sunday Stills: Things with Wings

This week's photography challenge was wings. I have been working on my own challenge of color manipulating backgrounds without altering the colors of the subject.

Here is the winged stem of Frostweed, Verbesina virginica. It gets its common name from the fact that in the winter when it freezes the dead stems will split and curly shavings of ice will extrude out. They live in colonies in the understory of our creek and serve as butterfly cafes when blooming. You can see a photo of one in bloom with a butterfly at this older post.

I think Borage is one of the most intensely beautiful blue flowers in the herb garden. After we finished picking blackberries yesterday (see previous post) I caught these ladybugs enjoying them too. There is a folktale that if you float these flowers in the drink of a man you like he will ask you to marry him.

This is a Pipevine Swallowtail, Battus philenor, so perfect it must have just emerged from its chrysalis to sun itself. The bitterness of its host plant--Pipevine--makes it unpalatable to birds.

Check out more interpretations of wings at Sunday Stills.

Easy for You to Say

Today I came across this bright orange Large Milkweed Bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus, on the ripening pods of Antelope Horns, Asclepias asperula. He was extremely shy after this first shot and I kept chasing him around the plant--on my knees in a wet ditch--but this was the best one, with him smack dab in the middle of the frame. To crop would be to lose the pod and the image is really about their relationship. Maybe tomorrow he'll warm up to me and go about his business as I go about mine.

Morning Visitor

I noticed the bright spot of color from my office window this morning.

It's always breath taking to see a Luna Moth (Actias luna) from the Saturniidae family. Especially up close. This is only the third I've seen in my lifetime. And the first time I've had a decent camera in hand.

Although common, they only live one week in this phase. They emerge just to mate, and don't eat or even have a mouth. As an artist I would never have thought to combine plum with lime, but it works very well. Isn't the striping on this male's eyespot and his brushy antennae just exquisite?

Brown IS a color

Years ago, I worked as a botanist for a public botanical garden specializing in native plants. This meant we celebrated the flora that had grown in our area for thousands of years prior to European settlement. It also meant we did not have the tedious task of laying out petunias in varying colors each month to resemble quilts or the American flag.

In the fall and winter, brown was often the predominant color. Occasionally visitors--expecting something else--would ask for a refund of their entrance fee because nothing was blooming and the landscape was "colorless." Although they were accommodated they were also educated that brown IS a color.

Admittedly, I use a lot of color in my art, but I choose to ground myself with furnishings in the muted colors of the Earth. Brown has the added benefits of blending in the ever-present dust and pet hair, and supplying a neutral background on which to make my art shine.

In architecture, I love spaces where the delineation of "inside" and "outside" are blurred. Using brown in my living room and eliminating curtains has helped to achieve this. The trees are just as important an element of my spaces as are the furnishings.