Reflections LOVES Purple

Coral Galore

Almost orange, vivid. 

Gulls of South Padre Island, Texas

From Reflection's archives.

Bentsen Palms Village, Mission Texas, at Sunset

From Reflection's archives.

Root Fingers Reaching For - -

Tree roots, worn from thousands of feet heading for a swim at the local beach, spreading like fingers, reaching for the water, searching for cool refreshment themselves?

Common Chicory - Cichorium Intybus

These blue/lavender beauties are commonly called blue sailors, chicory, coffeeweed, Common chicory, or succory. They are from the family: Aster (Asteraceae).  They grow in fields, along roadsides and in waste places.

From Wikipedia we learn that various varieties of chicory are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons (blanched buds), or for roots (var. sativum), which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive. 

Its use as a coffee additive is very popular in India, parts of Southeast Asia, South Africa and southern United States, particularly in New Orleans (ahhh, memories of Café du Monde abound, no one makes chicory coffee the way they do).

*Thanks to Wikipedia.

Beside the Fence Post, Hibiscus

Over at the local library, we found this hibiscus.  The flower was huge, like 8 inches in diameter, close to twice the size of the Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus, I have growing in my yard, .  The color of the leaves was interesting, with a tinge of red.  I did not discover the botanical name in a short search on the internet.