And Poof! It Was Gone!

  I have been doing a lot of clearing of new pathways for the past few days.  After checking the area for any critters or nests, I push the battered up lawnmower to extreme measures.  Although the thing is barely a year old, I must say that it has seen better days.  While most folks use their mowers strictly to cut grass, I push mine up under brush to cut small trees, underbrush and huge clumps of palmettos.  If I am going to go to all the trouble of cranking that thing, I am going to push it until it hurts....and it usually does.  The poor thing has had bent blades, lost gas tanks and a broken frame.  Son repairs it enough for me to start again and I am off in a whirl!  

  All of this cutting has led me to find some pretty interesting things. Just yesterday, I pushed through a bit of brush to find a small clearing that was filled with white fluff.  While I am still not sure just what the original bloom looked like, the seeds resembled a mass of soft white feathers. My first thought was that the Cooper's hawk had made another kill.  Closer inspection led to at least a much kinder identification.  Seeds are happier than dead bird parts.  I decided to leave my "feather field" for a bit so I could show Mark on our next walk.  (Hubby knows that I have a warped sense of what is beautiful!)  I took one quick closeup photograph and set to work cutting once again. 

  By the time Mark and I took our late afternoon hike about the hillside, my "feather field" was no where to be seen.  Gone! Kaput!  Vanished! Obviously, a stiff breeze took the fluffy seeds elsewhere!  This....this may be something that I regret at a later date as I know seeds make plants, plants grow tall and I shall have to mow....again.  And to top it all.....I was never able to positively identify said plant!  Knowing my luck, this is one of those highly invasive species of plants that will soon cover the hillside and marshes with white fluffy seeds!  Uh, oh....