Many of the wildflowers already established here in E. Tennessee turn out to be alien or exotic invasive weeds that thrive in abandoned waste places and along sterile roadsides.  My point is that humans have turned so many natural spaces into unnatural wastelands where mostly non-beneficial invasives survive.  These choke out the native species necessary to sustain the rightful inhabitants and healthy, functional habitats.  Ultimately this ripples up the food chain to us humans, threatening our very existence.  

The original native humans knew this instinctively, but then we alien invaders got a foothold and choked out and destroyed them.  Next, we proceeded to wipe out, sterilize, and chemicalize everything else in our path.  In the process, we imported plant species never intended to grow here, whether inadvertently or intentionally.  The damage is done, and restoration is always much harder than prevention.

I realize in the large scheme of things, people have much more immediate worries than the environment breaking down around us because of our actions, but it’s still a concern.  I know one individual like me, up against a history of damage done, can do little to undo it.  Sometimes you have to compromise with reality.  

Thus, many of my photos reveal non-native perennials and wildflowers, because I like them, and they aren’t hurting anything.  Yet I still try to work toward more natural, sustainable surroundings.  I have to start somewhere.  

Draw any analogy or metaphor about current reality from this you care to.  Meanwhile, here’s a spider, and other residents, enjoying the languidity (I think I may have invented a word) of a Southern spring.