Friday My Town Shoot-out: Textures

Patty (a retired photojournalist) and Reggie Girl (who raises money for shelter dogs in Georgia) organized the Friday Photo Shoot Out. The idea is to post photos of your local community every Friday. This week's assignment, chosen by Linda from Canada, is "Textures."

All photos taken in Corvallis, Oregon

At first, the quest for texture led me on a tour of invasive species, all within 100 yards of our house; these are unwelcome plants, but do they ever have texture:

Scotch thistle (ouch!), which does battle against our native prairie grasses in the back yard

Himalayan blackberries, an aggressive scourge, also produce some delicious bounty later in the summer.

Evil teasel is shown here, dominating its surroundings. A variety of cultivated teasel was once used to card wool.

Pretty cool to look at close-up, though. Prickly!

Young teasel, sprouting up right next to the old seed heads from last year

Daisies are non-native bad guys too, but I look forward to them every year; it is one invasive that doesn't cause you to say ouch when you touch it. Nubby yellow center.

I was glad to move on to cultivated things, and a change of texture too. We walk the dogs in an off-leash dog park near our house, and next to it is a soft field of lavender just coming into its own.

Soft-looking, and fragrant.

Some people use hazelnut shells for landscaping; you can buy them from one of the many hazelnut farmers in this area. I love hazelnuts, and wrote a post about them on Monday.

Hills on the edge of town have a variety of trees, lending texture to the green view.

The wheat in the valley is green, too.

But the farmers are starting to bale hay. Scratchy.

The hay bales look like shredded wheat.

Amber waves of grain

Well, it's grass seed, a big crop here in the valley.

And so are Christmas trees; they are unpruned right now, and feathery-looking.

The rough texture of an old fir tree's bark

The rhubarb in the garden is smooth and red.

Smooth watermelons tell you it's summer time.