The Tuft of Flowers

Sorry for being late with this post. I drove out to Southold for Custer Institute's Astronomy Jamboree yesterday. After a wonderful day of listening to lectures on astronomy, some of us set up our telescopes to show the heavens to visitors. Another late night - not back home until 2:30 AM. On the way out, I drove by this vineyard, one of many now on the north fork of Long Island. The way the rows of vines climbed the hill and curved into the distance is what caused me to pull over. But what then got my attention were several plantings of flowers at the ends of some of the rows. I don't recall ever seeing this before. So I spent a while trying to find the best angle and the best composition to show the beauty of the rows, and yet to show the flowers prominently enough. So here is the mystery - why are they there? At first I thought it might have something to do with pollination - perhaps the flowers attracted bees, but there didn't seem to be enough flowers for an entire vineyard. I thought of other possibilities and then discarded them as I continued to drive east, and looked at the other vineyards along the way. No flowers were to be seen. So I now think that the only reason they were planted was to add beauty - to brighten the view. And what better reason could there be? I decided that was the best reason, and I am happy thinking that. Please click on the photo to see a larger image with MUCH better color. Thanks.