Hopper hides in grass
Silently watching, waiting,
As I pass on by

Believe it or not, these pictures were taken on the roof of the building where I work. Our two story building has a green roof and the group I work with is in charge of maintaining it. We are a small group, but everyone has a specialty so we make one heck of a team. The building is about 4 years old and was designed under LEED Gold certification requirements for new construction. This included the green roof, pervious pavement around the building, water saving features and energy saving lighting. The benefits of having a green roof include attenuating the stormwater runoff of pollutants and regulating the internal building temperatures (cooler in summer and warmer in winter). We also reap the benefits of having a fantastic ecosystem right upstairs. As you can imagine for weight purposes, the base of the roof is made of a special membrane topped with approximately 4 inches of a light weight growth media. Florida friendly plants were chosen based on their short root structure and ability to survive in dry sandy soil. The green roof is fairly self sustaining but we do have to do a little bit of weeding a few times a year. Undesirable plants come in on wind and wing and any deep rooted woody interlopers have to be removed to protect the membrane. Some of the species of plants shown here are: dune sunflower (Helianthus debilis), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), and sand cordgrass (Spartina bakeri).  We also planted the colorful Indian blanketflower (Gaillardia pulchella) and three tough, attractive ground covers; powderpuff mimosa (Mimosa strigillosa), Stokes’ aster (Stokesia laevis), and perennial peanut (Arachis glabrata). Critters have taken advantage of this urban oasis too. I am sure the Killdeer think we built the roof just for them! We have had the pleasure of watching several generations of nesting families over the last four years and their precocious babies are adorable. Butterflies, bees, dragonflies and grasshoppers are all common visitors. Those God-awful fire ants made it up the two stories too; probably hitchhiking on some of the plants and wasps are a constant nuisance. All pests aside, I feel lucky to be part of such a wonderful team that creates natural habitats for the benefit of many and and tries to make our community a better place.

Thank you Clare at My Creative Cosmos for inviting me to join this wonderful challenge. I liked it so much I did a bonus round.

OK, obviously I don’t like following rules since this is the sixth post on a five post challenge. An elaborate explanation of why I didn’t follow the rules of this challenge can be found on my Five Photos, Five Stories – Day One: Fog post if you care to read my obnoxious rant. Here are my rules: If I follow you, I admire and respect your work. If you would like to take on this challenge, please do so as I would very much like to follow what you create. Honest, this is my LAST challenge post of these photos, haiku and stories guilt free with the hope of inspiring someone else to take a shot at it. If you take on the challenge and want to follow the original rules, I think that is great so here are what the rules are supposed to be:

The Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge rules require you to post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or simply a short paragraph – it’s entirely up to you.

Then each day, nominate another blogger to carry on this challenge.

Accepting the challenge is entirely up to the person nominated, it is not a command. Today, I invite (insert nominee here) to join the challenge.

I would like to give a special “Thanks” to all of the wonderful bloggers that follow and support me and especially to Clare for being so patient with me.

This is also a response to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Forces of Nature which inspired a theme for my five six day challenge and will be incorporated in each of the five six posts.