Water Droplets on Smoke Tree

I was doing one of the things I like best, which is to say visiting Penn State's Arboretum in the early morning. I stopped by the lily pond and the first thing I noticed was that the little redbud tree that has appeared in so many of my lily pond photos has been removed. You can see it in this picture from last winter. It was looking kinda dead after the harsh winter we just had, but I was hopeful for it. Until today, that is, when suddenly, it was just . . . gone. I lost a redbud and several other plants at home too; it was a long, hard winter.

I was perusing the area around where the tree had stood, when I noticed that the smoke tree nearby was covered in many tiny seeds. They looked interesting to me and I started taking some fun macro shots. As I strolled around the tree, I got an even more amazing macro treat: the misting system had sprayed tiny droplets of water everywhere, and they sparkled and shone like jewels on every twig and branch of the smoke tree.

The song to accompany this scene of water on the smoke tree just has to be Deep Purple's classic tune, Smoke on the Water. It starts out with several of the most recognizable Fender Stratocaster riffs in rock history, courtesy of legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. (I always turn up the volume at that point; doesn't everyone?) And then Ian Gillian begins to wail, "We all came out to Montreux, on the Lake Geneva shoreline . . . " Read more about the origins of the song and the circumstances that inspired it in Wikipedia.