heat stricken

this is what happens when you spend a day in that very old-fashioned activity, burning brush, which is rightly banned in most metro areas but which, every once in a while (like after you have had to cut down six standing dead oaks in your side yard), is so remarkably satisfying. today i unwittingly built my fire under a catalpa tree, and as i dragged twigs and slash through the woods over the course of the afternoon, these leaves were smoked slowly in the heat above the fire, and curled into themselves without quite drying, so that they ended up looking like soft piles of green velvet. it is an effect that my camera captured in the most approximate way, so approximately, in fact, that I wish i could just place one of these in your hand, next to a window facing away from the sun, so that you could hold it in front of you, and turn it this way and that, and truly get the full effect. in other words, today i spent time burning brush, but also spent time exploring some of the limitations of photography and a few of the advantages of sculpture.

singed catalpa leaves

would i or wouldn’t i?

i think a lot about what still blog would be if i lived somewhere more colorful. this bright splash of saffron was just one of many flowers i could have snipped and photographed on my short walk from our rental house in california to the coffee shop in town. it is so much fun to have color to photograph and it makes life so much easier in so many ways, and yet . . . i don’t just sort of think that constraints generate creativity. i believe it deep in my bones. and if i had had nothing but color to look at every day for six years, i’m not sure i’d love still blog as much as i do now, with its muted colors and whole winters full of grays and browns, and its compositions born sometimes out of constraints and sometimes out of something closer to desperation. if i could live somewhere tropical, or somewhere where it was possible to grow tropical plants most of the year, would i, or wouldn’t i, take that offer. i’d sure need to think about it.

Crocosmia (montbretia) flower

stinson beach, california

where lavender grows

not that long ago, we northerners used to plug in our cars on cold nights so the car battery wouldn’t be frozen in the morning. that meant that most cars in our region had little plug-in jacks dangling from the grills on the front of their cars. a friend of  friend once decided to move south in search of warmer climates. when asked where he was moving to, he replied “i’m just driving south until i don’t see any more battery heaters hanging out of the front of cars.” well, some day, i plan to migrate to warmer temps as well. but my criteria will be “wherever lavender grows wild.”

lavender, stinson beach, california

western versus eastern

i am quite certain these delicate little tissue paper blooms are west coast morning glories–the way the blooms are a single petal with delicate creases and the way the unopened blooms are curled upon themselves like an umbrella convince me they are morning glories. but the leaves are not the telltale heart shaped leaves of our northern midwestern morning glories. i pinched this little specimen from the garden of our rented airbnb in stinson beach, california last week.  i just assumed i would be able to google western morning glories, or or even coastal morning glories, and get confirmation of my assumption. but i had no such luck. california is often described as having a mediterranean climate and flora. i know mediterranean plants pretty well, but here in america, what i really know are the eastern species. there is a whole half a continent that is slightly more foreign to me than the scrubland of southern france and coastal spain and italy. all right, western american flora and fauna. i’m on your tail. you will not escape me for long.

morning glories, stinson beach, california

prickly lettuce

according to wiki this delicate little weed i found on the side of an urban minneapolis sidewalk is “in the dandelion tribe within the daisy family.” tribe? when did that become a classification?  wiki went on to say that this little unremarkable weed “is also known as the compass plant because in the sun the upper leaves twist round to hold their margins upright.” well, well, well, compass plant. you can be part of my tribe any time.

prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola)