don’t know why

i love this image and i don’t know why. it is a little darker, both in color tone and in mood than i generally like. there is something a little morbid and skeletal about these poppy seed heads, and additionally there is right now in american culture such a devastating association between poppies and the opiates and opioids that are derived from them, or inspired by them, that it is hard to look at a poppy and not think for at least a second or two about ruined lives. granting all that, however, i can’t help seeing these seed heads as something more comically macabre than actually sinister. they look exhausted and awkward and i can’t tell if they are coughing out seeds from their pursed mouths, or whether they are trying to vacuum them up. they belong with the addams family. dull little monsters acting very serious, but designed to make us laugh.

poppy stems with seed heads and seeds

all these roots

i have always loved burdock plants for their gigantic tropical leaves, and had a healthy respect for their ingenious (if infuriating) velcro seed heads that are impossible to remove from jeans and wool sweaters in fall. i have also always been in love with goatsbeard. i love its cheery oversized dandelion flower and its even cheerier, even more oversized dandelion seedhead. little did i know that i have also been harboring a latent love for both plants’ edible roots as much as for their attractive above-ground attributes. i recently ate pickled burdock root and it was a revelation. and after years of enthusiastically ordering anything at a restaurant that had salsify in it, i discover that salsify root is the same plant as my beloved goatsbeard. OK nature. you win. I’m all yours. What have you got planned for me next?

goatsbeard buds (salsify)

transition

a number of transitions happened this week. our son spent 7 days in the wilderness in a canoe and turned from a suburban boy into a woodsman. my husband started his first true writing week of the year so far, getting his head back in his book. june turned into july. and the season of peonies ended to be replaced by the season of daises and cow vetch. i am equally enthusiastic about all three of these obscure and slightly strange milestones.

spent peonies

emerald green

these are pretty ordinary leaves. but lit from behind as they are, they become something rather spectacular.

(unidentified) limb with green leaves

reunited

today i get my boy back. my son has been away for almost two weeks on a boundary waters wilderness canoe trip. he is 14 which means that in some ways the house has had fewer hormonal disruptions for the last two weeks, but give me hormones any day rather than two weeks of premature empty nester practice. my husband and i will be fine when the time comes, but for now, i want all of the time i can get with my hulking, deep voiced, sometimes sulky, sometimes painfully sweet, eater, conversationalist, seeker, and family member.

clover bouquet