first and fleeting

Bloodroot is among the first spring ephemerals to bloom here in the North. Spring ephemerals are the native (often tiny) woodland flowers that bloom early in spring taking advantage of the sunshine hitting the forest floor before bud burst and leaf out. These woodland flowers often go through most of their lifecycle in a matter of weeks. This is the fourth bloodroot bloom in my yard this spring–the first blooms lasting only 2 days. It gives meaning to the word impermanence.

From wiki: The flowers bloom from March to May depending on the region and climate.They have 8–12 delicate white petals, many yellow stamens, and two sepals below the petals, which fall off after the flowers open. Each flower stem is clasped by a single large basal leaf as it emerges from the ground. The flowers open when they are in sunlight and close at night. The basal leaf opens following blooming. In bloodroot, the sap is red and poisonous.The color of the sap is the reason for the genus name Sanguinaria, from Latin sanguinarius “bloody”.

bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

too small to see

I have to be honest, I did not notice all the color in this dried stem until I photographed it. The colors showed up more visibly in my view finder, than to the naked eye–not unlike the Northern Lights. We had several aurora borealis events in the Twin Cities last fall that were barely visible to the naked eye, yet looked spectacular when captured with a long exposure on my iPhone. It’s interesting when pocket cameras capture more than the eye can see. It’s like having scientific instruments–microscopes and telescopes–in our pockets. I sometimes refer to these photos as “hyper-realistic,” and therefore not very STILL-like (with STILL I was aiming for a naturalistic realism, not hyper-realism). But I am letting this hyper-realistic dried sunflower stem slip past my curatorial editing, as I find this image both beautiful and interesting, which makes it a STILL double winner.

Hi All, I am still recovering from my emergency root canal. mostly just counting the minutes between my Tylenol 3.
Here’s another one made with my daughter Eva a few weeks ago when she visited for my Mom’s 90th birthday party.
I hope to be up and about soon!
xo Mary Jo

emergency root canal

Here’s a photo I made just as I was getting back to making STILL photos after “the pause.” It’s interesting. Because this is a composition that would have worked great on white, but doesn’t seem to work on black. I don’t really understand why. If any of you think you might understand, please share! I am still very much in my experimentation and learning phase :-)

BTW, I had an emergency root canal today. So, I just popped in long enough to post this photo I made weeks ago. Now it’s back to bed and and movie.

P.S. Happy Tax Day to all my American friends!

Beautiful or interesting

My criteria for a STILL blog subject is that it has to be beautiful or interesting (to me). Sometimes I get lucky, and the subject is both beautiful and interesting. Cottonwood catkins are not beautiful. But they are interesting (to me). Cottonwoods are dioecious, meaning individual trees are either male or female. This is a male catkin. Female catkins become green beaded “capsules” that open in early summer to release white, cottony seeds. Cottonwood trees like water, and here in the North where we have a lot of water, so the trees tend to get quite large–up to 100 feet tall. Matter of fact, on the open prairies of the midwest, the presence of cottonwood trees on the horizon often meant a water source was nearby.

Eastern cottonwood catkins (Populus deltoides)