time of ripening

My 22 year old son, Joseph, is home for what will most likely be his last summer in our home. His girlfriend of 5 years just graduated college and is joining Joe in NYC while he finishes his last semester at NYU this fall. Joe has gotten very into foraging wild botanicals for various culinary pursuits. Which means he as become an superb, and much welcomed, companion for me on my STILL outings. Yesterday, Joe and I spent the day visiting every sumac colony of all the roadsides within 3 miles of our house and gathering one or two fruit clusters. This composition is about ¼ of what we gathered. They are all sumac, but not all staghorn sumac. Joe is interested in sumac as a culinary spice (it is a common spice in Middle Eastern cuisine and adds a bright tanginess to dishes). I am interested in sumac for it aesthetics–it is one of the most cooperative and photogenic STILL subjects of all. For the hour it took us to gather this collection of sumac fruit clusters, we both sang the praises of our love of all things sumac–the weird branches in their velvet, the compound leaves with two-toned over-under coloring that shimmers in the wind, their edible and striking fruit clusters, and last but not least, their exuberant fall colors that always appear first. In my word, there is literally nothing to dislike about sumac. This photo is an homage to sumac and an rememberance of my last summer with my son still in the family home.

northern sumac fruit clusters

P.S. Happy July All!

nothing is safe from the STILL crosshairs

We made fresh pasta on Saturday night with friends. It was a super fun. And delicious. And we used A LOT of eggs.
When I am in STILL mode, no natural subject is safe from my scrutiny.

eggshells from farmer’s market chicken eggs

Mary Jo’s ferns

These are all the ferns I have in my yard. I had to work fast because they wanted to wilt the moment I snipped them. Here are my beloved native ferns in order of abundance in my yard:

Ostrich Fern
Interrupted Fern
Lady Fern
Sensitive Fern
Northern Maidenhair Fern
Marsh Fern
Cinnamon Fern
Bracken Fern

I have samples of each in this little composition, but some are tucked behind and little hard to see. I have worked hard at assembling native colonies of each of these on my land. There are a couple more (oak fern and christmas fern) that are common in my bio region that I would like to see get established as well. If any local Twin Citians are reading this, and have nice established patches of these ferns, and would like to share…

one last cuddle

Magnolia is a genus of about 210 to 340 species. And every single one of them is probably good looking. Can you imagine a family tree with 340 relatives and not a single cousin or uncle or great aunt is weird, or ugly, or so shameful no one mentions their name any more? While I have not met all 340 members of the Magnolia clan, I suspect that they may all be pretty darn good looking, and welcome and even celebrated members of their communities. #jealous

dried magnolia leaves

black and white is always a good idea

The birds are molting. As I walk down to the dock and back all day long, I pick up molted feathers–large and small–as I go and deposit them in a basket I am keeping on the deck. The basket is getting quite full–mostly with indistinct large brown sandhill crane and canada goose feathers. And then today, I found this little gem–black and white and perfect. So, while I could make a very large–maybe even impressive–feather assemblage, I choose instead to highlight this singular expression of “feather”.

woodpecker feather