enough already!

are you sick of crabapples? i usually don’t do the same subject three days in a row…but i gave a talk today at a local university, and now i have a 50th birthday party to attend this evening. so, all i had time for was swiping the pile of crabapples off my kitchen counter onto the floor, and making this bowl of candy-colored gum drops.  consider it a mini-demonstration on creativity: one subject, three ways. on how the first idea is not always the best idea..although sometimes it is. and on how essential play, and experimentation, are when doing creative work….blah blah blah…am i sounding like i am trying to justify myself? well, maybe i am. even so, i like the photo.

crabapples in autumn

hardwired for repetition

if i leave my nature bits lying around long enough, especially on the kitchen counter, someone in my family will eventually start to make patterns out of them. we humans are pattern making and pattern identifying machines. we are hard-wired to recognize patterns. and by extension create patterns. this little gift was from my husband. who sorted and straightened while he waited for his tea to steep. it’s so him. i love it.

autumn crabapples (Malus)

p.s. technically, any tree that produces apples with a diameter of less than 2-inches is a crabapple tree. crabapple is not a specific species. simply put, crabapples are miniature apples.

season of ripening

i did not know that i had a minor fascination with crabapples until i searched my archive today, and found i have been photographing crabapples every year since 2012. this year’s photo, here, is the most colorful though. i guess i never realized just how many varieties there are, and how varied the fruits were. sometimes, i still feel like a newbie when it comes to paying attention to my natural surroundings. overall, that’s a good thing. i had fun gathering these apples yesterday. like a treasure hunt for adults.

p.s. today is our anniversary. 33 years. i was 25 when we got married. steve was 23. we were just kids, so unformed and malleable. we got lucky because we grew together as we got older. but it is easy to see how couples could grow apart…how one person matures into someone quite different than who they were as a young adult. kids are waiting longer to get married these days. its probably a good thing. i am grateful for my partner of 33 years. i would do it all again. i think i got pretty lucky.

a variety of crabapples in september

my first marigold after 10 years of STILL

with STILL, i tend to stick to the plants (mostly native) that i encounter on my daily walks in the wooded trails near my home. those daily walks started 12 years ago when we we got a puppy, a puggle, we named jack.  jack is now 12 ½ years old, and is starting to slow down. he still loves his walks, but he no longer likes to get in the car to drive to a trailhead. so, now i walk my neighborhood, which is much more suburban than my lakeside trails. so, after years of documenting the the local flora and fauna of my bioregion, i have started to add in the occasional non-native plants typical to suburban landscaping. tulips, daffodils, foxglove, gladioli, dahlias, irises, and marigold have all made appearance this year. in the end, it’s all about jack. and i’m fine with that.

marigolds (Tagetes)

golden hues

staying on theme with this collection of ochre-colored beach rocks. while this petite collection came from our beloved mediterranean beach in sète, france, it seems to complement the golden hues of our northern autumn perfectly. i have photographed a lot of beach rocks over the years. but something tells me i have not quite done them justice yet. tumbled and smoothed to rounded perfection, beach rocks are among my favorite things to collect. and i know i am not alone in this obsession. i do wonder, what is it about beach rocks, that almost compels us to bend over and stash a few in our pockets every time we walk a beach? the perfect heft? the polished tactility? the way they fit so snugly in the palm? whatever it is, must be deep in our lizard brains for it seems to be a universal compulsion.

mediterranean beach rocks from sète