late summer profusion

this roadside cluster of aster caught my attention today because the flowers were a lot deeper purple than our more common canadian aster (Canadanthus modestus).  i was trying to capture the abundance of purple and gold flowers on the dark green stems…but my camera picked up the profusion of un-opened flowers. i love me a happy accident.

new england aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae)

less is more

one of the benefits of my STILL practice is that it can scale up or down depending on my day. today i was busy and distracted. i am teaching several workshops coming up in early october, and i was feeling the need to start prepping ideas and materials. i didn’t even think about making a STILL photo until late afternoon. so, i reached into my bucket of lake superior beach rocks and made this very simple cairn. if i had had more time or energy, i probably would have made it taller, or i would have made several cairns of varying heights. but as i take in this image, i am happy i stopped where i did. i like it’s simplicity. it calms me. it reminds me that sometimes simple is not just enough, it’s just right.

stack of lake superior beach rocks

slouching into autumn

echinacea. do you know it? i always assumed it was one of those flowers that was native to the old world, and naturalized here in the us. turns out, it is native to the american prairies of the eastern and midwestern united states and parts of ontario. who knew? it’s magenta flowers had an exotic feel to me. in other words, a non-native feel. knowing these bee and butterfly magnets are native makes me love them ever so much more.  come to think of it…knowing just how much the bees and butterflies love these flowers should really have tipped me off that they were indeed native. one more day for STILL, one more day to better understanding my bioregion.

wild echinacea (probably Echinacea purpurea)

one day late

a week ago i drove by this patch of reed grasses–standing 10 feet tall and bobbing heavy-headed in the breeze—and i noticed that the seedheads were a very deep chocolatey brown, a color i had never seen them before. the deep brown against the dark green leaves made a striking combo. so i made am mental note to come back and photograph them. i didn’t get back for 5 days (waiting for a white sky). and i was too late. the seed heads had burst, revealing slivers of silver casings. over and over again i am reminded of the impermanence of nature. seasons, micro-seasons rather, last on average about 5 days i have observed. the heathered look of these reeds is still beautiful. nature is always beautiful. but every day, it is beautiful in a new way. always the same, and never the same. both are true.

pampas-like reed grasses (probably phragmites)

saturated

1: full of moisture : made thoroughly wet

2: of a color : having high chromatic purity : freedom from dilution with white

beach rocks from the mediterranean