cue Etta James singing At Last

i’ve been on the hunt for milkweed seed pods for over a week. “at last my love has come along!”   (have you got etta james stuck in your head yet? sorry about that.) i have been poking around in my archive lately, and came to realize that the last time i shot milkweed pods in this phase, before they explode open, was in the first year of STILL.  and back then i did not have a tripod or even a decent camera. so, i have been on the lookout, and this guy was worth waiting for. milkweed is my favorite native seedpod. and not having a descent photo of them in my portfolio was a serious oversight. like missing your anniversary, or forgetting your kid’s birthday. it needed to be remedied.

common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)

ornamental, medicinal, and fragrant

i didn’t need wiki to see the resemblance between this solomon’s seal and lily of the valley–the leaves are a dead give away as soon as i put them up to the light. the two are close cousins. but i did need wiki to learn that it is in the family Asparagaceae and the young shoots of the plants may be boiled and served like asparagus. the rhizome is used in both traditional chinese medicine and traditional korean medicine. and the odoratum variety is scented. a gardener’s trifecta–ornamental, medicinal, and fragrant.  hello solomon’s seal, you quiet little over-achiever you.

solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum)

drop shadow

there is a tool in photoshop called “drop shadow” that lets you add a shadow to any graphic element in a design that you wish to add some perception of depth to.  i don’t need to use the tool for editing STILL photos, but i have seen it used. this photo of hydrangea leaves, tops and bottoms, looks like i was giving a tutorial on the drop shadow tool. i had paired up these leaves by size, and then tucked them under a book for the evening thinking that today i would make some sort of symmetrical composition using leaves of the same size, but with different textures. when i picked up my book this morning, i saw this exact composition, which i had done hastily so that all the leaves would fit under the same book. hastily done perhaps…but still striking. so, instead of symmetry today, you get shadows.

hydrangea leaves in august

european visitors

the entire chicory plant is edible. it is native to the old world but naturalized in north america. the french love it. curly endive, frisée, escarole, radicchio, puntarelle, and belgian endive are all forms of common chicory. it’s loaded with vitamins and minerals. my favorite was to eat belgian endive is by pulling the leaves apart to make little individual boats, and filling them with crumbled gorgonzola and candied walnuts, and then sprinkled with a vinaigrette made with either banyuls (preferred) or balsamic vinegar. oh my! sweet. salty, tangy, and bitter, all in one mouthful. absolutely perfect. like these periwinkle blue flowers. perfection x 2.

common chicory (Cichorium intybus)

pinky winky (that’s their name. don’t shoot the messenger.)

the hydrangeas at the senior-living center down the street from my house looked particularly pretty today with the sun catching them just-so.  i had intended to make a simple grid of florets, but then i laid a piece of glass on them to get them to lay flat. have i mentioned i am a tinkerer? anyway, when the glass squished the florets, the grid was broken. but i quite like the negative spaces created, and the suggestion of contained chaos. happy accidents or informed play? a little of both.

pink hydrangea florets (Hydrangea paniculata)