eye of the beholder

i opened a book the other day and this feather spilled out. i smiled. i had found this guinea fowl feather in the gutter of our village in southern france. it’s not a feather i would ever come across in minnesota. our village in languedoc had an abattoir (poultry slaughter house) on the outskirts of town–it likely came from there. (the french love guinea hen.) regardless of it’s prosaic origins, i felt fortunate. it’s a beautiful feather. out of the ordinary. a lucky feather. i placed my newly re-found lucky charm on my desk for the past several days.

just now, i googled guinea fowl to double check the spelling of guinea for this post, and saw that i can buy 100 guinea fowl feathers, just like mine, on eBay for $6.99. so, lol, maybe not so unique. but mine is still special.

guinea fowl feather 

desktop clutter

i have been so busy trying to capture the spring and summer highlights for STILL, that my desk looks like this.  beautiful confetti after a vibrant party. and that’s exactly how i feel too–totally spent after attending a fabulous gala.

dried spring and summer flower bits

on being still

my goal with STILL was to create serenity with my art, to offset the chaos of our times.

native prairie restoration

many of our regional parks have begun doing native prairie restoration. it’s a terrific trend. the prairies of the midwest are some of the most fertile and productive soils anywhere in the world. this handful of flowers was gathered in a matter of minutes, and then laid out on white paper beside my parked car. if i had waited until i got back home, the would have been too wilted to photograph. it’s an interesting thing about wildflowers, in contract to hothouse cultivars, that they wilt immediately upon picking. their roots are sometimes as much as a meter deep, but the instant they are cut off from that life-giving web, they being to go limp. both incredibly resilient. and incredibly fragile. two simultaneous and contradictory truths.

july prairie wildflowers 

a healthy ecosystem

do bugs bother you? me? not so much. they are a sign of a vital and healthy ecosystem. and important protein for birds (including baby sandhill cranes :-).  we have a 13 year old dog that likes to wonder in and out of the house all summer long. he never leaves the yard. so i prop the door open with a rock, and let him come and go at will. but the open door means a lot of bugs get in the house. it’s worth it (to me). the bugs that don’t find their way back out, end up dying under the windows.  and turned into STILL art.