still life with beaver

where i live, i am surrounded by lakes. i have five lakes within three miles of my house. most of my walking trails are beside lakes and ponds. so i see lots of evidence of beavers. but rarely do i get to see a beaver up close (beavers are mostly nocturnal). i can walk a trail one morning, and walk the same trail the next day, and see multiple poplars (their preferred trees) all freshly felled with wood chips scattered everywhere. it’s always a thrill to see evidence of them–i like knowing they are here. they are a native part of this bioregion. so rather than mourn the loss of the trees, i choose to see it as sign of a healthy ecosystem.

p.s. we all know what a beaver tail looks like. well, we might not have guessed it was as scaly as it is. but what caught my attention in this photo is that webbed hind foot. it’s the not the webbing that surprises me, but rather the finger like dexterity of the foot. i guess i expected something more paw-like. it makes it easier to comprehend why they are such skillful builders.

beaver tail and foot

unseasonably cold

it has been unseasonably cold here for…well…quite a while. so right now, mid-april is looking a lot like a typical mid-march in the north. so, while i wait for the sap to start running, i am turning to some of my more permanent collections for STILL inspiration. this is line up of gradually more eroded cockle shells is from vacations-past along the gulf coast of florida. before we decided to make our home-away-from-home in southern france, we used to travel a lot to the gulf of mexico with the kids for a week or two of sunsets on the beach. that was long before STILL. but clearly the seeds were planted, and collecting bits of nature was in my dna.

collection of florida gulf coast cockle shells

30 shades of pink

pink. peach. coral. melon. salmon. mango. apricot. sorbet. blush. rose. i am quite sure i could come up with 20 more names for the various shades of pink in this photo. i brought these bougainvillea bracts home from palm springs in a starbucks cup so they wouldn’t get crushed. did you know that on bougainvillea the actual flower of the plant is small and generally white, but each cluster of three flowers is surrounded by three or six bracts with the bright colors associated with the plant. so these are bracts. not leaves. and not flowers. bracts. thank you for tuning into your morning dose of little-known-facts with mary jo.

dried bougainvillea bracts

sweet and simple

i’ve been tackling some spring cleaning. you too?  i brought these eucalyptus home to freshen up the scent and add a bit of understated greenery while we wait for open-window season just around the corner.

seeded eucalyptus

gifts from the sea

these live oak leaves are a gift from a friend who recently vacationed on hilton head island in south carolina. i am besotted with their khaki colors and textured veins. we don’t grow leaves quite so sturdy and leathery here in the north. our leaves tend to be large and thin–maximizing surface area over structure. it makes sense, given their need to capture as much solar energy as possible in the shortest amount of time.  my other experience with this, at the other end of the spectrum, is all the thorns of mediterranean france. thorns are adapted leaves–curled tight on themselves where sun and light is not only abundant but actually excessive.  so these compact, stiff live oak leaves are the temperate middle ground between the large, limp leaves of the north, and the tight, needle-like leaves of the arid south. mama bear leaves–not too big, not too small, just right.

live oak leaves