Keeping it fresh

Here’s a subject I have never photographed for STILL before: cannabis. I was gifted these leaves from a friend who came to visit the other day. She had been, in turn, gifted a five foot tall plant. Apparently, MN law allows individuals to have up to four plants for personal use. It sounds like cannabis is like sourdough: Easily propagated, and readily gifted.

cannabis leaves

Braiding Sweetgrass

Ever since I read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, I will never look at goldenrod and aster the same way. I almost missed the season this year due to book event busyness. But this morning I found one lone patch still in bloom and teaming with bees.  If you haven’t read Robin’s book (which has become a modern classic), I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Today is Steve and my 35th wedding anniversary. He is in NYC doing book events, and I am in Minnesota for care-giving responsibilities. Such is 35 years years of marriage. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

goldenrod and aster flowers

tethered butterflies

Ever since Steve once called hydrangea flowers tethered butterflies, it is always the first thing I think of when I see them.  I snipped away at this typically crowded flowerhead to try and create a little air for the butterflies. I didn’t quite create the migrations of butterflies I had in my mind’s eye, but it is a lovely photo nonetheless. September is pretty.

hydrangea flowers in very late September

seedpod season begins

Valevetear: Native to China. Introduced the North America in 1700’s. Now considered an invasive weed in the midwest. And one of the favorite seedpods of artist Mary Jo Hoffman.

velvetear stems and seeds in late September (Abutilon theophrasti)

Here we go…

I love the two or three weeks of transition between high seasons more than any other times of year. And with all my travel this fall, I was afraid I might miss this year’s autumn transition. But, unseasonably warm weather has prolonged our summer by a couple of weeks, which means I am here for the turn. Here in body anyway. My mental presence is proving to be trickier. My mom, whom I have been visiting twice a day to help with her care, has just been move into a Transition Care Unit for the next few weeks, to get us through to the the surgery on her back (scheduled for Oct 4), when we will see if it will provide her the relief she needs to be able to walk comfortably again. In other words, I have been pulled in so many directions for the past month, that my mind is anything but STILL. My routine of daily noticing is so deeply ingrained now, that I am still finding my daily delights. But gathering and making photos has gotten squeezed into the margins. My mom is settled now, for the next two weeks anyway, so I am hopeful for a little more stillness in the near future.

(unidentified) leaves in autumn transition