home for the holidays

my daughter and her boyfriend are home for the holidays. all routines are being ignored. including STILL. luckily, i have many corners full of materials awaiting their moment on the STILL stage–set aside for those -10 degree february days. this little makeshift drying rack is behind the door in the guest room. i am grateful to have my daughter home for two weeks and also for the foresight i had last september.

darkness before cold

acknowledging the winter solstice with light and dark–white snow on dark pine needles. today we (in minnsota) will have 8 hours and 46 minutes of daylight (15 hours and 14 minutes of darkness). while this is the darkest time of the year for us, it is not the coldest. the coldest temperatures of the year usually arrive one month from now in late january. today marks the being of our season of dormancy. i’m ready for it.

snow-covered white pine

winter garden

it’s quite possible that i love winter gardens more than summer gardens. they ask me to do less maintenance, and more looking. i’m happy living by their rules.

winter flowers

how much does this pine cone rosette look like a winter flower? My first thought was chrysanthemums, or lotus flower, but upon further reflection, i am quite convinced it is the tops-down doppelganger of the succulent echeverias elegans. same algorithm, different application.

the urge to sort is strong

for some weeks there has been a small pile of dried fall leaves and spent floral petals gathering in the unused corner of my dining room table. from experience, i know if i leave it there long enough, someone (usually my daughter or my best friend) will eventually start absentmindedly playing with the debris while we catch up over tea.  today, my daughter got snared by my trap. she sorted, grouped, pushed, re-assessed, added, and eventually wandered off to resume her work day. i grabbed my camera, pushed the shutter, and declared another day of STILL in the bag.