what do you see here?

looking for a little poetry, i asked my husband what these lily pads brought to mind for him. he replied, very poetically, that he could almost see a black powerbait plastic worm with a twister tail, slithering slowly across the surface of the lily pad, with a large bass waiting below for the worm to drop off the edge into the water. that’s poetry, i said. i know, he said.

three lily pads and a water lily

heat for two weeks, add rain, let rest for one day

my recipe for july exuberance. 14 parts heat. 2 parts torrential rain. 3 parts temperate sunniness. let stand.

summer roadside wildflowers

ur such a forb

the difference between a wildflower and a weed is an arbitrary distinction. the difference between grasses and forbs, however, is quite explicit. goatsbeard is a forb. meaning it makes leaves and flowers but is not a grass, a rush, or a sedge. now you know.

goatsbeard (salsify)

on generosity

perhaps i should have arranged these in the shape of a heart. yesterday, one of steve’s tax clients came by to pick up her tax return. she also dropped off a gallon of just-picked sour cherries. i tried doing the math, and i’m pretty sure we came out ahead on that deal.

sour cherries

insulation

insulation at its most basic is just any way to hold air still. i think of all the still air created by those fluffy strands at the base of this feather, and think i wouldn’t mind being this bird, even in the midst of a minnesota winter.

unidentified (owl?) feather