squiggle art
when both kids were little we often (like almost every day?) did a kind of coloring we called squiggle art. i would get a large sheet of paper and a black sharpie and make a giant squiggle doodle, which, in most cases, looked very much like this vine tendril. then we would fill in the spaces with patterns using colored pencils, markers, and crayons. i am not nostalgic as a rule, but tonight, with my daughter in san francisco and my son near the end of his junior year of high school, i think i will go downstairs and shuffle through some old squiggle-art masterpieces.
wild grape tendril
one day in may
this picture could only be made today, may 10, 2021. tomorrow those ferns will look different. they will have changed into their may 11, 2021 costume.
ostrich fern
what’s your favorite microseason?
i recently did an instagram live interview. i was telling the interviewer about my recent interest in the concept of 72 microseasons and how i am working on defining them for my bioregion. then he naturally asked me “what’s your favorite microseason?” ha! i hadn’t thought about that yet. i was too busy defining them to pick a favorite. i could tell him what my husband’s was: “white throated sparrows return”. but for myself, i hemmed and hawed and then finally punted. i still need to do an exhaustive look at all 72 microseasons of our great lakes bioregion, but right now i am thinking early-may, “apple blossoms burst in abundance”, will be very nearly at the top of the list. very possibly at the top. everything is sprouting, bursting, unfurling, and popping into life…,there is an abundance of vitality. do you feel it?
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72 microseasons! what a great concept! Now I want to try to define the microseasons where I live, in Northern Virginia, I did, however, live in your area for two years, in Plymouth, NW Minneapolis. I loved it! Such a beautiful area.
This is my first time navigating through your site/blog. So amazing! Thank you for your talent.reply
birthday candles
today my daughter turns 23 years old. two weeks ago she left our home in minnesota, where we all waited out COVID together in happy isolation, and she returned to her boyfriend of four years and her new job in downtown san francisco. from what i can tell, she looks radiant and happy in her new life. i am thrilled for her. these jack-in-the pulpits really have nothing to do with eva’s birthday, except that they remind me of birthday candles. i have hundreds of these native woodland flowers in my yard at the moment. so if she were home…who knows, perhaps i would have decorated her cake with 23 jack-in-the-pulpit flowers (it wouldn’t havwe surprised her at all).
p.s. happy birthday Eva!
jack in the pulpit flowers
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Happy Birthday, Eva!
These really do suggest candles.reply
wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!
this adolescent fern looks like it just woke up and is rubbing the sleep out of its eyes. if it were my son, i would have just chanted my favorite, infuriatingly annoying wake up call, after turning on all the lights, and opening all the shades: “wakey wakey, eggs and bakey.” as a result, my son would hate me for yet another morning. which is just another part of being a mom. love you joe. i know you love me too. someday you’ll know it too.
young fiddlehead fern
They really do grow up so fast. My son is 36. I still have a twig with an attached acorn hat that he gave me when he was about four. It’s one of my most precious possessions.