bert

these guys remind me of the sesame street character bert. which makes me smile. remember the innocence of sesame street?

poppy stems with seed heads

p.s. poppies are the top of my list of winter garden

new arrivals

i don’t remember quite so many of these tall pampas-like grasses lining our american highways in my childhood. i understand that many of them are invasive, nonnative, species. here in minnesota, we seem to have them anywhere there is wetland–which means pretty much everywhere. they bob in the wind on their slender 3 meter stems. like flags on delicate flag poles. they will wave to me all winter long, through blizzards and freezing rains, and still be standing proud come spring. i like having them here, these recent immigrants. they add a little color and vibrancy to our otherwise efficient and undistinguishable roadsides. i’m glad they are here.

roadside phragmites (pampas-like grasses)

poetry in motion

between our house and the lake we live on there is a bed of cattails about 100 meters long. we have a boardwalk that cuts through the middle of it so we can access the water. it is the dominant feature of our property. once, while walking down to the lake with a friend, through a tunnel of nine foot cattails waving in the breeze above our heads, the friend exclaimed “this is the most poetic thing i’ve ever seen.” and ever since, when i watch the wind works its way across the bed in waves and swirls, i say to myself  “poetry” and think of sarah.

cattails in late october

you should be a star

this is not animated or manipulated, believe it or not. this fall fern pattern doesn’t seem to happen every year, but when it does, i think to myself, why are there so many photos of lush green ferns, when ferns can also do this? these ferns should be superstars.

october fern fronds

2021

these buds will not burst into leaf until next year, which, it seems only reasonable to hope, will be a better year than this one. i know anything can happen, but, c’mon, throw me a bone here…

russian elm?