deceptively simple

i love how this photo ended up looking like an illustration. a close inspection reveals all the little bits of grit stuck to the barbs. that gives it away as a photograph i think. a secret hidden inside a deception. not a typical STILL blog subject, but STILL blog thrives on not having a typical subject.

found feathers

arthritic winter stems

so. i am 55. about 3 years ago i started having aching feet after my daily walks. i eventually went to the podiatrist who took an x-ray and told me i had arthritis. he showed me the picture of the two boney plates rubbing against each other. he said it was ordinary arthritis. age related. probably hereditary. nothing can slow its progress (not even good shoes), and that is only going in one direction. i didn’t particularly like that explanation, so last year i went to an orthopedic surgeon to get a second opinion. she said the same thing. but she also offered a short-term solution of injecting the degenerate joints with cortisol steroids to give me 3-6 months of temporary relief. i had the procedure done today. fingers-crossed that i will have many pain free spring, summer, and fall walks ahead of me for the remainder of the year. may i be as resilient as these brittle summer stems, standing tall at the very end of winter.

cup plant flowers in late  winter

the most interesting

i took photos of this nest from several angles. this particular shot was not the most beautiful. but it was the most interesting. i am not sure what the thread-like material is that was used to cement the nest to the support branch. it looks to me as if it could be thistle hairs. which would mean it was most likely a goldfinch nest. a quick google search makes me pretty certain it is. the goldfinches are only weeks away from returning to our feeders. i wish i could convey to them how much i admire them as architects.

goldfinch (?) nest

enter title here . blah

sometimes i take my STILL blog photo for the day, and edit it, and post-process it, and then make dinner, and then start the fire, and then have three hours of conversation on the couch, while i and my husband give out head rubs and back rubs to our sixteen year old son, and by then it might be 10 o’clock in the evening, some evenings, at that point, i have forgotten that there is a STILL blog post to finalize, and i ask my husband to fill in. what he usually sees is a more or less interesting photo, with space to come up with a title, and space to come up with a description. i label these two elements, “enter title here,” and ” blah.” so hi. this is steve. and i entered a title. and i filled in “blah.”  and this is what you get for still blog today. welcome behind the scenes, where the sausage gets made.

marsh grass in winter

panic time

the snow is melting. the magnolia buds are swelling. and it is the time of year when i start panicking because spring happens so fast here. although this year, spring appears to be arriving almost a whole month early. if indeed it has, it might mean that we will get a proper multi-month spring, and i will be able to capture some of it for STILL. typically in minnesota, spring lasts more or less one day, around may 5. then it’s immediately too hot, and summer is here. the other thing that happens this time of year, is that, after months of lamenting my drab and monochrome surroundings, i get suddenly very nostalgic for the austere winter stems of our northern prairies. the graphic and otherworldy shapes will soon be hidden by a thick profusion of green sameness. yeah. the weather here doesn’t give me a break. and in turn, i don’t give it a break.

winter stems, seed heads,  and dried blossoms