defying gravity

if you look at this grass stem it really is a wonder that something so slender can stand upright against winter winds. but then look at the frost crystals and try to imagine what kind of anchor they could possibly be using to stand straight out, horizontally, from so inconsequential a perch. i’m so glad i went out on a beauty search this morning, because apparently beauty was out there waiting for me to show up.

hoar frost on winter prairie grass

mermaid tears

i came home from france with a new stash of mediterranean sea glass. as i have mentioned many times, the sea glass near sète, france (and i am guessing most of the mediterranean basin) is pretty much wine-bottle green. but not all of it. here is a sorted collection of the more muted pieces. i call it my winter sea glass collection. although i wish i were currently enduring a mediterranean, not a minnesotan, winter.

mediterranean sea glass

points of view

i just finished reading The Biography of Alice B. Toklas by gertrude stein. picasso and the birth of cubism both feature prominently in the book, and perhaps i had him in mind today when i tried to see these chestnut leaf fans from two different perspectives at the same time.

pachira aquatica leaves (guinea chestnut)

red on a white background

i once had an old red cashmere sweater that got a hole in it. i didn’t know what to do with the sweater, and couldn’t wrap my head around just throwing it away. so, i cut it up and made a little pillow out of the red cashmere. it was a soft and sweet little pillow. but my house is mostly white with accents in soft neutral colors of cream, flax, tan and grey. so when i introduced the red cashmere pillow it was as if someone had turned on a flashing neon light on in the middle of my sanctuary. i could not look at anything else…no matter where i gazed, all i saw was a little red cashmere pillow. it was magnetic. i could not look away. these red bits on our white background of snow are doing the exact same thing to me now. it is all i see. i can’t not see them. the difference being that i love these little red glints in the landscape, but i started to hate my red cashmere pillow.

red bits in winter

a quarter turn

it’s not that hard to take a photo of nature on a white background. as a result i sometimes ask myself what makes STILL blog STILL blog. i was at the doctor’s office today and she was asking me what kind of photography i did. i told her i took photos of nature on a white background. then i realized that didn’t really capture it. so i said i took slightly weird photos of nature. photos that were a quarter turn off from normal. today’s sideways bouquet is a celebration of the signature STILL blog quarter turn.

winter sunflower stems