nudging out winter

i just pulled up the forecast and see we have rising temperatures for the next 10 days. it appears we have finally nudged out winter, and soon the sap will start to run and the final few weather beaten leaves from last summer will be pushed from the trees to make room for the the swelling buds.

beauty in repetition

we spent the entire day cutting channels into the ice with ice chisels, trying desperately to  stem the flooding in our basement by diverting the meltwater sheeting down our driveway toward our house. in other words, i didn’t have a lot of time to make a STILL photo. so, the potted palm in the foyer it is. but, hey, just look at the perfect repetition in those leaflets. i may have been a little mad at mother nature this afternoon, but i have forgiven her already.

palm frond

stumped

sometimes i just like to offer something a little unexpected to you all. i have just spent half an hour figuring out what to say about this image. i’m stumped.

fir stumps with eastern gray squirrel

on getting lucky

every now and then i get lucky. no, it doesn’t mean my husband and i sneak in a “nooner.” by lucky, i mean that a STILL photo more or less makes itself. all i have to do is notice it and find my camera. that’s what happened with these  dried palm fronds. they were there. i took their photo. they spilled off the top of the image. it worked. i didn’t even need to crop. they were the right shades of russet and blond. they were the right combination of curled and straight. i lucked out.

dried palm fronds

admitting defeat

i don’t usually buy my STILL blog subjects. it goes against the intention of STILL–to find subjects in my natural environment, every day, through attentiveness and curiosity.  but today i gave in. all the signs of spring are here–the goldfinches are back, the light is noticeably more yellow and brighter than it’s been in six months–but there are still three feet of snow yet to melt. i’m tired of dried bits, remnants of summer and fall. i always get to this point in march, and now, here i am. i needed a little color and something a little closer to alive.

gerbera daisy