candelabrum

like a candle in reverse, these waxy dripping catkins will soon disappear, to make way for a flame burst of green leaves.

birch catkins

we’ve greened

i’m trying mostly unsuccessfully to hide my love for these fern toddlers, just emerged from their fiddlehead infancy, stretching their muscles, and just hinting at the form they will take as adolescents and adults. they have been well raised. they will do just fine. congratulations to the mama fern frond who dropped these spores.

emergent fiddlehead ferns

young charges

i plucked these leaves because i thought they way they were unfurling was so tender–like a swaddled baby. maybe that’s why i feel like a proud mama looking at these young lilies of the valley. my little darling are vigorous and healthy, and growing like weeds. before i know it, they will be wanting to borrow the car and asking if i can spot them 20 bucks until they get paid on friday.

lily of the valley leaves in may

A is for…

as i made this photo i thought to myself  ‘i am going to find all the words that start with letter A that i feel describe me: artist, aerospace-engineer, aunt, assured, aging, ally, active, absorbed…etc. you get the picture. but it was going to take a while to come up with a satisfyingly comprehensive list. and in the meantime, my 15-year-old son, joseph, maneuvered me into going to see the 3 hours long Avengers movie. so, while i had high ambitions for this photo, at the end of the day…A is apparently for Avengers.

bones and dried thistle

hot sun, cool shade

there is a kind of disc in the sky and it moves from east to west in an arc over the course of the day, and it is difficult to look at because it is so bright. it gives off a kind of heat, that one can feel, if one raises one’s face in its direction. after it disappears over the western horizon, the sky turns color and eventually turns black. it is a very strange phenomenon that we are trying to come to terms with here in the post-winter great lakes north. we have our best minds working on the problem, and hope to figure out what this celestial phenomenon means in the coming months. we hope it isn’t a permanent feature of our daytime sky. it is really quite hot.

linden (tilia) buds