i did not go for a walk today

i did not go for a walk today. instead i went to lunch with my husband. which means that the natural objects i found nearby (per the STILL blog operating manual), were a plate of a dozen oysters. Upon closer inspection (also part of the STILL blog operating manual), they revealed themselves to be both wildly more colorful than i expected and also confined within a single color palette. they displayed pearly interiors with shimmering nacreous spots. they existed on a spectrum from light sandy tan to dark indigo purple. in short they proved themselves worthy STILL blog subjects. and delicious.

oyster shells

from flowers as from the landscape . . .

. . . the color has begun to fade. rich summer greens are fading to  colors, which will retreat to brown after they have come to rest on the ground. what is left will be the gray brown stems and trunks of plants and trees, the gray-white of snow, and the pale blue of winter skies.  a new winter palette, that this hydrangea seems to see coming already.

october hydrangea (hortensia)

october 14

the earliest snowfall on record for minneapolis minnesota is august 30. which means that an october 14 snowfall is actually totally normal. it’s totally, totally normal. just totally normal. totally, totally  normal. totally . . .  just normal. totally.

snow covered pin cherries leaves

looking closely

sometimes i get feedback from people and its clear they think that i’m doing something very skilled or out of the ordinary in the process of gathering STILL blog images. but really, it’s just a question of looking closely. i’m not saying that’s easy. it’s like meditating. it’s not complicated. it just takes attention and practice. my husband particularly liked this image. he watched this flower turn from an orange flame to this wilted rag. he said he would have left it there. he never would have looked more closely to see those rusty orange and lemon yellow highlights on the wilted petals. it was a kind of compliment, which i accepted gladly. looking closely is not a broadly marketable skill just now. i’ll take all the compensation i am offered.

dried blanket flower bloom (rudbeckia)

living with a writer means taboo words

there are a lot of words to describe the simple beauty of this coneflower stem. unfortunately i am married to a writer. and so, almost every descriptive word i turn to first is on the steve hoffman list of banned adjectives. it’s stunning. nope. can’t say stunning. it’s amazing. nope. can’t say amazing. it’s lovely. nope. can’t say lovely. it is engaged in a graceful dance… nope. can’t say dance. there is an awesome power… nope. can’t say awesome unless you are talking about a god or gods or the majesty of nature. it gives me all the feels… nope. can’t ever, ever say all the feels, and in fact, that does it. you’ll be hearing from my attorney in the morning, and i want custody.

cone flower in october