good news, bad news

i feel like i should explain that i have been a wee distracted lately. the 1.5 meters of snow that fell on us in february is now melting quickly. that is the good news. but the ground is still frozen solid, so there is nowhere for the water to get absorbed. that is the bad news. so, in our specific case, it means it is running to low ground and has found its way into our basement. so for several days, i have been trying to divert melt water away from the house, and vacuum up was does come in. in other words, STILL has been a bit of an afterthought. and yet these clematis vine bits on my studio table caught my attention today.

dried clematis

vernal equinox eve

i am gathering bits of ribbon in anticipation of celebrating the vernal equinox. here at the 45th parallel, the equinox places us briefly at the center of everything. halfway between the lightest and darkest days of the year. halfway between the equator and north pole. light, dark. north, south. hot, cold. everything will be in balance here tomorrow. for one day.

wild iris leaves

color fast

i’m curious why some leaves hold their color in winter while others don’t. these stems sticking out through the snow look like late september to me–the time of goldenrod and yellow daisies. it certainly doesn’t say mid-march. why so sturdy? why so golden yellow?

unidentified winter leaves (possibly milkweed)

paper jungle

these bulbs produced paper-white narcissus flowers. now they appear to be producing crepe-paper ribbonry. i wonder what kind of paper they will make next. airplanes? napkins? plates? trails? news? tiger? wax? money? fly? graph? parchment? towels?

paperwhite bulbs and spent blooms

benign neglect

my husband is working with a publisher on a manuscript about our families deep immersion into rural languedoc in southern france. he let my 82 year old mom read a recent draft of the manuscript. in the book, he describes me as a “middle child raised with benign neglect.” my mom read it and was kind of hurt. “you were not neglected” she insisted. we tried to lighten the situation by emphasizing the adjective–benign. anyway, to make a long story short, she eventually came back and admitted, after thinking about it some more, that it was indeed the case. i had been more or less lost in the middle, among others that either needed or demanded all of the available attention. so now it’s a family joke. anyway, that is long wind up to explain why i titled this photo of gerbera daisies, slumped as they are by lack of fresh water and attention, benign neglect. worry not, my little peach friends, you will all be stronger for it!

gerbera daisies