stumped

it doesn’t happen often, but i have failed to identify this plant. it was growing in stinson beach near the california coast in marin county. it had yucca like leaves but soft almost like day lilies or irises. i tried yuccas and agaves and succulents and irises and lilies and california plants with stalks and orange pods and about a hundred other things. any of my plant nerds out there care to help out?

unidentified california flower (later found out it was Phormium)

stinson beach, california

a leetle beeezee

i hope my images have not been too uninspired lately but i will confess that although STILL blog was designed precisely to squeeze into the brief spaces of stillness that occur in the midst of a busy family life (a life I have chosen voluntarily and without any real regret, let’s be clear), those spaces have been a little smaller lately, and i have been squeezing a little harder than usual. i am currently the general contractor for a major renovation of a house up the driveway from us, that we felt cornered into buying in order to rid ourselves of a particularly invasive and noxious neighbor, who, in the end, left behind a house that was just this side of a complete tear down. that is on top of my work as a chauffeur for my 14 year old son and co-editor of my husband’s book, and friend to a friend who has had a hard two weeks, and daughter to a mother who never seems to feel she sees me often enough. so, as my husband and i sometimes say to each other, when the obligations have piled too high and we just don’t have time for each other for a day or two, “sorry, but i’m a leetle beezee.”

american hog peanut vine (Amphicarpa bracteata)

elegant little bastards

i’m in love with the curvilinear elegance of these gently gravity-defying virginia stickseed branches, like little strings of beads. on the other hand, when i walk through a field of them, and then try to remove them from my pantlegs and socks, they can go to hell.

virginia stickseed burs (Hackelia virginiana)

shoreview, minnesota

let’s take a closer look

this is yesterday’s bouquet, seen a little closer, and maybe a little more colorfully, but i’m sorry, despite two public efforts, this is not quite what i saw in my hand when i assembled this bouquet from a random selection of trailside grasses and seed heads. mother nature is a tricky thing to try to equal.

prairie grass bouquet in early august

rice creek, saint paul, minnesota

broken record

first of all, when will the expression “broken record” fall out of English usage, given that the experience of a needle on a record finding the wrong scratch is practically an obsolete experience these days? second of all, i do actually sound like a broken record today because i am telling you for the second day in a row about how a photograph has failed to fully bring to life a collection of flora that in my hand was simply breathtaking. this is what you get today, but expect a few more attempts at this image in the next few days.

bouquet of prairie grasses in early august

rice creek regional trail, saint paul, minnesota