exotically  common

my husband (@sjrhoffman) is a food writer. he was recently consulted about the southern French ritual of drinking pastis, the anise flavored drink that is ubiquitous in hot mediterranean cultures. his reply to the editor got me thinking about wild fennel (which is a big part of how most pastis is flavored) and how it grows wild on almost every summer roadside in the midi, and how it used to whip at my elbow if i rested my arm on the open car window sill. for me, more than tomatoes, more than anchovies, more than garlic, more even than lavender, wild fennel is the beating heart of southern france.

wild fennel with land snails

languedoc, france

the broken one

here, as with the delicate members of our own species, the broken one calls for our attention.

shelling peas

st. croix valley, minnesota

a twisted bouquet

this arrangement created itself.  a feral morning glory wrapped itself around a shaft of timothy grass, and forced some crown vetch to join the menage. it all got very twisted.

tangle of roadside plants

saint paul, minnesota

about time

ok it’s midsummer, and you’ve gotten a lot of flowers and blossoms and intriguingly postured stems over the last few weeks. but STILL blog isn’t just about beautiful things. it’s about nature, and nature isn’t always beautiful. unless you consider a mudstained raccoon scull with two remaining molars beautiful. which i do.

unidentified mammal skull (probably raccoon)

mississippi river flats, saint paul, minnesota

fluff

in theory it’s summer, the majority of our work is done for the year, our kids are home, we should be able to eliminate the fluff from our lives and just concentrate on the fundamental core of what we believe in and what we want to do almost every day. but sometimes the distractions seem relentless. this thistle fluff is so beautiful, but today i want to just blow it all away, and start with black.

thistle seeds