all i want to do is light this pile of matches on fire. it’s all i want to do with my day. the only thing.

dried allium seed pod filaments

steve’s tax clients know he is also a food writer and, more than that, someone who experiences  food joyfully. he is so much fun to give food to, that his clients almost compete to see who can give him the best food gift. So far this season, he has received homemade jams and breads, pastries, homemade sauerkraut and giardiniera, raw whole milk, foie gras, french sauternes, and homemade apple jack. most of his clients also know that steve’s wife is a nature collector, animal lover, blogger and photographer. occasionally they too bring me gifts, like this taxidermied raccoon tail, which is in its way, if you squint a little bit and use your imagination, very similar to foie gras and sauternes. you just have to sort of tilt your head. keep trying. you’ll see it.

racoon tail

gift from steve’s tax client

today we finalized plans to spend spring break in california looking at schools with our daughter, and driving down highway 1 in a convertible that i just reserved for a totally justified, and totally unreasonable fee. even steve, our resident tax preparer, managed to reschedule 28 tax clients in order to join us for four of the seven days, and rest his weary head on a bed of california stars. as always when we prepare to leave for more than about 3 hours, i am consumed with an intense nesting instinct. my heart is torn between the joy of a new adventure, and grief at leaving my charges behind. in this case, we will be leaving a very sad puggle, and some very spoiled chickens, in the hands of a good friend, who is supremely competent and loving. but . . . i ask myself. will she give jack just exactly the amount of table scraps he deserves? will she recognize his “i’m hungry” stare? will she give him his morning tummy rub? and will she know the difference between glimmer’s hunger call, and her “i need to lay an egg in the house” call? i mean california isn’t that great, is it? is it?

bird nest among winter dogowood stems

arden hills, saint paul, minnesota

my son spent a lot of his youth watching the series “planet earth.” he had barely learned to talk before he was lecturing us, in a fairly pronounced lisp, on the species of the subarctic taiga, to pick an example at random. because he was a boy, and because testosterone is a strange drug, his favorite episode was the cordyceps episode. he watched over and over in horrified fascination as the members of an ant colony were stricken, one by one, with cordyceps mushrooms, which blossomed lethally out of their heads and other body parts, as other ants hurried them away like lepers, so that the rest of the colony might be spared. so yes, these bursting pussy willow catkins are delicate and lovely, and full of pollen that our awakening bees will soon be visiting. but i have a boy. so what i see are cordyceps.

pussy willow (male catkins)

vadnais lake trail, saint paul, minnesota

i take at least one photo of maple blossoms every year for still blog. the blossoms above have arrived just about one month early. it feels like being seduced by a very handsome man who you know is a player. you can’t help but give in to all of the good feelings, but you know he’s going to break your heart. i’m taking warm, sunny walks every day with my elated dog, who has been liberated from the corner of the couch where he has spent too much of the past winter. but it’s either going to snow a foot between now and april, and the buds that follow these blossoms will suffer. or it won’t snow again, and this will be the earliest spring in recorded history. which is both seductive and chilling. not that kind of chilling.

silver maple blossoms

minneapolis, minnesota