gather ye rosebuds while ye may

i don’t know how i manage to wait all year for this particular stretch of berry season and then always, always come close to taking it for granted. it’s so easy to see midsummer abundance as something that will surely last, while it’s here, despite how clear its transience is every year, once it’s gone.

backyard blueberry and raspberry

saint paul, minnesota

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white on white

taking a photo of a white subject on still blog’s white background is almost impossible. i’ve tried and given up more times than i can count. so normally i would have dismissed these three lovelies as “white moths”  and looked somewhere else for a still blog post. but then i set them on white paper, and remembered one of the founding precepts of still blog: pay attention.

three moths: clymene haploa, rosy maple, and pale beauty

saint paul, minnesota

  • Charo says:

    Bravo, you’ve got it

    reply
  • Michele says:

    these moths are so delicate and beautiful. awesome job!!

    reply
  • margie says:

    that pink and yellow one reminds me of sorbet xx

    reply

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the poetry of science

i found this plant in my back yard, and then i spent the better part of this evening trying to identify it. i googled seed heads, mn seed heads, fluffy seed heads, cotton candy seed heads, q tip seed heads, prairie clover seed heads, mn clovers, bottle brush seed heads, cottony seed heads, prairie plants july mn, disturbed soil plants midsummer mn, etc. etc. etc. eventually i turned it over to my husband, who spent more time than i had on the quest, and eventually came up with rabbit foot clover. my point is, if poetry is about evocative and precise use of language, is there a poet around who could have out-poetried the scientist who came up with rabbit foot clover? it’s perfect. it’s poetic. it’s science.

rabbit foot clover

rice creek trail, saint paul, minnesota

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making hay

the coneflowers looked a little like this all day long. i could have snapped a photo at almost any instant, and caught a stationary bumblebee sucking nectar and another bee or two or three flying somewhere very important. maybe they too noticed the curling edges of the coneflower petals, and the red freckles beginning to stain the virginia creeper, and figured it was time to get serious for the home stretch of summer.

coneflower with bumblebee

turtle lake, saint paul, minnesota

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  • Jane says:

    Such a beautiful picture you have captured and as you say it went on busily all day, but you caught just that one special moment.

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practical beauty

i brought this saint john’s-wort into my home in the spirit of william morris, who advocated having “nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” i know, and i believe.

common saint john’s-wort

rice creek trail, saint paul, minnesota

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