ever since we spent the fall of 2012 in the vineyards of the languedoc, i have had a fatal weakness for the curlicue tendrils of grape vines. in french they are called “vrilles.” oh, mah-ree zho, she loves the vrilles, i heard constantly, as i shouldered aside grape pickers who were just trying to get a day’s work done, so that i could capture yet another perfect spiral, or perfectly imperfect spiral, through my lens. we have wild grapes here in minnesota, and the love is still strong. i mean. just look. what’s not to love?
wild grape vine tendril
saint paul, minnesota
what i love about this is not just the festively curled leaves (although i love them too). what i really love is that the whole composition is made possible by a vine that twirled about the stem of a sapling, and happened, in its twining, to wrap a stem of grass up against the straight, young tree. that’s not one stem there. it’s three stems. and without both the vine and the support of the sapling, the grass would long ago have broken and bent. i know. it’s not as exciting as netflix. but come on. it’s pretty cool.
winter prairie grass leaves
grass lake, saint paul, minneosta
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i went out this morning into what will most likely prove to be the last rain of the year. i have to believe any precipitation from now on will fall as snow. as beautiful as the droplets were that hung from the tip of every leaf, twig, and needle, i found myself wishing they were droplets of sap, announcing the end of the cold, not the beginning.
rain drops on spruce twigs
turtle lake, shoreview, minnestoa
two opposing forces were hard at work on this leaf last fall; the determined beetle carving tracery, and the approaching winter. it appears to have ended in a draw.
linden (?) leaf
saint paul, minnesota
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