by late middle age, we all pretty much have the body we deserve. pass the butter, please.

collection of december stems and twigs

minneapolis, minnesota

i don’t know how long i spent trying to identify this plant. google is a wonderful tool, but to some extent is it replacing all of our brains with something not quite as flexible or intuitive. i spent a lot of time tonight trying to come up with words that would describe this plant and its location and environment. and then at some point, i just took a minute and visualized where i had found it, and what had been in that some location during all of my many summer and fall walks in the same location, and, what do you know, of course it was st. john’s wort. i didn’t need to research what might in theory be in that type of habitat in some hypothetical minnesota location. i could just use my brain to remember the exact location where i’d seen that exact plant before. it’s good to spend some time, now and then, as my daughter would say, IRL.

st. john’s wort in winter

rice creek regional trail, saint paul, minnesota

if you follow any one of these stems up from the roots to the bottle brush seed head at the top, you’ll notice how slender and fragile the stem looks. in the summer, green and muscular, they could survive a tornado. now in their old age, they barely survived being lifted off the floor and set gently down on a bed of white paper. in the world of still blog, that means there are a couple of weeks left when stems are available to be featured, and then we will get our first really heavy snow, and all of those fragile stems will break, and disappear under a thick white blanket. so expect to see some stems for a bit. then, it’s on to branches. remember you said you were going to stick with me …

foxtail parairie grass

rice creek regional trail, saint paul, minnesota

i’m not a gal who spends a lot of time in pink, as you might imagine, and i have brought up a daughter who defines her identity in part by not being “one of those girls who wears pink.” but darn it if that rose quartz color that pantone chose as its 2016 color of the year isn’t just flat out beautiful.

winter bouquet

saint paul, minnesota

let me count the ways: bilateral, radial, rotational, mirror. what am i missing? i just read that the large hadron collider has confirmed a fundamental symmetry of subatomic matter and antimatter. tests have proven that men and women are more attracted to symmetrical mates and partners. people with asymmetrical faces are more prone to depression and emotional instability. is that why i can’t stop looking at these flowers? is it biological?

hydrangea blossoms

minneapolis, minnesota