we let our chickens out for a little bit every evening, and then watch them browse. we call it chick tv, and yes it is that entertaining. in their pursuit of tender greens and juicy bugs, the girls follow aimless looking paths very similar to the paths of these bark beetles, who were engaged in very much the same activity underneath the bark of a cottonwood tree. there must be something evolutionary about this kind of meandering. maybe a crooked path avoids ever eating too much of one (possibly dangerous) thing. or maybe wandering, even in the claustrophobic darkness between bark and cambium, is just so pleasurable that those who do it live longer and pass on more robust and joyful genes.

bark beetle traces on dead cottonwood limb

pike island, saint paul, minnesota

my hands, too, have veins and capillaries and are starting to feel stiff when it gets cold. i need to be careful about this still blog project. sure i want to enter into the world of nature. but only up to a point. evergreen sure. but deciduous, not so much. i don’t want my extremities to begin falling off seasonally.

red oak leaf

saint paul, minnesota

aside from making beautiful stained-glass windows, dragonfly wings are made of chitin, which is of all things a carbohydrate, and its strength and flexibility make it an ideal surgical thread. yes, those stitches that dissolve and don’t need to be removed? dragonfly wings. i don’t need to learn anything more today. that’s good enough.

assorted dragonfly wings

saint paul, minnesota