happy holly days

winterberry, is a species of holly native to eastern north america. minnesota is on the western edge of it’s native zone. so i don’t see a lot of of around here. but now that it has been brought to my attention…i think i will look into plating some in my yard. it’s an important food source for robins. and it likes wetlands, which i have an abundance of along the lakeshore. by the way, did you see that the usda recently re-zoned the u.s.? and the twin cities are now a zone 5! it’s probably a little bit metropolitan heat bubble, and a little bit of global warming. has your zone been reclassified? i’d be curious to know what you are observing, and how you are feeling about it.

winterberries (Ilex verticillata)

new to me. new to you?

i visited my local chemical-free, pesticide-free flower market this morning to catch up with my friend christine. she introduced me to a seedpod i had never seen before. hyacinth bean (sometimes called ruby moon, or ruby red hyacinth bean). have you heard of them?  hyacinth beans are a pink and purple marvel of a vine, with plum colored stems, magenta ornamental pea pods, and blooms that range from white with lavender to deep pink. it sounds enchanting. this market is seasonal, so christine had only the dried seed pods, which are magenta when fresh, but dry black. i was besotted. how exquisite would these black winged stems look in a botanical arrangement, or on a wreath? just the right amount of moody weirdness to add eye-catching depth and contrast. i’m looking forward to playing with them in my holiday decor.

hyacinth bean seedpods  (Lablab purpureus)

beautiful impermanence

i have a table set up in my garage that i use for messy art making in the warmer months. my best friend, kristin will come over for an afternoon and we will pass a contented several hours marking up paper with whatever art materials we have on hand. we call it “mark making”. it is free form, intuitive, messy, and fun. so far, no masterpieces have been created. but that doesn’t stop us. any way, that table is now pushed to the side wall in the garage and is heaped with dried bits from previous STIL subjects. today, i started sifting through the remains of summer past, and found these dried, but still intact, tiger lily blossoms. how strange and lovely they still are, after more than 4 months of neglect in my garage!

dried tiger lily flowers (Lilium lancifolium)

lots of cookie baking going on

our family learned to love the flavor of anise from living in southern france. many people associate southern france with either lavender or, perhaps, herbes de drovence which is an aromatic mixture of dried provençal herbs and spices (raditionally includes thyme, basil, rosemary, tarragon, savory, marjoram, oregano, and bay leaf). but, as far as i am concerned, the real scent of southern france is anise–specifically the anise smell of wild fennel.  nise is not a flavor little kids normally like without some repeated exposure. for our kids, and for steve and i for that matter, when we smell anise, we are instantly transported to our tiny village in southern france, where my arms would get whipped by the wild fennel as we drive along the narrow rural roads.

star anise (Illicium verum)

pretty as a flower

i always forget how busy the weeks running up to christmas are. today i was at UPS twice. once for my mom. once for mself. luckily for me, there was a planter of frozen, and snow covered ornamental plants outside the store. this cabbage head caught my attention–how often do we see pink in winter?  i am amazed at how hardy this guy is. we’ve had below freezing temps for weeks now. i bet it’s still edible. if it were smaller (much smaller) i would wear it like a corsage, like those red poppies they wear in europe for armistice day, or a pink carnation.

cabbage