now you see it

i had quite a day. i am as heavy tired as a stone. i am as full to bursting as a quail egg. details to follow in due time, but i am sworn to silence for now.

speckled rocks and speckled eggs

quail eggs from minneapolis urban farmer friends, rocks from lake superior

  • Jenny says:

    This is so great to hear! I was losin. Sleep last night when I noticed things went “missing”

    reply
    • Hi Jenny,
      All is well! I have a little something for you, I will be stopping by today or tomorrow to drop it off. Then I can tell you all about it. :-)
      Mary Jo

      reply
  • Margie says:

    :)

    reply
  • Carol Sommers says:

    Great, i look forward to your news !! Love the egg-stone combo too.

    reply

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dam it

this beaver had already dropped a good sized aspen onto the pedestrian bridge over the channel between sucker lake and vadnais lake. now he was working on an even bigger poplar, determined to dam the channel, and unaware that pretty much the entire Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Saint Paul Water Authority, and Ramsey County stood poised to undo his work the minute he succeeded. even if he knew ahead of time that his work was in vain, i don’t think he could have resisted the addictive feeling of scooping out that last couple of poplar shavings, right before the tree starts to waver, and then crackle, and fall.

beaver chipped poplar tree

sucker lake regional trail, saint paul, minnesota

  • Prairie girl says:

    That’s what I love about Minnesotans. They are caring and so smart.
    It’s interesting, I thought beavers were drawn only to aspen and birch type trees. Whoa! I’m imagining one taking down a Ponderosa pine! Haha.
    Thank you for this post today.

    reply
    • This was actually a poplar. A very old poplar. It doesn’t look like one–probably because it was so mature. So you are right about the apsen/birch thing. :-)

      reply

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imperfect beauty

let’s face it. this beautifully blemished cockle shell would be quite boring without those barnacles. they look like well used molars, and anything with the air of having gnawed on a bit of life over the years earns the word “beautiful” in my dictionary.

cockle shell with barnacles

north captiva island, gulf of mexico, florida

  • Carol Sommers says:

    Love this shell, i have some similar ones from the same area. I love the Japanese word “shibui” – worn or unobtrusive beauty.

    reply
  • Anite says:

    Oh, this is beautiful <3
    { amo este lugar como amo meus diários }

    reply

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the not so big house

so here’s what i’m confessing to you, my still blog community, enamored of minimalism and the bare essentials. steve and i have a dream. some day, after the kids are in college and money is just slightly less of an issue. we are going to set off somewhere, probably a major american city, and we are going to bring nothing with us. for a year or so, we will live in a white space somewhere, with a bed, a kitchen table, and two comfortable chairs, and almost nothing else, and we will let the abundance of the city provide what we need. and we’ll just see how it goes. that will be a fun thing to share with you, when it happens.

four small bird nests

saint paul, minnesota

  • Carol Sommers says:

    Lovely set up and lovely idea. Also, does the bottom nest have a tiny skull in it, ot is it a curled up leaf?

    reply
    • Hi Carol,
      It’s actually a tiny pin feather! I haven’t yet identified it, so I didn’t draw attention to it. Good eye!
      Mary Jo

      reply
  • My husband works as a traveling medical professional and we’ve basically been doing just that ( furnished rentals, but some have been just that sparse! ) though usually in small towns rather than big cities. It is an incredibly freeing experience. I hope you make that dream come true!

    reply
  • Frances says:

    That sounds simply amazing. I hope you get that dream. This blog is stunning. I found you via athousandshadesofgray(dot)com

    reply

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flesh and bone

i can’t decide if this is a dinosaur with scoliosis, or a prehistoric centipede running away from me, or the narrative spine of steve’s book which has, truth be told, haunted both our days and nights for a while now. steve’s naturally good at the wordsmithing flesh. but we’ve had to work hard on the bones that are giving the book its shape. when we’re done, i’m hoping it will be a supermodel. or cary grant. in any case, you’ll be hearing about it in all of it’s osteo-carnal glory when the time comes.

box elder tree twigs

minneapolis, minnesota

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