umbels and seeds, oh yeah

winter seed-heads in umbelliferous form. two of my favorite things: umbels and seeds. the winter garden–or in my case, the winter prairie–is every bit as magical as it is in high summer. i love how the architecture of each varied form becomes apparent in winter. and of all the forms, umbels steal the show.

wild parsnip in winter (Pastinaca sativa)

free but priceless

today i took my first Creative Mornings virtual Field Trip–these are free events, offered up by artists and creatives around the globe, and facilitated by the creative mornings staff. it was very well run, and utterly delightful. the workshop i chose was called Sustaining Art in the Home. there were 75 of us on the zoom call, and the two hosts walked us through making a simple zine of meaningful objects in our home using thoughtful prompts. everyone shared their results at the end, and you could feel the collective enthusiasm for what we created in a mere 50 minutes. anyway, if you are curious, just google Creative Mornings Virtual Field Trips. hope to see you on one soon!

p.s. any graphic designers out there that want to turn this image into holiday wrapping paper for me? if so, leave me a comment and i will send you the high-res file. let’s team up.

a national treasure

steve and i have a friend named alan bergo. he is a local chef with a national reputation for wild food foraging. he has written one book on the subject, with two more in the works. this was my text exchange with hime this afternoon:

me: Hey Alan, Do you know what plant this is? thx, Mary Jo

alan: Oh cool! Silene vulgaris “Stridolo”

steve: Dude you are a national treasure.

alan: You have to try the shoots in the spring! “Asparago de collejas” like asparagus crossed with a succulent.

can you image having a database like that in your head? how i would love to see the world through his eyes. this world needs more weirdos like alan bergo. he is my kind of weirdo.

bladder campion (Silene vulgaris “Stridolo”)

stronger together

these vines learned quickly that they were stronger together than going it alone. nature has so much to teach us, why did we ever top listening?

vines on a winter sapling

you’ve got flair

this is a memento from a lunch date with my husband this summer. steve is an oyster lover. i enjoy them too, not quite like he does, but i do like the way oysters can instantly transport you to sun-soaked afternoons at the sea in one swift gulp. i pocketed this shell, after enjoying it’s briny bivavle deliciousness, for two reasons: the awesome purple fringe, and the perfectly placed barnacle that looks more like a beauty mark than an imperfection. in a word, this oyster shell has flair. it’s now a paper-weight on my desk, and lives in perfect harmony with all the other bits of nature that collect there. i call it my desk, but really, it is half specimens table, half iMac workspace. the ancient and the modern living side-by-side. a metaphor for our times.

oyster shell