minimalism = reduced to the necessary elements. the branch holds the cone that holds the seeds to make more branches to make more cones that will make more seeds. nothing more.

austrian pine branch

vadnais lake trail, saint paul, minnesota

this guy is already 10 inches tall, when the grass is barely green around here, and most of the trees haven’t burst their buds. so far, i have spent this spring fighting the afternoon tireds, as another seasonal transition takes its toll on my alertness and pep. i clearly need a root system with packets of nutritional energy pods, if i’m going to compete with this daylily for springtime perkiness. now i just need to decide if i want to compete with anyone for springtime perkiness.

daylily in early april

saint paul, minnesota

steve and i talk about wonder a lot. i’m not sure we always know exactly what we mean by it, but we trust the word. we have had a recent streak of happiness and creative good fortune, and i think we attribute a lot of what is going right in our lives with the word wonder, with a capacity to be delighted by simple things.

assorted april twigs

saint paul, minnesota

. . . and a pink carnation . . . i’m all dressed up for the dance . . .

pink carnation

when i say black-eyed susans, you think of elegantly oval yellow-orange petals in a halo around a pregnant black center. yes but these, too, are black-eyed susans. golden tan, brittle, elegantly spare. they are just in a different phase of life. when i say “woman,”  what do you think of?

black eyed susan’s in april

vadnais lake trail, saint paul, minnesota