i will be waking up on wednesday to -35 deg F windchill. but we are stout and sturdy minnesotans and our school district doesn’t cancel class for anything less than -40 F windchill. which means i will be in the car when you read this. i will be thinking about beaches, and i thought maybe we all should.

beaver sticks, drift wood, and beach rocks from lake superior and the mediterranean sea

minnesota and france

p.s i promised i would update you on the call from Target corporation. i talked to them today by phone and i have been invited in next week to pitch the “Home Products/Soft Goods”  managers some STILL related product ideas. fun! i’ll let you know next week how it goes.

not so many years ago, being able to say you were busy was worn as a badge of importance. when that got old, the next trend was to talk about not enough hours in the day, how money was no longer the objective, time was. but people mostly continued chasing money and not doing the slightly boring and unromantic work of carving out time. now, attention is the new currency. the internet and smart phones have stolen it out from under our noses, and no one has enough of it. not only that, everyone else wants some of yours. if you have attention to spare, consider yourself wealthy, and bank it. there’s gold in them there attention spans.

this odd collection of bones was collected in that last two years, simply by being attentive. if i had not given myself a STILL blog challenge, i know i would have looked right past almost every one of these

collection of assorted found bones

here and there, but mostly shoreview, minnesota and autignac, france

it’s official. i’ve turned into a squirrel. i’m even finding forgotten stores of nuts and seeds. i dug these up today, and offer them for your (visual) consumption. bon appétit. or, translated into squirrel: squeaker squeak squeak squeaken.

a collection of seed pods, seeds, and nuts

southwestern france and central minnesota

it looks as if an insect has taken off his wings after a busy day, and hung them on a hook on the back of the door while he jumps in the shower.

winged box elder tree seeds

minneapolis, minnesota

this past year was a big milestone year for me. i turned 50 in may. my husband and i celebrated 25 years of marriage in september. i posted my 1000th STILL blog image. but here’s the deal about milestones. i sort of can’t be bothered. my husband says he lucked out, because he married someone who doesn’t want rings or jewelry, who doesn’t care about mother’s day or anniversaries, and who never wanted anyone to make a big deal out of her birthday. when you can’t wait to sit on the couch in front of the fire every night with a glass of wine and your hubby, what more is there to celebrate? ok, i would like the dish fairy to show up every once in a while. she has been sort of a slacker lately.

dried autumn leaves

grass lake regional trail, saint paul, minnesota