four months ago i lay on a mediterranean beach in sanary-sur-mer and absentmindedly picked a small handful of pebbles from among the billions washed up on that shore. i absently poured the pebbles into an empty water bottle and tucked it into the corner of my luggage. what strikes me now is how evocative these colors are, now that I’m not surrounded by them. they are the colors of the buildings and the hills that surrounded me. worth more for my having saved them than they were worth that day.

beach pebbles

sanary-sur-mer, provence, france

in those discussions about what animal you’d be if you could choose, i always say i’d like to be reincarnated as a great blue heron. they hang around in shallow water near the beach, eat fish, and stare meditatively into the water, wrapped in their feathers like buddhist monks. it makes me sound very spiritual and evolved. but, truth be told, i’ve always wanted to be tall and leggy.

great blue heron wing

grass lake trail, shoreview, minnesota

so, today it arrived. it was snowing when i woke up, and it is still snowing as i type 12 hours later. they are saying 10 inches (25 cm) when it finally ends. i mention this only because STILL blog will soon look very different. winter is five months long in this part of the continent. so, for a few months now, STILL becomes very spare, very minimal with lots of grays and browns and blacks and whites. i personally love it. it’s my favorite aesthetic. but i wonder. are you with me?

aged and weathered branch

grass lake regional trail, saint paul, minnesota

this spring, my husband and i happened upon a trail loaded with wild asparagus. for two weeks we feasted on wild asparagus and morels, usually in form of omelets with eggs from our girls. we were giddy. i just walked that same trail again this afternoon, and all along my private garden, the understory was hazy with the greenish-gold plumage of asparagus ferns spangled with bright orange fruits. tomorrow ushers in our first snowstorm of the year, and soon everything will be buried in white. i was so grateful for my feathery green reminder today that hidden gifts await me next spring.

wild asparagus fern and berries

sucker lake trail, saint paul, minnesota

i have seen a lot of splayed, four-toed footprints the size of human hands stamped into the sandy shallows of turtle lake each summer. the wandering tracks always head in the same direction, which is wherever hunger is leading them. i wonder how many green frogs and stickleback minnows and baby bullheads went into the making of this ravenous beauty, before a second set of four-toed footprints, dropping down hungrily out of the woods and along the beach, finally crossed its path.

great blue heron (deceased)

lakeside, saint paul, minnesota