walked past this ginkgo tree in northeast minneapolis. saw shrek ears. had to photograph it.

ginkgo tree branch and leaves

northeast minneapolis, minnesota

 

my daughter cut the grass this morning, and as usual, the scent went straight to my limbic system, sending me back  to half frenetic, half lazy childhood summers spent rolling, sitting, lying, sliding, running, and falling on grass, before dads came home and filled the neighborhood with the smell of gasoline and mown hay with their droning mowers before sitting down for the evening cocktail. suddenly it occurred to me that in all of my back yard stalking and sleuthing, i had never taken a picture of the grass i walk over most days to get to “the good stuff.”  as george orwell said, “to see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”

grass clippings

saint paul, minnesota

 

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

i’m not sure why the three finds above, all discovered on a short walk, none showing any signs of life, reminded me so vividly of how much life is on display around here in august. partly it’s the contrast with the parched mediterranean basin we just left behind, after which, any temperate zone would seem almost tropical. but for whatever reason, carrying this colorful little handful back to the car, i couldn’t look anywhere that wasn’t bursting with life. ducks cruising across the lake, bumblebees crawling over the coneflowers, clumsy looking swallowtails flopping through the tops of the cottonwoods, a toad short-hopping it across the asphalt trail, goldfinches swooping along the lakeside willows, and a cackling kingfisher keeping three or four trees ahead of me, one eye on my progress, one eye on any interesting movement just below the surface of the lake. maybe being away for a month has given me back the temporary gift of wonder in a familiar place.

one walk in august: monarch butterly, dragon fly, blue jay feathers

sucker lake regional trail, saint paul, minnesota

i have only been on two different trails since i got home, but they were both thick with these mop headed black eyed susans, swaying long-haired in the breeze like hippies at a Joan Baez concert.

black eyed susans

sucker lake regional trial, saint paul, minnesota

after a month in our French foreign home, i have come back to a foreign home–a minnesota that is so lush and green, so free of thistles and thorns, so unselfconsciously abundant, that i feel a little bit like a stranger here.

a mid-august collection of greenery from my yard

saint paul, minnesota