this tree spent its whole life feeding from the soil. now everything is trying to turn it back into soil.
poplar trunk with woodpecker hole
sucker lake, saint paul, minnesota
one of the best pieces of photography advice i’ve received over the years was to “keep your verticals vertical.” here is a very vertical vertical with thanks to mark andrew at studio 306, who along with his wife and partner, leda zych, makes some of the most beautiful and quietly moving photography i’ve ever seen. see for yourself: http://studio306.com
a single trailside blade
vadnais lake, saint paul, minnesota
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good advice
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i love the crusty seacoast texture of this colony of freshwater mussels, left on the shore by a fisherman who must have thought he’d hooked the big one for a few thrilling seconds. i can’t help falling for the barnacled pelt they have wrapped around this branch, although i’m afraid they might be zebra mussels which means this is more of an infestation than a colonization.
(zebra?) mussel encrusted branch
vadnais lake, saint paul, minnesota
for one week out of every spring, the twin cities turn into lilacville. i wonder whether anywhere in north america could compete for the number and variety of lilacs per capita? it is our celebratory reward for having survived yet another long dark winter.
on a similar but related note, my book group recently celebrated its 20 year anniversary. that is also very typical of this upper-midwestern capital; deep roots, and long ties.
a collection of lilac flowesrs
saint paul, minnesota
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what i love is the number of wild lilac bushes growing along the roadsides on my drive to and from work
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Your picture gave a breath of spring and fragrance this morning. Where I live we have vaulted into summer. Lilacs do not grow well here. I miss them from my childhood in northern Illinois.
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When I was living in Mpls, I used to love to drive with my windows down when the lilac were in bloom. Man, I miss that!
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My father was born in Minneapolis in May 1902 and his mother told him a lilac was blooming outside her bedroom window that day. When that house was torn down for an expressway, my uncle took a shoot to his home in Maryland. The weekend of my wedding in 1966 he planted a shoot at my parents’ home in Wisconsin. When that house was sold, I brought a shoot to my home in Toronto. It doesn’t bloom very well or have much fragrance, but I am happy to have it.
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painted turtles have looked about the same for fifteen million years. what in world could be the evolutionary advantage of hiding all that color and pattern under a drab army green shell?
painted turtle plastron (belly)
sucker lake trail, siant paul, minnesta
p.s this shy little guy, about 4 inches in size, was alive and well and released within minutes of his photo shoot
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hmm. i think i may be familiar with that kind of rut.
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the bright colours and marks are probably to be noticed from under the water. I do know that global warming with increasing water temperatures is creating more females of the species
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