hi

Just popping in to say a quick hello. I have my daughter in town and an art opening tonight. So a bit rushed. Eva obligingly modeled for this dashed off photo minutes before we left the house for the event.  This is a good example of why dailiness is so powerful. If not for my unwillingness to break-the-chain, I would have easily skipped today, but no.  So, with no time to source a subject, I looked over my table of dried bits, grabbed all the reds, and crushed them over Eva’s hand. And as often happens when I am working very fast with no time for second guessing…I rather like the results. Dailiness is sneaky.

crushed red botanical bits

I still like surprising you…

From April through October, we prop open both the front door and the back deck door so our beloved, and aged, Puggle can wander in and out at will. This means we get a lot of bugs in the house. I don’t really mind bugs, in moderation. But this was a wet, and therefore buggy, summer. As a result, every morning I was finding several dead bugs on my windowsills. At some point, I started gently sweeping them off the sill and putting them all in the same little origami box with my other saved bits.  So I present to you, the collected windowsill  bugs of summer 2024 (dust and all). Just trying to keep it interesting here.  Props to anyone who can identify them all (I cannot).

collection of dead windowsill bugs from one summer

warm days, cool nights

The nights are getting cooler now. It feels and smells like early-autumn when I wake up, but is summery-warm again by mid-afternoon. It won’t be long before all these temperamental non-native beauties will succumb to the overnight chill.

floxglove flowers (Digitalis)

Back to School

It’s back-to-school day here in the Midwest, and for my NYU college student as well. I have spent the past 24 years of our family life living by an academic calendar. It is strange to be (almost) liberated from this now. I am entering a new phase of life, and will finally get to choose the annual calendar that makes the most sense for me. Yes, Steve will factor in of course, as will his January-May tax season. But for the most part, I will be freer to establish my own annual rhythms. I know several of you our there are a little older than I am…any advice for me as I stand on the threshold of this next phase?

gradient of dried florals in warm-tones

On Plant Intelligence

These strange jack-in-the-pulpit seedheads with their arms thrown up in the air has me thinking about the book I am reading: Have you read The Light Eaters yet? I am very close to finishing. It is mind-bending in the best possible way. I wanted to summarize it for you in my own words…but it has gotten late, so I am letting ChatGPT do it for you:  “The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth” byZoë Schlanger is a thought-provoking exploration into the complex and often hidden world of plant intelligence. It is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In looking closely, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close.”

If you like these kind of deep reads, I recommend this book.

Jack-in-the pulpit seedheads (Arisaema triphyllum)